Resolume Forum

I'm currently working on a large video project that I'm likely going to use resolume arena for, although I need to build the servers.

The project;

10 16x9 screens placed around a room all showing portions of the same recording. Essentially a large panoramic video, although it will be shot with gopro hd cameras (one camera per screen). Obviously it all needs to be sync'd together (will trigger all servers via artnet so no issues there) and it will have to be mapped in a fashion that gives the appearance of one continuous video. All content is being shot, edited and rendered by us so there's no issues with encoding to dxv for proper gpu decompression. Quality and smooth playback are incredibly important for this particular job, and frame rates less than 30fps will be completely unacceptable.

I'm planning on putting together 5 servers for this, each dealing with two outputs. Each server will be pushing a comp that's 3840x1080 to accommodate two screens in 1920x1080 resolutions.

This is my proposed server build;

Gtx 690 or gtx Titan
Core i7-3970x extreme edition @ 3.5ghz
Asus p9x97 pro
32gb ddr3 ram
2x 1tb high speed Sata hdd (I'll be running through roughly 3 hours worth of footage, and ssds large enough are way too expensive)

Will this system (and resolume) be able to handle this project or should I invest in something like Pandora's box or hippotizer instead? It's simple single layer playback split over two outputs on the graphic card.

If resolume can handle it, which graphics card is the better option, the gtx 690 or the gtx Titan? The gtx690 has better specs, but as a dual gpu card I want to make sure resolume 4.1.3 can make use of both of them. The Titan specs out at 90-95% of the speed, but only utilizes one gpu. If resolume is only utilizing one gpu, the Titan would out perform the 690 and allow for faster frame rates at high resolutions, correct?

You can get better performance than 2 layers of HD per machine.

There is no point at all getting a titan - You'll get extremely good (60fps+ on 4+ layers of 1080p) performance from a GTX680, it will easily handle running 3 outputs per machine.

YOU NEED SSDs FOR THIS APPLICATION!!! Use the money saved from the GPU to get SSDs for the content, this is essential for smoothness.

Sync between servers will possibly be an issue, you need to test this! SMPTE timecode might help. (it's also worth mentioning that you cannot create a seamless 360 image by shooting on 10 gopro's - their angle of view and lens distortion will cause lots of issues if your trying to make a seamless 360 image. If you just want to show 10 view points in a circle then it will be fine, and at this point the sync issue will be far less important (+/- a couple of frames will be ok, which given the gopro's have no genlock is the best you'll ever get anyway even if you render the different camera angles to a single file!)

If you want a true seamless 360 image then you need to shoot on a single camera, I can put you in touch with the right people for this if you like, You can get decent quality out of a Red Epic with the right lens, but its quite technical and requires considerable planning.

I've helped design a few systems for 360 content creation and full dome projection, i'd be happy to help you with this project if you like.

Cheers
tom

My boss is pretty stuck on using go pros for this because he owns a couple already. I'm pretty sure it won't need to be one continuous image, just give the illusion.

The content will be shit from a moving car, so we need to take that into consideration without having to do a considerable amount if tracking in post.

If I switch one hdd for a ssd for content I can probably swing that, as I can downsize the so drive to be a couple $ there as well.

I'm only running a pair of outputs per machine, so if a 680 will push that I can deal with that, but I want these servers to not need gfx card replacements for my least 3 years, hence why I was considering the 690/Titan. I'll also be rendering out content in after effects from time to time on site.

These servers won't be used just for this particular show, they'll be going into my rental inventory.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to do this off of three servers, as its less capital investment than six, and I can have three backups that way.

Should be no sync issues via dmx, haven't had any in the past using multiple resolume systems.

We are trying to launch three different Resolumes at the same time and for what I read you actually did something similar using DMX, could you give us some advice? Also I would like to know if you use the Titan or something else?
We really will appreciate your help or any suggestions you have, thanks a lot!