DouggyFresh
8:42 AM - 22 August, 2013
Funny everyone is always quick to say Mac Mac Mac, but I remember last year one event promoter hired a VJ to projection map our entire club. He came in with a multi video card custom built rack PC loaded into a rolling rack setup, complete with multiple monitors, MIDI controllers and everything. I believe he was using 7 projectors each independently outputting video.
Obviously VJing with music videos is different in some ways. One VJ I seen who brought in a rolling rack-based setup that folded open and he used a Mac Mini with dual 22" monitors (one for playing, one for the video output preview) on Video SL. Pretty slick setup, everything on wheels, ready to roll in, open it up and play.
I've had success running a PC laptop for a while now, but it took quite a while to get everything right. On the flip side though, I tried running VSL on my better-spec home computer, an AMD 6-core CPU, 4 GB RAM, Nvidia GTX 460 1GB video card, but it didn't run that great, despite running awesome for gaming which I use it for. I think that's attributed to the AMD processor or the codecs, but I didn't spend enough time troubleshooting it to really know 100%. Could be because it's 32 bit Windows 7... who knows.
On the other side of the argument, not every DJ walks into a club with a Macbook Pro in a backpack, plugging into already setup Rane mixer with CDJ1000's / new Technics ready to plug in via USB. Many bring monitors, speakers, even rack mounted DJ equipment. Granted a rack mounted PC may not be optimal to carry either, but an ITX-based Intel i5/i7 Computer with a dedicated PCI-Express graphics card could easily be mounted even on the back or base of a monitor. Throw a wireless keyboard and mouse in a bag. Even that could be carried fairly easily.
Really it all boils down to what kind of gear you're already bringing, what your expected time to setup is, and what you're doing in the end.
If you're already rolling in a half rack of DJ equipment, what difference would it make to mount a Rack-mount custom PC in that rack, stow away the monitor, keyboard, mouse in the top of the rack... If you have 30 minutes to setup in the club before the show, bringing in all your equipment, setting up, etc.. Probably wouldn't be an issue. If you walk in at the peak of the club, ready to play right after the openers setup the packed club, the Macbook Pro in a backpack approach would probably work better for you.
