Cleanest ZoomISO build! - Sonnet xMac mini server
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- čas přidán 27. 07. 2024
- Questions? Comments? Comment below!
In this episode, we dive into the the Sonnet xMac Mini 1U rack enclosure, a sleek, rack-mountable Mac Mini chassis. This setup is designed for professionals in live broadcasting (or just those wanting to mount their Mac Mini), offering Thunderbolt 3 connectivity and dual PCIe card slots. Discover how this setup, equipped with Black Magic Design's Decklink Duo cards, elevates live streams using ZoomISO. This software is perfect for handling multiple remote contributors with ease. ZoomISO outputs isolated video and audio of each Zoom participant out the SDI connections on the back of the rack. The only challenge is, ZoomISO only runs on a Mac, so a standard server that is typically rack mountable isn't possible. Dive into this detailed walkthrough showcasing its ports, internal setup, cooling system, and how it seamlessly works with any Mac Mini. Whether you're managing a virtual event or a professional broadcast, this episode reveals how the Sonnet xMac Mini can be perfect for your setup.
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Sonnet xMac mini Server: amzn.to/3H3BzNi
Blackmagic DeckLink Duo: amzn.to/3TGHkYA
Mac Mini: amzn.to/3NKA2iK
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**Note: vMix only runs on a PC. I mentioned vMix in the video, but what I meant is the Decklink cards can be used for that...but the Mac Mini cannot. Watching back I wasn't clear about that so wanted to clarify! Would love to hear your thoughts! Leave a comment below.
Very slick, I have always preferred rack mount pcs - wasn’t aware of this Mac option. Great video Joe!
Thank you Doug! Appreciate you coming over to the new channel. Yeah the Mac Mini mount is interesting. I probably wouldn't have sought it out if I didn't want to use ZoomISO which only runs on a Mac.
Good to see you back!
Cody! My man! How are you? Good to hear from you. Was just talking about you to someone. Thanks for watching. Happy new year. Gotta join a stream of yours soon.
What a cool product! I am very happy to see people making custom rack mount gear.
Thanks Jay! Sonnet makes some really cool products. Thanks for watching.
Thanks for sharing. Just be aware that you can not put a Decklink Quad2 with 8 SDI's in this since that requires an 8-line PCI. This chassis have only 4-lane PCI x 2. So 2 of the Decklink Duo-2 is fine. :-)
This is a cool product! While you can't upgrade storage or ram in the macs anymore since they switch to apple silicon, it is nice they've had the same basic shape of the product since like 2010 for things like this!
Thank you for the comment! I agree, I wish macs were still upgradeable (or at least easily serviceable) but you're right, at least they are the same size!
That's a very cool enclosure. I'm definitely not the target market for it, YET.
If things keep growing 8n 2024, I may be looking for something like this in another year or two.
Fingers crossed! Thanks for watching.
Excellent video! Very well explained, thank you. Cool product for sure, but I would like to see the mechanism that presses the Mac Mini power button made out of something other than plastic. Overall, nice looking enclosure! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for watching! Regarding the plastic button pusher... If I had to guess, Sonnet made the button plastic and rounded as to not scratch/damage the plastic mac mini button. Basically "plastic on plastic". That said, it is a fair point.
I wonder if this was a response to people wanting to have an xserve again. I could easily see ways to mount hard drives in there with a small sata, or sas card. The only thing I wouldn't like is the power supply being riveted in. If it goes bad you'd have to replace the whole case?
So true! Those xserve were pretty cool.
So the good news is that the power to the Mac mini is pass through is the power supply is built into the Mac mini, but the rest runs on the power supply. Thanks for watching.
Curious, I did this same setup and the decklink duo 2 is having intermittent issues staying connected? Have you experienced this ?
I didn't know you do so much control via thunderbolt in these Mac minis. Is there anyway to get any out of band management for these Mac minis?
Isn't it crazy! Who knew you could do PCie? The only out of band control we do is MDM (mobile device management) with JAMF so we can track our company devices/updates/restrict apps/remote wipe. It's not like iDRAC or anything like that, but something.
Did you realize this unit doesn't do full TB3 speeds before you bought it? Sonnet hid the specs for this model. Their other newer units support full TB3 speeds. The backplane in this is their old board with slower PCI speeds.
No I did not. I thought this was the updated TB3 version. Looks like that on the website. Do you see differently?
How’s the noise level with all the 1u fans? Curious if this is something that can be in a fly pack.
Hey David! Good to hear from you. The fans were audible, but not too loud. There is a temperature sensor it seems because they would only ramp up if it got warm in the chassis. It’s nothing like a Dell server or supermicro.
Can you show us inside the “power supply” I’m not understanding how a power supply goes into another power supply as the Mac mini already has one built in. Is it doing power conditioning? Controlling the fans? Or is it just a cable adapter passthru?
Hey thanks for watching. So the cover to the enclosure power supply is riveted to the case or I would bust it open. My guess is that it's just straight AC power since you are correct the Mac Mini has a built in power supply. The rest of the case needs power as well though so I would bet it splits off to transform the power for the other components. (like the fans)
@@streamingct thanks for the reply. I took a look at the product page after I left the comment and it seems you’re right. It’s a passthru with an extra 150w supply for the PCIe accessories and fans. I’m sad they riveted it shut tho.
Another good video & another channel ? I subb'd.
Thanks for the sub! Can't catch me! Never know where I will pop up. I think I will be here for a while though.
I think some people would like to take this enclosure to do proxmox on it. And add an HBA SAS card.
Can you run proxmox on a Mac mini? I guess if you can run Linux on it? Thanks for watching!
@@streamingcti’m trying to get proxmox working on an m1 mac, it would make for a very power efficient server
What a cool product, but imho the price is to high. I am using a rack mounted mac mini for years now and I really would buy it for maybe the half of the cost but nearly 1500 bucks is too much for only an enclosure.
It is pricy. Sonnet makes another dual mini rack mount that doesn't have the PCIE
Mac in a Rack
Not a Big Mac though.