BlackPearl Sys - the Heavy Duty DIT Workstation

So I needed to prepare my equipment for a three months shoot in the jungle. The rainforest in Borneo to be specific. Three things have to be taken into account:

- High temperatures

- High humidity

- Heavy rain. (It takes about 20 seconds from the first rain drops to really heavy rain fall.)

All of those things alone are tough conditions for high tech electronics of any kind, let alone all of those combined. Needles to say that my flight case setup was definitely not up to that task and I had to think about something else.

Pelican Cases are the first thing that come to mind, but what to put in there? A Macbook Pro, a breakout box, a few HDD docks and a Raid? I didn't even consider a "trash can" Mac Pro since those things break even in normal office conditions, let alone extreme temperature and high humidity. I also didn't feel very confident about a Macbook Pro even though my 2014 Macbook with the nVidia GPU never let me down. Yet that might be asked a little to much, considering that the CPU thermal throttles quite fast under heavy load and normal room temperatures.

My next approach was to look for ATX computers in Pelican Cases. Every part can be accessed and exchanged easily with a screwdriver, no soldered Ram or SSDs. The ones I found were unfortunately a bit to compact, without room for any build-in accessories like hard drive bays, card readers and such.

So my conclusion then was that I had to build it myself. And that was the beginning of two months development and assembly.

I wanted to build the system based on the hardware I already worked with since this system brought my always through every project in the last two years, so why not stick to it.

I planed to build the system in a frame made out of black Plexiglass since Plexiglass is durable, light and more affordable than the just slightly superior Polycarbonate.

BlackPearl Sys CAD

BlackPearl Sys CAD

BlackPearl Sys CAD

Based on my CAD data, Akuplex AG in Fällanden could laser cut the 20 parts very efficiently and fast. They were very friendly and helpful through the process with a very fair pricing. I'd definitely do business with them again and as a former technical engineer, I cannot recommend them enough.

Plexiglass parts

First fit testing

HDD Bays and connectors

Ventilation is key

Assembly with ATX Motherboard

Semi-finished Frame

The assembly went without any big hiccups. There are always little things that have to be taken care of by hand, especially in the prototype phase. But in general, everything was working out great and I couldn't be happier with the outcome. The first tests were very promising and I'm looking forward to work with that system in the field.

BlackPearl Sys

BlackPearl Sys

BlackPearl Sys

BlackPearl Sys

BlackPearl Sys

BlackPearl Sys

BlackPearl Sys

BlackPearl Sys

The performance of this system is far superior compared to the performance of a maxed out Mac Pro. It provides more usable PCI bandwidth which is a key element for a DIT workstation. It can exhaust the heat much more efficient and maintain a save operating temperature, even in high temperature environments. The HDD bays are hot swappable and I don't have to connect several devices first before I can even start to work. The Pelican Case is also just small enough to meet airline check-in luggage requirements. All in all, a powerhouse without compromises.