Mac Mini and DataPath FX4 and Isadora

mark_m

Hello Isadorables,

I am investing in a Mac 'cause I'm working on a show which they insist is run with Qlab. This'll be my first Mac in nearly 20 years...

I'm planning on getting the cheapest possible option, but thought that maybe it'd be smart to check it'd work OK with Isadora.

I'm looking at an M4 Mac Mini with 16GB RAM.

These only support 3 displays. One would be the monitor. Will this work with a Datapath FX4 to give me 4 additional 1080p screens? Anyone with actual experience?

How well do these Macs work with Thunderbolt Hubs? I can see I wouldn't have enough connections for capture devices, midi keyboards, etc. Does anyone have experience with using a Mac (mini) with a Caldigit Element Hub?

Is 16GB RAM enough? My Isadora projects tend to be heavy on live camera inputs being sent to multiple displays.

And - audio excepted - is it easy to open Mac Isadora projects on a PC and vice versa?

I suppose this is going to be a question for licencing, but if I have Windows Isadora licence, does that mean I need to purchase a Mac one? Or upgrade to a dongle?

Are there other questions I should be asking?!

Thanks

Mark (not that Mark who almost certainly has an Apple II somewhere)

Woland

@mark_m said:

I suppose this is going to be a question for licencing, but if I have Windows Isadora licence, does that mean I need to purchase a Mac one? Or upgrade to a dongle?

Isadora 3 and 4 Licenses are cross-platform. Only Isadora 1 and 2 had separate licenses for Windows vs macOS.

Woland

@mark_m said:

These only support 3 displays. One would be the monitor. Will this work with a Datapath FX4 to give me 4 additional 1080p screens?

It would not give you four additional displays because the Datapath itself counts as a display, so you'd net an additional three displays, bringing you to total of six outputs.

Technically what the Datapath does is show up as a really big single display (e.g. 4k and other possible resolutions), which you can then divide up and send content to individually. So the computer still thinks you only have three displays total, but one of those three can effectively be used (in QLab and Isadora) as four displays (e.g. 1080p and other possible resolutions).

mark_m

@woland

Thank you! That's great info. And the licencing too.