[microsound] OT: laptop for permanent sound installation - suggestions?

[Tobias Reber]

Dear all,

thanks for the massive feedback and raising many very valuable  
concerns and issues.
Also, thanks Dan for the ZBOX tip.

It seems I need to rephrase my intention a bit, though: the  
installation is for a private home/living room of friends of mine who  
a) don't have much money and b) don't pay me very much. We both share  
an interest in acoustically augmenting one's everyday surroundings. So  
this is a test situation with a very limited budget, with no pressure  
to function in public - trying out a cheap solution and seeing how it  
goes seems the logical way to go. The people living with it will also  
be able to easily switch it off /restart it at any point. We will  
regularly change or expand sound modules according to their  
experiences with it.

If at any point I will work on a public 24h-a-day permanent  
installation I will make sure to use the most solid server affordable.

Thanks again for all your input, and feel free to continue/mutate this  
discussion (as Salman did), I'm looking forward to learning much  
more. :)

Tobias


Am 06.11.2010 um 01:46 schrieb Salman Bakht:

> (i'm not the original poster, but) do you have suggestions for
> "server-grade solutions"? i've never even considered that and,
> honestly, i wouldn't even know where to start looking. and how cheap
> could that possibility be?
>
> salman
>
> On Fri, Nov 5, 2010 at 1:58 AM, Trond Lossius <trond.lossius at bek.no>  
> wrote:
>>> Just a little over a month ago I have witnessed a mac mini failure
>>> (the night before the opening of the exhibition).  Video playback  
>>> was
>>> involved (does that qualify as "processing"?).  The new mac mini  
>>> that
>>> was purchased as a replacement did make it through the month,  
>>> however.
>>>
>>> I will restate my point again: consumer grade equipment  
>>> (regardless of
>>> manufacturer) carries a high risk of failure in the context of
>>> permanent exhibition.  YMMV.
>>
>> I agree. If you need to have an installation running for long  
>> periods of time, I would suggest looking towards server-grade  
>> solutions, as performance under strain for pro-longed periods of  
>> time, stability and redundancy is key to servers. I'm not sure that  
>> the minimac server qualifies as belonging to that league. Mirrored  
>> disks would probably be a good idea. I would also consider setting  
>> up remote administration and monitoring, and some kind of watchdog  
>> solution.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Trond
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---

Tobias Reber
Freiburgstrasse 32
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Switzerland

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