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Upon opening the Pelican that the demo unit arrived in, I didn't notice anything particularly different on the outside from its relatives, the Taiga· and the Boreal·. Measuring the same 4U rack sizeand dimensions (630x425x175 mm) and featuring the instantly recognizable LED-backlit Hippo face, the Montane· seemed familiar enough.
But the differences in the Montane· are not what's on the outside. Instead, the Montane· has been built for power, and I couldnt wait to take it for a spin.
* What It Is
The Montane· is the latest dedicated real-time graphics machine in the Hippotizer· line of media servers. It has the most 3D processing power of the entire line of products, capable of handling the demands of 4K content, 3D mapping and real-time content generative effects featured in live events today.
* Hardware
Built on a platform featuring arguably the fastest graphics card currently available, the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, the Montane· features two DP 1.2 outputs. With a max resolution of 4096 by 2160 per output, those two DP 1.2 outputs can be subdivided using splitters like the Datapath FX-4, for instance, into eight HD displays.
The server also has two DVI outs for Zookeeper, Hippotizer's free control application, and it can be fitted with two optional video capture or accessory cards. These might include Quad-3GSDI, dual DisplayPort or a dedicated SMPTE card for LTC/VITC.
For networking, the Montane· features a 10GB Ethernet port as well as a 1GB Ethernet. Other features (and comparable to the Boreal·) are: 3pin XLR ports for Stereo Audio In and Out; Intel ¡7 CPU; RAM 32GB DDR4; runs on Windows 10 Enterprise OS; System Drive 500 GB SSD; and they both include a 2TB media drive for content storage. It differs only slightly from the specs listed for the Boreal·, however in a couple of stats, including: Core speed, 3.6 GHz (whereas the Boreal· core speed is 42GHz); number of threads/cores: 4/8 (the Boreal· has 8/4; and media drive speed, 3000 MB/s (the Boreal· media drive speed is 2000 MB/s). With an auto-switching...