Your Kit

Every good nerd has a toolbox of gear. Cornelius AKA Projectile Objects (of VIDVOX / VDMX fame) put together a killer guide for VJ touring gear and there’s a lot of crossover with my kit. I love to see that Hot Shit all broken out. Check it out here. Very comprehensive. 

Before you proceed, I recommend watching this video about “Every Day Carry” (EDC)

Here are my recommendations. 

Base-Line

For All Kinds Of Projects AKA your “Kit”

• A laptop that is good enough to do CAD (like Vectorworks) as well as Post-Production applications (like AE or PR). If you buy for the needs of one use-case, you will likely have a spec that supports the other. 
  • Minimum RAM recommended is 32GBs. Minimum HD recommended is 2 TB. Always M2. None of that spinning disk or 2.5” ssd nonsense for your main whip. 
• A couple of speedy SSDs. One is useful for quickly shuttling footage around, if you need to - and another drive to use for a video stock library and/or render scratch and/or backup. 
• An iPad with a nice library of product user manuals and spec sheets. Also useful for looking at CAD PDFs on-site. Throw those kinds of documents on a cloud service and access it from any device. 
• A full-size keyboard or numpad so you can use programs that require it. 
• A laser measure tool like a Bosch GLM50C.
• A portable monitor that you can use to test signal on site, or as a second computer monitor, or as an on-camera monitor. Depending on signal type, you can use an on-camera monitor like a Shinobi or SmallHD or FeelWorld, or a traditional portable monitor GeChic.
  • On camera monitors often support HDMI and/or SDi
  • Traditional portable monitors often support HDMi, MiniDisplay Port or HDMi over USB-C.
  • An iPad works in a pinch as a second screen using sidecar on a 2020+ Mac. This sometimes works great, and sometimes doesn’t work at all. Depending on WiFi scenario, Mac OS + iPad OS combo. With older devices you can use a third-party application like Duo (which I prefer over sidecar in some ways). 
• A multi-tool. I recommend the Leatherman Wave because it has interchangeable bits. Buy the bit extender and all the bits and you now have all the toolbits on your belt and they can work in a Leatherman or a drill! If you know anyone at Leatherman and I can get an endorsement deal, that’d be cool with me. 
  • Pro-tip = buy a set of “security” bits. These will allow you to use a drill or your leatherman with projector and display mounting hardware. Just remember to turn that torque way down and finish it up by hand. 
• A crescent wrench so you don't strip things with your Leatherman pliers. 
  

Bonus Gear

• A baggy with a nice variety of little headless EDID passthroughs 
• A Decimator or other mini signal processor. Decimators come in tons of different flavors. The one linked here is the flagship. Allows you to force signal types! Very useful. 
• A second laptop to function as both a backup and as a secondary processor if you need a little extra help rendering – or you need a laptop to run dumb processes while your other computer runs complex processes. A lighter second laptop is recommended, too, so that you can screen share into the heavier boy when you’re walking around adjusting corner-pins.
• Cheap dimmable two-color rechargeable LED light bars. I have a ton of these. Great for BoH lighting and will work for video in a pinch. 
  

Adapters, Headless, Cables, Signal Distro

Some adapters have limited or specific resolutions. Look it up first! Active adapters are always better, but often unnecessary. They cost about twice as much as their stupid relatives.

You may also want some signal distribution or signal splitting devices.

• TB3 to TB2
• USB-C to HDMi/DP
• DP to HDMi
• HDMi to SDi / SDi to HDMi
• Headless Passthrough 1920x1080
• Headless Passthrough 1920x1200
• Headless Passthrough 3840x2160
• One or two of those thin 20’ HDMi cables that support 4k60
• A shorty SDi cable
• Legacy but sometimes still a thing:
  • MDP to HDMi
  • DP to DVi
  • DVi to HDMi
  • FW 4-Pin to 6-Pin
  • FW 6-Pin to FW800
    

Documentation & Recording

The biggest mistake you can make is not documenting your work. Even if someone else says they're going to do it, they might not do it well, or capture what you need for the reel or portfolio.

• A camera (besides your phone) that supports interchangeable lenses and that can shoot video and photo
  • A nice all-around lens like a 24-70 or a 16-55 (depending on camera sensor type).
  • A nice wide lens like an 11-16 or 10-24 (depending on sensor)
• A nice, light, tripod with a compact video head
• A gimbal for fun, smooth, walk throughs
• An on-camera monitor to keep things in focus and properly exposed (see monitors above)