You need racks, and judging by your description they must be
portable. Since they are to be about five feet tall, I assume that they are not going to be picked up and put on a production
desk. Do you plan on having your mixers mounted in that position? If so, that will put them very near the floor and not very accessible. It seems that you have a lot of wasted space in the racks, so you may consider smaller racks that you can then put on production table.
What you are looking for as far as aesthetics, logistics and portability is an important consideration. I worked for a company that built
portable production systems for high schools, colleges, corporations and the military. A
portable rack for a high school was typically much different from on that had to be shipped around the world and used in the field. Some racks were oak or cherry trimmed with fixed
laminate desktops, but were on casters. Others were ATA flight cases with sliding or tilt-up work surfaces that could be transported just about anywhere. So think about things such as whether you might be transporting the racks and maybe want ATA rated cases with locking covers or are you just moving them around a
bit, say pushing them into an adjacent storage area? Do they need to look finished with wood
trim or is a very utilitarian
flight case or metal rack look acceptable? Should the two rack move as one
unit or two separate pieces?
How do the racks connect to the
system? Are you thinking permanently attached umbilical snakes coiled up inside the racks that are pulled out or a
connector plate or panel on the rear or side of the racks?
There are multiple manufacturers for most of the items noted, do you have a budget? What video format (composite,
S-Video, component,
SDI, HD-SDI,
etc.) do you plan on using? These factors will definitely affect what products may be appropriate. FWIW, I have never heard rack mount
power controller generically referred to as "Furmans" and I have used and specified a number of
power sequencer, '
power conditioner' and rack mount
power strip brands over the years (
Furman, SurgeX, Lowell, Atlas Sound, Middle Atlantic,
Juice Goose,
etc.). But it is important to note that
Furman, like many manufacturers, offers multiple series and products, for the
Furman '
power conditioners' I personally would only consider the PL-PRO series products, it seems to make sense to use 20A rated rather than 15A rated products in commercial facilities where 20A circuits are the norm and I tend to avoid surge suppression products that use only MOVs, if it does use only MOVs for suppression then it is nice to have some verficiation that the protection is still at some nominal
level and has not degraded to where it is no longer effective.
