QLab MacBook Pro Recommendations

[mrcancun5]

I am getting ready to purchase a MacBook Pro and the QLab Pro-bundle for my performing arts program. I am looking to run sound and at least two projectors for our mainstage and black box productions. Does anybody have any recommendations. I was going to go with the 256 Flash Memory, 16 GB Ram, & i7 processor. Do I need to spend this much or can I cut corners on the Ram and processor? Any recommendations would be helpful. Thank you all for your time and input.

 

[cnnrward]

if you get the discrete graphics processor, you could skimp on the CPU, but if you go with integrated graphics (Iris) I would get the best i7 processor.

 

[Colin]

I just made this purchase in February and went with the Pro 15", 2.5GHz i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB flash storage, Iris graphics, and an external Thunderbolt drive to hold all the video content. We ran sound and video on two 1920x1200 projectors. Video was compressed with ProRes 422 LT, which we decided would be the ideal balance between file size and processor load. The only time the MacBook bogged down a little was when applying lots of video effects within QLab. I mostly just tried that for fun to see what was possible, and we really did most of those effects beforehand in Final Cut, so less load on the MacBook. Still, I'd say max out your specs if possible so you can do more inside QLab if you ever want to. Certainly makes tech time easier.