Building A Podium Style DJ System

To many ads? Support ODJT and see no ads!
Are you referring to the big screen DJ booth in the video???...
Yes (the big screen one) and I guess Yes (yours). Any all-in-one mobile cart style booth is going to need care in moving into certain spaces.

I would love to be able to have everything set up, rolled in and plugged in in minutes, but around here, with the older buildings, I couldn't do it alone.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ittigger
I would love to be able to have everything set up, rolled in and plugged in in minutes, but around here, with the older buildings, I couldn't do it alone.

I’m in the same situation. Many of the venues I play have handicap accessibility, but every once in a while I run across one that has a few stairs. I have a 7 foot portable ramp, which helps, and my Small System can go pretty much anywhere. If the Podium System can’t be loaded in, I’ll just use the Small System. The classier venues are where I’d use the Podium, and most of those are accessible.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ittigger
Yes (the big screen one) and I guess Yes (yours). Any all-in-one mobile cart style booth is going to need care in moving into certain spaces.

I would love to be able to have everything set up, rolled in and plugged in in minutes, but around here, with the older buildings, I couldn't do it alone.
FWIW, I used an 'all in one' and it also took awhile to get it all setup. Most cords were rolled up and 'ready' .. but positioning, power and all still took a few minutes. This cart also had a light rig built into it, so that took more time. It also had video capability - which when you brought that cart, also took time. It has an a/b switch, etc. It took extra time once everything was setup because then you had to make sure the additional computers, processors, etc were working and ready. It didn't seem like there was that much of a difference between using that set - and a controller coffin. Additionally, any narrow door / hallways or elevators were definitely not going to work. Steps or risers were doable depending on height and how many people helping. You couldn't do it alone.
 
Last edited:
Denon MC7000... there’s ONE available for $699 (free shipping). That’s right at my $700 budget. Here’s the catch... REFURBISHED. Manufacturer refurbished, but still refurbished. Not sure how I feel about that. I’ve bought a refurbished computer before, and that turned out OK, but I’ve never purchased a piece of manufacturer refurbished audio gear. Has anyone else out there in ODJT land had an experience with a manufacturer refurbished controller????
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: ittigger
Denon MC7000... there’s ONE available for $699 (free shipping). That’s right at my $700 budget. Here’s the catch... REFURBISHED. Manufacturer refurbished, but still refurbished. Not sure how I feel about that. I’ve bought a refurbished computer before, and that turned out OK, but I’ve never purchased a piece of manufacturer refurbished audio gear. Has anyone else out there in ODJT land had an experience with a manufacturer refurbished controller????
I've bought refurbished .. depends who does it (manufacturer, seller, 3rd party), if it was actually refurbished or just called that, what the seller reputation is, and what the warranty is.
 
I've bought refurbished .. depends who does it (manufacturer, seller, 3rd party), if it was actually refurbished or just called that, what the seller reputation is, and what the warranty is.

Good points. I think it’s an actual manufacturer refurbished controller based on the seller being a reasonably reputable DJ gear distributor... ratings are decent, but the only negative review was regarding a refurbished Numark controller. The problem was not with the controller itself, but that they shipped the wrong model. The warranty is only 90 days. That’s my biggest concern. That’s plenty of time to discover any defect, so maybe that’s reasonable... I dunno???
 
Good points. I think it’s an actual manufacturer refurbished controller based on the seller being a reasonably reputable DJ gear distributor... ratings are decent, but the only negative review was regarding a refurbished Numark controller. The problem was not with the controller itself, but that they shipped the wrong model. The warranty is only 90 days. That’s my biggest concern. That’s plenty of time to discover any defect, so maybe that’s reasonable... I dunno???
Most electronic stuff either works or it doesn't .. unless it's clearly abused. Even new items only get a year, so really limited in the grand scheme. If it's a good price and you can return it if there's an issue, I wouldn't be too concerned. I bought a LOT of live sound gear second hand or refurbed and never had an issue that wasn't there day 1.
 
Most electronic stuff either works or it doesn't .. unless it's clearly abused. Even new items only get a year, so really limited in the grand scheme. If it's a good price and you can return it if there's an issue, I wouldn't be too concerned. I bought a LOT of live sound gear second hand or refurbed and never had an issue that wasn't there day 1.

Well... I was thinking about making a lower offer, but thinkin’ about it; let’s say I offer $675... That $25 really isn’t much. Wouldn’t really lessen the risk that much. If it was $500, I’d feel a lot better about the risk, but the MC7000 is too new to find one in that price range. Finding one for $800 is pretty easy, or even a new one can be had for $999.
 
Last edited:
Nothing’s ever easy... I’ve said it before and it’s still true.[emoji1] I haven’t done anything with this project for a while. I got my NUC PC’s setup (more than a week ago) and loaded Traktor, but hadn’t put any music on them because I wanted to have them share a NAS, which would contain a copy of my music library. I planned to use another nano PC (Zotac) I already owned and was just using as a Windows 10 test PC. No problem except... I had no spare monitor to use in order to setup the NAS. It doesn’t need a monitor after setting it up, but it needs one initially. I’m using two of my spare monitors for my two NUC’s, and while I could just use one of those, I didn’t want to. I’ve been planning to buy an Ultra-widescreen monitor to replace those two monitors, but haven’t got around to that either.[emoji1] Finally today, I switched out a monitor I use with my KVM switch and servers with a TV/Monitor, which freed up the monitor I needed.

So I opened up the Zotac PC to put a new hard drive inside, but the 3TB drive I wanted to use was too thick, and the case cover would not go back on. I found a 2TB drive I was saving as a backup for one of my old rack-mounted PC’s and put it in the Zotac PC. I powered up the Zotac PC and... Windows 10 booted up!!! OOOPS!!!... I forgot that the OS is not on the hard drive in these computers; it’s on a non-removable 32GB SSD. How could I have forgotten that???[emoji1]

So now the dilemma... Do I install the NAS software on the built in SSD and overwrite the Windows 10 installation, or do I install the NAS software on the 2TB drive and have a dual boot situation? I can’t decide. If I overwrite Windows 10, I need to make a bootable USB backup first, and guess what???... I don’t have a spare USB thumb drive. I’ve been meaning to order a few, but (like everything else) I just haven’t gotten around. I guess I’ll order some from Amazon and they’ll probably deliver them tomorrow, but that means my progress is halted today.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ittigger
Nothing’s ever easy... I’ve said it before and it’s still true.[emoji1] I haven’t done anything with this project for a while. I got my NUC PC’s setup (more than a week ago) and loaded Traktor, but hadn’t put any music on them because I wanted to have them share a NAS, which would contain a copy of my music library. I planned to use another nano PC (Zotac) I already owned and was just using as a Windows 10 test PC. No problem except... I had no spare monitor to use in order to setup the NAS. It doesn’t need a monitor after setting it up, but it needs one initially. I’m using two of my spare monitors for my two NUC’s, and while I could just use one of those, I didn’t want to. I’ve been planning to buy an Ultra-widescreen monitor to replace those two monitors, but haven’t got around to that either.[emoji1] Finally today, I switched out a monitor I use with my KVM switch and servers with a TV/Monitor, which freed up the monitor I needed.

So I opened up the Zotac PC to put a new hard drive inside, but the 3TB drive I wanted to use was too thick, and the case cover would not go back on. I found a 2TB drive I was saving as a backup for one of my old rack-mounted PC’s and put it in the Zotac PC. I powered up the Zotac PC and... Windows 10 booted up!!! OOOPS!!!... I forgot that the OS is not on the hard drive in these computers; it’s on a non-removable 32GB SSD. How could I have forgotten that???[emoji1]

So now the dilemma... Do I install the NAS software on the built in SSD and overwrite the Windows 10 installation, or do I install the NAS software on the 2TB drive and have a dual boot situation? I can’t decide. If I overwrite Windows 10, I need to make a bootable USB backup first, and guess what???... I don’t have a spare USB thumb drive. I’ve been meaning to order a few, but (like everything else) I just haven’t gotten around. I guess I’ll order some from Amazon and they’ll probably deliver them tomorrow, but that means my progress is halted today.
2 laptops, 1 external drive on 1 .. let them share it .. move it if one fails .. why must we overcomplicate things .. :)
 
2 laptops, 1 external drive on 1 .. let them share it .. move it if one fails .. why must we overcomplicate things .. :)

It’s only complicated until it’s all setup, then it’s not.[emoji1] Besides, it wouldn’t be much fun if it wasn’t a little complicated. I could have done (and still can do) the external USB drive any time if becomes necessary.[emoji4]
 
...So now the dilemma... Do I install the NAS software on the built in SSD and overwrite the Windows 10 installation, or do I install the NAS software on the 2TB drive and have a dual boot situation? I can’t decide. If I overwrite Windows 10, I need to make a bootable USB backup first, and guess what???... I don’t have a spare USB thumb drive. I’ve been meaning to order a few, but (like everything else) I just haven’t gotten around. I guess I’ll order some from Amazon and they’ll probably deliver them tomorrow, but that means my progress is halted today.

^^^^ THAT didn’t work out so well... I ordered a pack of 3 USB 3.0 Thumb drives yesterday, but they were not delivered today. They did not even have the option for next-day delivery, but I don’t think I would have paid extra for it anyway. They are scheduled for delivery tomorrow by 9PM. Hopefully they’ll come early. Ya never know. The weather is supposed to SUCK tomorrow... severe storms... chances of tornados and power outages. But it might be a good day to have indoor projects.[emoji4]
 
  • Like
Reactions: ittigger
The thumb drives I ordered were delivered about 30 minutes ago. That’s good, because I have time to work with this Nano PC and to get it ready to build my NAS for testing with my two NUC PC’s. I already put a 2TB hard drive in it, so now I’m creating a recovery drive on one of the new USB thumb drives. It says all you need is 8GB, but it’s still taking a very long time. Once my recovery thumb drive is finished and tested, I’ll be ready to load the NAS software. This is gonna be fun.[emoji1]
 
  • Like
Reactions: ittigger
Hurry up or the re-re-re-work project will end up being re-worked ..
 
Hurry up or the re-re-re-work project will end up being re-worked ..

LOL... NONE of this is rework. It’s all brand new gear, except for the DDJ-T1, but none of it is or will be used in any existing DJ system. It will go in my Podium System if I decide to build it. I still want to get a Denon MC7000 if I do build the Podium system.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ittigger
MAN!!!... Nothin’s EVER easy.[emoji1] Have I said that before???... I made my backup USB thumb drive, then I tested it successfully, so I proceeded to install the NAS software that I recently downloaded. I connected a DVD drive, and booted the computer with the lastest live CD containing the NAS software. I installed it (on the SSD) and rebooted the computer to start from the internal SSD drive and... it never would completely boot up... kept restarting, like the disk was corrupted. So I reinstalled it, but same result. Confusing... the disk is an internal, non-removable SSD, so not likely corrupted.

So... I put in a CD with an older version of the NAS software (the same version I have on my home NAS’s), and guess what???... It WORKED. CRAZY!!![emoji1] Why the newest version does not work and an older one does; who knows??? This software is based on FreeBSD, and my hardware is only a year old, so it should work. At this point I’m just glad it’s working. Now I can configure the 2TB data disk and copy my music library to it. Then I can test it. WOO HOO!!![emoji1]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: ittigger
Got the 2TB drive in my NAS configured last night before going to bed, and started my music library copying to it. It was finished copying when I awoke this morning... YAY!!![emoji1] So now I have my NAS with a complete copy of my music library ready for testing with my two NUC computers. Pretty exciting. Yes, I know... very geeky![emoji1]

Configuring the NAS was a snap, even though I haven’t had to configure one in quite a while. It’s kinda like riding a bike, only you don’t get any exercise.[emoji1] If you’ve never used FreeNAS or NAS4Free, I highly recommend them. NAS4Free broke off from FreeNAS, so both are similar. I’m using NAS4Free. After you install the software and set up the network interface and address, the rest of the configuration is done in a very nice Web interface. I once wrote instructions for setting it up for my tech support employees, as we built NAS’s for our clients using refurbished computers. They saved my clients a lot of money and provided a really inexpensive way to backup their servers. I need to see if I can find those instructions and update them. I’m not using Active Directory with my home network, so the setup is a little different than it was with my work network.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ittigger