Review: The HP Z1 as a Webcaster's Workstation
HP's Z1 is the first all-in-one computer with workstation components and field serviceability. Here, encoding expert Jan Ozer takes a look at how this workstation-class portable PC fared in a live production and webcast environment, with testing emphasis in 3 areas: rendering, streaming encoding, and live encoding.
Live Streaming with the Z1
The Z1 is big, beautiful and bold, but it's also not light, with the lightest configuration weighing in at 47 pounds. It's the kind of machine that you'll adore having at your webcast or tradeshow, but getting it there and set up could be a problem if you haven't had your Wheaties. On the other hand, unlike notebooks, the Z1 can't easily walk away on its own accord, so you're a little more comfortable leaving it for a quick trip to the loo or for coffee.
The other issue is expandability: There are no free internal slots. In my webcast, I connected an old Canopus AVDC300 FireWire converter to the Z1's FireWire port, which worked fine for SD input. There are also 2 USB 3.0 slots and 4 USB 2.0 slots, providing the necessary connectivity for multiple third-party options for any connection from analog to HD-SDI. Still, to use the Z1 as a live encoding station, you'll have to plan for external connectivity.
These considerations aside, it was fabulous working with the Z1 at the J Street event. Conventional wisdom says that you should have a separate computer available for monitoring the live stream; hence the HP Elitebook 8760w to my right in Figure 1. However, the public Wi-Fi at the convention center averaged about 70 Kbps, so my only option was to encode and play back on the same computer using the event's dedicated connection. I never noticed CPU utilization exceeding 20% for single-file encoding and streaming playback, which is fine in my book; I'd rather have too much power than too little.
Overall, I see the Z1 as a killer solution where space is tight and where you need workstation class performance in a transportable form factor. Now that tablets and smartphones are starting to replace notebooks, I also see it as a great home base for professionals who want to work on a powerful big-screen computer while at their offices, and don't need a notebook when they travel.
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Built for computer-aided design, digital media and entertainment professionals, the HP Z1 provides blazingly fast rendering and performance.