Building a Digi Station

A run-down on my DIY Digi Work Station

Digital work stations are one of those things that I have a love/hate relationship with. I’m not a fan of being tethered to a station – and for a lot of the type of work I do it’s simply not practical. Wireless tethering is still not quite where I hoped it would be to make it viable alternative, although I don’t think it will be long before it is there. However tethering has a number of benefits and is sometimes an absolute necessity. Given the option my preference would always be to get a dedicated Digital Tech on the shoot, and normally they would come with their own setup which can be grown or shrunk accordingly. But again this isn’t always practical – sometimes the crew size needs to be kept down for budget or logistical reasons. In those cases it really pays to have my own dedicated digital work station. For the last few years I have run one out of a small hard case that happened to perfectly fit my Digi Plate – and I mean perfectly – the plate sat on the internal lip of the case without any need for modification. If you need something simple and compact then this is a great option for you. This was the Max 430 and in the UK you can pick them up from here. You can see some images of that set up below.

If you want a list of the gear with all the relevant links skip straight to the bottom of the article.

The above images show my original Digi Station based off a Max 430 case. This is a good compact option and around the size of large briefcase. It can be carried by the handle or with a shoulder strap; although it’s not super comfortable if you are going to be carrying it for any length of time.

However I realised that I could really do with more storage in the case as I wanted it to be self contained, with everything I might need plus the odd spare. To that end I decided to base my case on the Pelican 1510, or should I say the Pelican Air version which is in fact the 1535. Just to be different I opted for bright yellow – I figured it would then be easy to spot in a pile of cases. You can pick up one of these cases here.

The video below will give you some sense of the build process then hopefully the descriptions further on will make more sense.

The first thing to overcome was how I was going to mount the digi case in the laptop. Now the official versions from the likes of Innovativ have quite a simple setup but if you want to buy the brackets you’ll be looking at around $60.00 (plus P&P), which is a little steep for 4 right angle brackets! If you want the legitimate brackets you can find them here. I opted to have a go at making my own – using a hex head bolt to connect into the corresponding holes on the plate. A quick search and I found these, which would do the job. I then also purchased some hardware for attaching the plate to bracket (here) and the bracket to the case (here). First job is to measure and drill. The bolts for mounting the verticle section of the L bracket can be spaced so that the bracket itself can be slightly adjusted in height. Bear in mind that doing this modification will jeopardize your cases ability to be fully waterproof and probably void your warranty – so you have been warned!

Once the brackets are in places it’s time to line the case and start to make the internal dividers. Alternatively you can purchase official trekpak which is very similar and does and excellent job. But for those willing to do it yourself you can use this plastic and this foam and use spraymount such as this to bond it together. I cut the foam using a template made from paper to start with. The bottom layer is pure foam and the sizes are a single layer of plastic and then foam, with the dividers being made of foam-plastic-foam (ie. the corrugated plastic is sandwiched in the middle). This system then allows you to connect everything with hairpins such as these.

The lid sections is fairly straightforward I used heavy duty velcro such as this and then purchased this lid orgasnier set off Etsy here.

Other external features

On one side I screwed a cheese plate which would allow me to lock in some items onto the side of the case if needed – such as this magic arm from smallrig. On the other side I affixed small metal plate like this which allows me to attach a Magnetic based card reader such as this one from ProGrade. The top of the case has my branding stenciled spray painted on – if doing so I suggest giving the plastic a slight grade with fine sandpaper.

The Digi Plate

The bottom of the Digi Plate has a number of features to help run everything. I can power my laptop with V-Locks using this cold v-lock mount from Smallrig. There are many other options here – I know that LS Digi has just brought out his version which I’m sure will be amazingly well built and though out. Using V-Locks make sense to me as they are easy to get hold of, and in a pinch there are more likely to be spares on set and/or a spare charger. I run the power from the D-tap out to a USB-C input using the Kondor blue cable – you can find similar here (I then adapt it to a magsafe input such as this, so as not to take up a USB-C port on the laptop). I also run a USB-C hub like this from Pulwtop. This allows me to run two Samsung SSD hard-drives in this caddy from LS-Digi, and have them plugged into the USB-C hub. So one lead out from the USB-C hub attaches both hard drives into the laptop. The bottom of the plate also includes a spot for an apple AirTag again from LS-Digi and can be found here. Another great bit of kit from LS Digi is the Arca Swiss base he makes – allowing a tool free switch between the Baby-Pin mount (like on the Inovativ Cart) to a portable tripod setup with Arca Swiss quick release head.

I mount my digi plate on a Peak Design Travel Tripod as this is nice and compact and fits in the case alongside the laptop shade. I also use this carabiner style clip to hang my cabling (such as the tether cable from). On the legs of the tripod I use a rock bag to store any other items. And on the base of the tripod legs I use the Smallrig dolly wheels. These are a game changer when working on flat surfaces and needing to change location – in my view they are a bit of a cheat for when you don’t have a full digi-cart set up to run with.

I also pack a Accsoon CineEye 2 transmitter similar to this to fire a signal to my ipad when required. I use the ipad sometimes as a small monitor for clients or for myself when shooting away from the station. The ipad can either run in this smallrig bracket with an attached powerbank holder, or in Armor-X case using this nifty adapter made by LS digi.

For tethering the cable into the camera I use either the FotoFortress system or a similar arca swiss compatible clamp

I normally have miscellaneous grip in the case including Manfrotto superclamp and U-Hook.

Various Grip that I keep in the case and find to have multiple uses – the superclamp and u-hook for example can be combined to create a hook attached to stand if you need a temporary sandbag.

The Accsoon CineEye 2 for sending out signal to an iPad or creating a wifi network. There are now more up to date options out there.