Offload video rendering and encoding to dedicated Macs
For production companies and creative agencies that want long exports, transcodes and batch renders off their editing workstations. Upload a project or source files, let a hosted Mac process them in the background and download the result.
- 01
Source file
Uploaded footage or project
- 02
Processing job
Render or encode on the Mac
- 03
Output formats
e.g. H.264, HEVC, ProRes
What this solves
Editing machines blocked by exports
Moving long renders to another Mac frees the editor to keep working.
Repeated encoding jobs
Delivering the same master in several formats is easy to script on a machine that is always on.
Apple-specific codecs and tools
Apple silicon has hardware media engines for H.264, HEVC and ProRes, used by macOS-native tools.
Example workflow
Batch delivery of a finished master
- 01
The editor exports a ProRes master and uploads it over SFTP.
SFTP or rsync - 02
A watch folder on the hosted Mac picks up the file.
Watch folder or script - 03
An ffmpeg or Compressor job produces the delivery formats.
ffmpeg (VideoToolbox) or Compressor - 04
Finished files are moved to an output folder.
Output folder - 05
The team downloads them, or a script uploads them to the client's storage.
Download or upload script
Keep source files and outputs within the SSD you order, and clean up finished jobs. Choose 1 TB when masters are large or several jobs wait in the queue.
How to set it up and run it
- 1
Estimate upload and download volume
Every job starts and ends with a file transfer over the 1 Gbit/s connection, so your own office upload speed often sets the pace.
- 2
Size storage for source, temporary and output files at the same time
Clean up finished jobs automatically.
- 3
Install and license your tools
Ffmpeg, HandBrake, Compressor, or render software that supports macOS on Apple silicon.
- 4
Automate with watch folders, shell scripts or your render software's command line.
- 5
For more than one Mac, you need a job queue or render manager that distributes work. vBoxx provides the Macs; the orchestration is yours to set up.
Who does what
vBoxx provides
- Dedicated Mac mini M6 or M5 Pro machines with Apple silicon media engines for H.264, HEVC and ProRes
- A public IP per Mac for SFTP or rsync transfers in and out
- Network: 10 Gigabit Ethernet port · 1 Gbit/s unmetered · public IPv4 + IPv6
- Remote hands, for example to attach external storage on request
You manage
- Render and encoding software, plugins and their licences
- Upload, download and storage clean-up
- Job queues, scripts and any multi-Mac orchestration
- Backups of source material
Before you choose this setup
- A single Mac is a single render node, not an automatically managed render farm.
- This is background processing. Interactive editing over a remote connection is possible but does not give smooth full-frame-rate playback.
- Very large source files can make transfer time longer than render time. Local rendering may then be faster.