The American Museum of Natural History

This Apple Science podcast features Ned Gardiner and the producers at the American Museum of Natural History, who looked to Apple when they needed a next-generation environment for creating high-definition Science Bulletins. Underpinning the Science Bulletins production pipeline are 18 Mac notebooks and desktop systems, three Xserve G5 servers, and six Xserve RAID arrays – a collaborative environment that leverages a 23-terabyte Xsan network via GB Ethernet and Fibre Channel. AMNH is 100% Mac. Scientist Ned Gardiner processes images from raw satellite readings and other data on his 17-inch MacBook Pro. Animators turn 2D images into interactive 3D animations on Power Mac G5 Quad computers and collaborate with producers via the 23TB Xsan production SAN using QuickTime 7 movies accessed with VirtualVTR. The team delivers the final product in multiple formats, from 1080i HD MPEG-2 files for display in museums to QuickTime movies for the Web. Transforming scientific and satellite data into intuitive, interactive HD visualizations required a powerful, collaborative pipeline to say the least – and Mac delivered.