The way I have my gear stowed away is broke down into several levels. First I have my trunk with all my video gear and then inside there I have several bags for specific areas. For example, I have a bag for gear that is just for the coaches office, a bag for the projector and also the gear that goes up with me to our video capture location. Not only does this keep things organized, but if I am out and a coach needs to grab something from my trunk they know where they can find it.
The Bag
At the start of the 25-26 season I was carrying up a lot more equipment due to the network capture situation & what I had for my power strip. My goal for the 25-26 season with all of my gear was simple: portability. Enter the Monstina Large makeup bag
It is a bit messy because the goal of portability with my gear for last season was a pretty solid success thanks to network capture changes with Thunder Hockey 25 & their RTSP feeds. Currently working on replacing it with a newer one for next season.
I’ve went ahead and numbered these and will go through each item now.
The Gear
- Baseus Blade 6-in-1 Charging Station 140W
- I got this late in the season and cannot sing enough praises about it. I plug in my asus router & laptop with the regular power plug-ins and then using two of the USB-C ports I plug in the phone I use for the feed game clock and then the other for the Microsoft Surface. I love that the devices plugged in directly in the USB-C ports are good if they temporarily lose power, while the Router & laptop plugged in to the plug-ins will have that uninterrupted power.
- ASUS RT-AX86U Pro (link is to newer model)
- If you ask me at my level your wireless router is the single most important piece of equipment outside of your capture device. Master it, know it like the back of your hand, understand its strengths and weaknesses. Everything runs through it. I will be posting in depth about them later. Whether I’m on the road or in connected mode at the home rink its always the same IP addresses for my Thunder Laptop. This makes the iBench apps work among other things. Thunder has the Netgear Nighthawk AXE7800 as their qualified hardware but I went with something more portable with the foldable antennas and a very high power wifi signal. Zero issues getting the wifi signal to the bench regardless of the rink.
- Anker 100W Foldable USB-C Charger
- Portability. I tote this around in my backpack so I don’t have to lug around the Dell charger everywhere. I cannot recommend it enough, or having 1 or 2 extras in your video trunk in case a staff member forgets their laptop cable.
- Logitech MX anywhere mouse
- We aren’t animals. While the trackpad is nice, the mouse is easier to use and handy. The MX Anywhere mouse is also great if you don’t have a perfectly smooth surface.
- Blackmagic UltraStudio Recorder 3G
- Being able to go full-time with this video encoder last season was amazing. I went from having to carry around a AVMatrix SDI encoder/power supply, Blackmagic BiDirectional Converter/power supply and HD-SDI cable to just this little guy and a thunderbolt USB-C cable. I am PRETTY SURE the Catapult Focus Server makes it available to Thunder via its abilities but I was using it through OBS and its RTSP server plugin to push the video with my scoreclock on the feed.
- Microsoft Surface Go 3
- Used for running the Catapult Logging Tool/Time On Ice. I power via USB-C instead of the proprietary Microsoft Surface charger for simplicity and portability.
- Google Pixel 6A & Mount
- Powered via a USB-C plug-in. This is the device I point at the scoreboard with an Android app that gets me the video feed via wifi to my laptop. Suction Mount to get it stabilized. I will be upgrading this next season for my camera zoom options for practice/etc.
- Spare Network Cables/Spare SDI Cable/USB-C Cables
- The small profile network cables are a bit cheap so its always important to have spares. Different sizes if the router is a ways away from the ethernet port for internet
- While the switch to USB-C for powering electronics has been awesome, I don’t think its emphasized enough that USB-C cables have power limits on them so make sure to get 100W. I prefer 6 feet as well, braided seems to hold up longer too.
- Notepad & Pen
- Very useful to have if miss marking an event during the game or want to go back and add a comment during downtime.
- USB Stick/Portable Hard Drive
- Never hurts to have these guys on hand – if an opposing team needs a XIMP or a video feed goofs on your end you have the ability to get said item.
Got any questions, Want to add anything below that would be helpful for any other video coaches that you like? Let us know and I will post it up!