**Unboxing and Setup of the Sonnet Echo Express SE3**

The Sonnet Echo Express SE3 is an enclosure designed to house multiple capture cards, making it ideal for professionals who need to capture high-quality video from multiple sources. The enclosure itself is compact and sleek, with a simple design that belies its capabilities.

In this review, we'll take a closer look at the Sonnet Echo Express SE3, including its features, benefits, and how it can be used in a professional setup.

**Removing the Outer Chassis**

One of the first steps in setting up the Sonnet Echo Express SE3 is to remove the outer chassis. This allows us to access the inner chassis and examine what's inside. The screws that hold the enclosure together are easily removed, and the outer casing is slid off to reveal the inner workings.

As we lift the lid, we're greeted by three PCIe slots, which house the capture cards. One of the notable features of this setup is the Thunderbolt 3 interface, which provides fast data transfer rates and compatibility with multiple devices.

**Examining the Inner Chassis**

The inner chassis contains the PCIe slots, as well as a knock to a fan that's designed to be super quiet. This is a great feature for those who want to keep their setup quiet and unobtrusive. The PCIe slots themselves are x8 mechanical slots, but only two of them (the bottom two) are x8 electrical slots. It's essential to note this when choosing the capture cards you want to install.

**Setting Up Capture Cards**

We're now going to set up our old capture setup with two eGPUs. As we can see, it's not a pretty setup, but we'll replace it with just this box alone. We have two Blackmagic deck link mini recorders, which feature 6G SDI and HDMI 2.0 connectivity. These cards are excellent for capturing high-quality video.

We're going to install both of these in the x8 slots, although they're actually x4 cards. This means we can install them in either of three available slots. The chassis is rearmed with the inputs, and we're ready to go.

**Closing Up the Enclosure**

The final step in setting up the Sonnet Echo Express SE3 is to close up the enclosure using the outer portion of the chassis. We'll lock it down with four screws to secure everything in place. This process is incredibly simple and takes only a few minutes to complete.

**Connecting Cameras**

With the enclosure set up, we can now connect our cameras. We have an overhead camera that will be plugged into the top PCIe slot, while the floor camera will be connected to the bottom PCIe slot. We'll also need a Thunderbolt 3 cable to daisy chain with this enclosure, which is a great feature for those who want to expand their setup.

**Connecting Cameras and Setting Up Blackmagic Media Express**

We've plugged in our cameras, and as we can see, the power light on the front is turned on. The Thunderbolt 3 cable has been connected, and we have a dual Thunderbolt 3 enclosure that allows for daisy chaining. This feature is perfect for those who need to connect multiple devices.

To capture video from both cameras simultaneously using ProRes, we'll load up Blackmagic Media Express, an application that's designed for capturing high-quality video. The iMac Pro is equipped with this software, which provides a solid foundation for our setup.

We've loaded up two instances of the app – one for the overhead camera and one for the floor camera. Both are capturing video at 4K resolution and 30 frames per second, using ProRes 42 HQ. This is the real key to this setup: capturing both feeds simultaneously without any latency.

**Playing Back the Captured Video**

We've captured some amazing footage with our Sonnet Echo Express SE3 and Blackmagic deck link mini recorders. To play back the video, we'll use the iMac Pro's built-in media player. The playback is smooth and flawless, showing us exactly what this setup can do.

**Thunderbolt 3 Cable Management**

One of the final steps in setting up our Sonnet Echo Express SE3 is securing our Thunderbolt 3 cable with a Thunderbolt 3 cable protector. This helps prevent the cable from coming loose over time, ensuring that our setup remains stable and secure.

**Conclusion**

The Sonnet Echo Express SE3 is an incredible piece of kit for professionals who need to capture high-quality video from multiple sources. With its compact design and sleek features, this enclosure is perfect for those looking to expand their workflow or upgrade their current setup.

By following the steps outlined in this article, you can set up your own Sonnet Echo Express SE3 with capture cards and cameras. Remember to keep an eye on the PCIe slots and Thunderbolt 3 interface when selecting your equipment, as well as use a cable protector to secure your Thunderbolt 3 cable.

If you're interested in learning more about this setup or would like to explore other options for capturing high-quality video, be sure to check out our reviews of Blackmagic Media Express and the iMac Pro.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enin this video I show you how easily put together a Thunderbolt 3 dual 4k Pro rest capture enclosure you don't want to miss this thanks for watching nine-to-five Mac be sure to thumbs up click the subscribe button and then enable notifications with the bill icon so you won't miss any upcoming videos how's it going ladies and gentlemen this is jeff benjamin with 9 to 5 Mac I have something very exciting I want to show you guys this is the echo Express S III from our friends over at SONET we make excellent Thunderbolt 3 enabled hardware this particular device is a triple almost at dual this is a triple PCIe enclosure with three PCIe slots that allow you to connect multiple PCIe devices to your Mac simultaneously via a single Thunderbolt 3 connection pretty awesome now considering that there's all types of PCIe cards out there that opens up a lot of possibilities we're gonna explore one of those major possibilities here in this video as I've already alluded to at the outset so this is everything you get inside the box including this manual which is extremely verbose if you don't know anything about this enclosure going into it this will help you get up to speed rather quickly but you don't really need this manual because it's a super simple setup I'm gonna walk you through all that right now so along with the enclosure and power accessories you get this right here a Thunderbolt 3 cable for connecting the enclosure to your Mac you also get this Thunder lock adapter that locks to the Thunderbolt 3 cable to the chassis so it doesn't accidentally come out which is great and of course you have the power brick right here at power supply and the power cable that goes along with that and that simply plugs into the back using a barrel style connector and here is the chassis itself the sonnet echo expressed 3 you could see 3 PCIe slots on the back otherwise a very simple enclosure we're going to open it up and explore it here now the echo Express se 3 is not designed for graphics card so it's not an e GPU doesn't have the power supply to drive a typical graphics card in fact most graphics cards won't even fit inside this enclosure but that doesn't mean that this enclosure isn't useful because it is let me go ahead and take the screws off there and we'll slide the inner chassis from the outer chassis and here's what's inside so of course you have the three PCIe slots with that Thunderbolt three interface you also have a knock to a fan which is going to be super quiet that is a detail I was not expecting going into this and that is awesome now all of the PCIe slots are x8 mechanical slots but only two of them the bottom two are x8 electrical slots so just keep that in mind when it comes to performance now here's my old capture set up with two e GPUs obviously not a pretty setup right we're gonna replace that with just this box alone let me show you how we're gonna do it okay so I have these two deck link mini recorder for KS from black magic these are excellent little capture cards that features 6g SDI and HDMI 2.0 connectivity so it's gonna be perfect for my setup connecting my two cameras directly to this enclosure via HDMI so we're just going to install both we're installing both in the x8 slots these are actually x4 cards so you can install it in either of the three slots so here it is folks they rear the chassis with the inputs you can see ready to go so now it's just a matter of closing up this enclosure using the outer portion of the chassis like that and locking it down with the four screws again super simple install only takes just a few minutes and yeah so we're ready to go now folks alright so now it's time to connect our cameras so I have the overhead camera I'm gonna plug this in here and then my floor camera gonna plug that here and we're gonna plug in a Thunderbolt 3 cable and as you can see it is a dual Thunderbolt 3 enclosure so you can daisy chain with this enclosure which is awesome alright so we have it plugged in you see the power light on front not overly bright which is a good thing but I'm gonna keep this guy on the floor anyway so it doesn't really matter right underneath my camera setup so here we go folks that is the sonnet echo Express se3 with two Dec link 4k mini recorder cards inside and these are going to be fed by two Sony a7 threes 4k 30 frames per second and the goal is to capture both feeds simultaneously using pro res for two to HQ right on my iMac Pro and speaking of which the iMac Perl has this sort of been with to be able to accommodate such a setup where as a lesser machines may not so we're gonna load up Blackmagic media Express it's an okay application not great doesn't have a lot of customization options but it works and that's the main thing it works it's pretty solid I'd haven't had any problems with it so we're gonna load up actually two instances one for the overhead camera as you can see here one for the floor camera so I have both running at the same time no latency at all but here's the real key can we capture both simultaneously so we're capturing right now pro res 42 HQ with the floor camera we're gonna do the same thing with the overhead camera right now so we capturing as you can see both at the same time and I have to admit folks that's really cool it's really cool all right so we're capturing all this locally right here on the iMac Pro and I have more pieces to the setup I can explain that in a future video if you want to see more videos on this setup please let me know leave me a thumbs up let me know down below in the comment section tell me that you want to see more and I'll be sure to to flesh out this whole setup and let you know what else is going on behind the scenes but as you can see we've just captured this video with this echo Xpress / Blackmagic declan combo we're gonna stop the recording here and let me go into the preferences just to show you what options are available to capture so you have Pro rs-422 HQ you also have uncompressed options as well and other Pro res options alright so we're gonna just play back here and there's what it looks like but let me show you the actual file so here it is the overhead and the front camera just like that and you can easily sync these files in post if you want to using Final Cut Pro 10 or your NLE of choice one last thing you have the Thunderer lot which I showed you at the outset during the unboxing a good way to secure your Thunderbolt 3 cable so it doesn't come out for more details check the links down below and also let me know what you guys think down below in the comments about this setup this is Jeff with 9 to 5 Mac youin this video I show you how easily put together a Thunderbolt 3 dual 4k Pro rest capture enclosure you don't want to miss this thanks for watching nine-to-five Mac be sure to thumbs up click the subscribe button and then enable notifications with the bill icon so you won't miss any upcoming videos how's it going ladies and gentlemen this is jeff benjamin with 9 to 5 Mac I have something very exciting I want to show you guys this is the echo Express S III from our friends over at SONET we make excellent Thunderbolt 3 enabled hardware this particular device is a triple almost at dual this is a triple PCIe enclosure with three PCIe slots that allow you to connect multiple PCIe devices to your Mac simultaneously via a single Thunderbolt 3 connection pretty awesome now considering that there's all types of PCIe cards out there that opens up a lot of possibilities we're gonna explore one of those major possibilities here in this video as I've already alluded to at the outset so this is everything you get inside the box including this manual which is extremely verbose if you don't know anything about this enclosure going into it this will help you get up to speed rather quickly but you don't really need this manual because it's a super simple setup I'm gonna walk you through all that right now so along with the enclosure and power accessories you get this right here a Thunderbolt 3 cable for connecting the enclosure to your Mac you also get this Thunder lock adapter that locks to the Thunderbolt 3 cable to the chassis so it doesn't accidentally come out which is great and of course you have the power brick right here at power supply and the power cable that goes along with that and that simply plugs into the back using a barrel style connector and here is the chassis itself the sonnet echo expressed 3 you could see 3 PCIe slots on the back otherwise a very simple enclosure we're going to open it up and explore it here now the echo Express se 3 is not designed for graphics card so it's not an e GPU doesn't have the power supply to drive a typical graphics card in fact most graphics cards won't even fit inside this enclosure but that doesn't mean that this enclosure isn't useful because it is let me go ahead and take the screws off there and we'll slide the inner chassis from the outer chassis and here's what's inside so of course you have the three PCIe slots with that Thunderbolt three interface you also have a knock to a fan which is going to be super quiet that is a detail I was not expecting going into this and that is awesome now all of the PCIe slots are x8 mechanical slots but only two of them the bottom two are x8 electrical slots so just keep that in mind when it comes to performance now here's my old capture set up with two e GPUs obviously not a pretty setup right we're gonna replace that with just this box alone let me show you how we're gonna do it okay so I have these two deck link mini recorder for KS from black magic these are excellent little capture cards that features 6g SDI and HDMI 2.0 connectivity so it's gonna be perfect for my setup connecting my two cameras directly to this enclosure via HDMI so we're just going to install both we're installing both in the x8 slots these are actually x4 cards so you can install it in either of the three slots so here it is folks they rear the chassis with the inputs you can see ready to go so now it's just a matter of closing up this enclosure using the outer portion of the chassis like that and locking it down with the four screws again super simple install only takes just a few minutes and yeah so we're ready to go now folks alright so now it's time to connect our cameras so I have the overhead camera I'm gonna plug this in here and then my floor camera gonna plug that here and we're gonna plug in a Thunderbolt 3 cable and as you can see it is a dual Thunderbolt 3 enclosure so you can daisy chain with this enclosure which is awesome alright so we have it plugged in you see the power light on front not overly bright which is a good thing but I'm gonna keep this guy on the floor anyway so it doesn't really matter right underneath my camera setup so here we go folks that is the sonnet echo Express se3 with two Dec link 4k mini recorder cards inside and these are going to be fed by two Sony a7 threes 4k 30 frames per second and the goal is to capture both feeds simultaneously using pro res for two to HQ right on my iMac Pro and speaking of which the iMac Perl has this sort of been with to be able to accommodate such a setup where as a lesser machines may not so we're gonna load up Blackmagic media Express it's an okay application not great doesn't have a lot of customization options but it works and that's the main thing it works it's pretty solid I'd haven't had any problems with it so we're gonna load up actually two instances one for the overhead camera as you can see here one for the floor camera so I have both running at the same time no latency at all but here's the real key can we capture both simultaneously so we're capturing right now pro res 42 HQ with the floor camera we're gonna do the same thing with the overhead camera right now so we capturing as you can see both at the same time and I have to admit folks that's really cool it's really cool all right so we're capturing all this locally right here on the iMac Pro and I have more pieces to the setup I can explain that in a future video if you want to see more videos on this setup please let me know leave me a thumbs up let me know down below in the comment section tell me that you want to see more and I'll be sure to to flesh out this whole setup and let you know what else is going on behind the scenes but as you can see we've just captured this video with this echo Xpress / Blackmagic declan combo we're gonna stop the recording here and let me go into the preferences just to show you what options are available to capture so you have Pro rs-422 HQ you also have uncompressed options as well and other Pro res options alright so we're gonna just play back here and there's what it looks like but let me show you the actual file so here it is the overhead and the front camera just like that and you can easily sync these files in post if you want to using Final Cut Pro 10 or your NLE of choice one last thing you have the Thunderer lot which I showed you at the outset during the unboxing a good way to secure your Thunderbolt 3 cable so it doesn't come out for more details check the links down below and also let me know what you guys think down below in the comments about this setup this is Jeff with 9 to 5 Mac you\n"