QUESTION · SATURDAY Q&A

I have quite a bit of gear I haul around in my car for gigs, and it's pretty safe when transporting it, but I'd like to have better cases that protect and are easier to move. Is Pelican the way to go? Stuff like an ATEM, 27-inch screens, by 32-rack cables, all that stuff.

ASKED BY · Zach Stallsmith · CHAUTAUQUA, NEW YORK · 17 OCT 2026 · ▶ 00:43:24

THE PANEL'S ANSWER
Guy

Consider Fiasco Cases (balsa wood racks inside heavy cases for sophisticated touring setups), JSON Cases (laser-cut custom cases for cameras like UE150s), or MyCase Builder; avoid cheap cases from clearance sales; Pelican works but consider alternatives; consult with vendors on specific needs.

Summarised by AI from what the panel said. Watch the moment for the full answer.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS

From the transcript.

Machine-transcribed, so it may contain errors. Every timestamp opens the episode at that second.

43:24What do you think, Guy? Yeah, when I went to Vegas to the Infocomm show, we were walking around and we had the IV on a cart and David Brady and a couple other people in the community said, hey, what's that over there? Let's go visit that booth. And it was Fiasco Cases. And this is what they look like. I would take a look at these because over Pelican, they're balsa wood.

43:51So this part here that goes inside is lightweight balsa. Sorry. Bass wood. That's the one that starts with a B. Bass. Bass wood. Is that right? I'll see it over here in a second in the fly rack specs. But anyways, you get the idea that you could put that wooden rack case inside of the really thick case. And these guys know what they're doing.

44:18it. I mean, look at this video of them loading a truck. So they come from a background of loading these trucks. So they do like touring. So look at how sophisticated this is where everything fits. So, I mean, this is so beautiful compared to what I do with the local company I work with. We just throw everything in and we have to tie it all down and it doesn't fit like this. It's

44:40not so elegant. So when you get to the bigger levels, you want to look at, you know, how you're going to transport it. In fact, James Haldane in the chat, when we visited, Alexander saw it as well. He's got a pretty nice van and he does something similar like this where even if it seems like a good idea to go buy cheap cases just because you're getting a good deal on them from

45:00some old place that is blowing them out, it's not worth it. I mean, go look at Fiasco Case's website and figure out exactly what you need or give them a call and figure out how you're going going to transport it from A to B and get what you need. Get the right tool for the job. There's also JSON cases that make custom cases. So for like our PTZs, our UE150s, we have JSON cases

45:25and they fit their laser cut. And there's another one, my case builder, but we use JSON cases for the cameras just because they fit. They're identical. I mean, it is the laser cut. They scan a bunch of cameras. So depending on what you need, Fiasco cases and my case builder or JSON cases mark so guy i just want you to know that in that video you showed they only filled equipment

45:50in one of those series of cases the other cases were just so that one case wouldn't roll around anyway they they may like if you if you look at some of their videos that are like older like here look at this one right here i was just so that's their shorts but if you look at this one one called videos they this one's nine years ago uh look it's not showing oh

46:14yes but see only one of those cases has anything in it they're just using the all the other cases to keep that one case from moving around anyway porter brace porter brace is another company that's a lot like pelican but um they're not as expensive as pelican usually something fascinating about that i don't know why i feel like i could stare at that time-lapsed

46:39video of the people stacking those beautiful cases oh it looks it looks really nice like pressure washing videos on youtube where they're like cleaning something up and it's like hey stacking and organizing same with these guys i don't know if you've seen some of these videos where they clean up a uh a network control room where it's like all these crazy cables

46:57like spaghetti madness everywhere and these guys come in and they're just like make it look so perfect and yeah i i'm enamored by those videos of before and afters now yeah when i used to uh when i used to build pcs i i would subscribe to maximum pc i don't know if anyone remembers that uh uh magazine but uh one of the uh they're no longer around they actually got acquired by hp

47:21There's a Canadian company in Alberta called Voodoo PC, and they used to build the most beautiful looking. I'll say that the word beautiful as an adjective with PCs, but they really I mean, they custom manufactured these cases. They would I think they were like one of the first, if not the first companies to cut a hole in the side of the case and put a piece of glass in there.

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from Office Hours | Saturday | October 17, 2026.

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