What type of switcher is suitable?

[Gareth A]

Hi all.

 

I am wondering what the best type of switcher is for the application I'm about to describe.

 

Macbook Pro 15" or 17" - best in the range currently running QLAB

 

3 x Plasma's and 1 x Projector on the output side. We don't need to output to any more than one device at the same time.

 

What I am after is either

 

a) A way of making a Macbook Pro 15" or 17" spit out and split to four screens using QLAB's matrix system or b) a switcher for SVGA. However, at any one time the screens will all be seen, so the screens have to think they are still alive and connected to the system.

 

Also the resolution on the screens is naturally different to the projector.

 

Im guessing there is also a way of outputting a 2nd monitor via the express port.

 

 

Ideally budget for this is tight, so nothing fancy, and sadly, we already own all the equipment. A Tower with multiple graphics cards seems wise, but sadly not cost effective for this.

 

All ideas and suggestions great fully welcomed.

 

Anyone that specifically sells etc and can talk further, also feel free to PM me.

 

Cheers.

[AHYoung]

you have 2 options here, the first is to use q lab to output a 2/2 grid one part at a time and use a datapath X4 proccessor to split the one big input into the 4 seperate quarters. The XA has dvi in and dvi-I out so with take the dvi from the mac with a suitable adaptor and give 4 vgas out as requested. Its a nice little box where you can make any output from and portion of the input signal scaled and rotated as required. The thing to watch is that it needs programmed to work, and this happens over usb fr4om a pc only programme, so your macs nae use. We could supply it programmed if required, if you wish, I find it a straightforward box to use and it does a lot of fairly usefull things in a straightforward way. Assuming that q lab is outputing black to the 3 windows not in use, as the displays are allways connected to an active output, they wont turn off

 

the other approach is to use a kramer matrix switcher { or similar} so as long as the displays arnt set to autosearch auto off and display black without an input it should be fairly seemless,

you could add a second device as a backup and switch to that also.

 

both have their advantages, id probably go for using the X4 as you can use it to do clever muli screen stuff and its very adaptable in that once its setup you do it all within qlab.

 

get intouch if you want more detailed info, but its easy enough stuff.

 

 

[Gareth A]

Hi Alistair - ok thats pretty cool information. Thankyou.

 

We tried to switcher before, but we need to swap quick quickly, and the plasma's don't wake up quick enough sadly.

 

Can you pm me some prices for the x4 processor and some more information on that. Does it actually trick Qlab into thinking there are 4 screens? or still one screen. . thus shrinking the scale to only 1/4th?

 

 

Cheers.

[AHYoung]

PM sent, effectively the datapath splits the total screen area into user defined smaller parts, for ease it would be sensible to make those quarters . you then use qlab to play the video into only the quarter you want so by sat playing the video into the top right quarter of the screen it comes out full screen on plasma 2, as the other displays are active but showing black they wont turn off. if you output at 1920 / 1080 you can split the screen into four equal 960 / 540 parts which is a high enough resolution for most content. he datapath unit with work at a much higher res, but your Macbook wont.

[plinque]

Another way would be to use a matrox triplehead with 2 channels going direct into two plasmas and one channel going into a switcher that allows you to output an unscaled signal to the third plasma and a scaled output to the projector. Make a separate cue for each screen in QLab and play whichever cue you want when you want - you should have enough processing power to run three svga cues simultaneously should you want to (I've been doing something similar for the past few weeks using my new, but base model MBP)

[neilalexrose]

I was going to suggest a matrox tripple head2go for the 3 plasmas, and a USB -> VGA/DVI for the projector. This assumes that the plasmas are all the same resolution, as I think (from my limited playing with an analogue tripple head) that the tripple head takes the screen with the lowest resolution, and translates that over all three screens. So if you had the projector and plasmas on the same tripple head (at with projector at 800x600 for example) then it would take 600 as the height, and 2400 as the width.

From my reading of the paperwork involved they recommend that all the screens connected are the same resolution. Use one of the digital/displayport editions for maximum resolution output on the macbook pro.

 

clear as mud?

 

Neil

[AHYoung]

As a user of both the trriple head and datapath x4, honestly the poster wants the x4, its got the four outputs he asks for and its not as troublesome as the thtg, its all very well reading the paperwork, but im not the only user thats struggled to get the matrox box to behave also you will need an active rather than passive dvi adaptor to run the Digital thtg at the higher resolutions required, the switcher wont work as the ops screens are all live and they dont switch quickly enough. Thinking laterally the other approach is to use a 4 way da and send the same to all four screens, then using rs232 you can av mute each screen on cue. This will be the cheapest way as you just need a 8 button AMX panel or similar programmed with on / off for each screen, this should be seamless, but it doesnt give you the multiscreen canvas the datapath x4 does.

[plinque]

The data path may very well be better, but a triplehead should, or could, work.

I'm feeding three projectors for a total resolution of 3,840 x 768 pixels, which is to show a bunch of specially made super-wide videos.

The center channel is connected to a switcher for showing powerpoint and other sources on the center screen. Although there is a very slight audio delay, no one except myself has noticed it - and in some of the videos there are people talking straight to camera...

The only problem I've had so far with the Display Port TH was when I tried to hook it up via HDMI to an older domestic LCD TV for testing purposes. The TV apparently couldn't see the 1280 x 768 pixel image I was trying to feed it.

For SVGA resolution, an analogue TH should be fine, and would avoid any annoying EDID/HDCP issues.

The issue I can see is how to split the output for the projector. Perhaps split the output from the TH into two separate inputs on the switcher... Neil's suggestion about using a USB adaptor output might well be the way to go, and a lot cheaper, too.

As I said at the beginning, the data path may well be the better solution, but this should be doable with a Triplehead & QLab.

[Gareth A]

Ta for the info! Interesting options for this.

 

Were going to investigate the Datapath option a little more me thinks. Saves the switching, upscales, can do lots of fancy things also - and actually not badly priced.

 

Ta for all the help on this one. !