video matrix switch

[malman]

I'm looking for something RELIABLE that can take 16 VGA (1024x786) inputs and output 8 screens (vga again).

8 users watching the screens need to be able to select any of the 16 inputs to their screen or be able to push a button and have all of the screens display the same chosen input and be able to direct a single input to anothers screen.

Seen and NTI Veemux that might do it but any other suggestions would be helpful.
Thanks

[dilbert]

Industrial, or Military reliable?

The solution isnt complex, but there are an awful lot of possible configurations (customer to customer). In the past I've done stuff like this for military environments, and the usual approach is to design your own.

Overall, make sure you get one with solid state switches, rather than mechanical ones. Overall reliability will improve manyfold. Also ensure that the video is buffered somehow. One feed is unlikely to provide eight endpoints. Make sure that the video is properly terminated. If you do drive more than one display from a single feed then if you terminate it twice, it won't work properly.

[malman]

Industrial - ish ( not military) so not looking to design something.

Not looking at mechanical, that NTI is buffered and cost is looking somewhere around 4K (don't think this will put them off as its actually 8 projectors as screens)

[dilbert]

I did a quick bit of googleism, and couldn't find anything that would compete with what you were presenting. It doesn't look to be unreliable, why might you think it would be?

www.idk-tech.com/products/rgb/mrx.html

Edited by dilbert on Tuesday 5th September 17:45

[malman]

I didn't think that one would although I have no experience of these it looked fairly robust. I just didn't want anyone to suggest a heath robinson mesh of mechanical db15 a-b swtiches and the place its going will want a reliable solution and probably expect to pay for it.

My google skills seem to be failing on this - so far nowt more than the NTI

I know there are some AV guys on here I thought they might have seen something suitable but can't remember their PH names

Cheers

[dilbert]

malman said:

I didn't think that one would although I have no experience of these it looked fairly robust. I just didn't want anyone to suggest a heath robinson mesh of mechanical db15 a-b swtiches and the place its going will want a reliable solution and probably expect to pay for it.

My google skills seem to be failing on this - so far nowt more than the NTI

I know there are some AV guys on here I thought they might have seen something suitable but can't remember their PH names

Cheers

I don't know if you spotted the link I added to that post. That would do what you want too but it also has stuff that you don't want (characteristic problem with this sort of solution). I wasn't clear if you needed audio too.

The DB15 connectors are probably a better solution, on the basis of physical implementation (size), but if you envisage it being dismantled often, then you'll be wanting to go the BNC route. The DB15 connectors are good if you don't fiddle about with them too much, but BNC is much more robust.

The other thing to think about, is that if you're going to be cabling the video over any distance, you'll get much better performance out of the co-axial cable which is associated with BNC connectors. The cheap stuff that you get with DB15 cables is realy not much good after four or five meters. I fully accept that runnning three coax feeds for each link is painful. Maybe you could think about a wireless link?

Also, do think about video bandwidth. The bigger the better. It's common for these sort of solutions to contribute somewhat to the picture. That's a benefit of the mechanical switches, but IMO, it's not worth the pain when a relay or switch is intermittently faulty.

The only other thing I'd add, is that you might want to tread carefully, with these sort of analogue solutions. This is relatively open territory, unlike maybe an ethernet install. Good quality results depend on considered thinking, and more money than you might expect.

Mail me if you want.

Edited by dilbert on Tuesday 5th September 18:21