This is kind of off topic, so please feel free to delete if you want …
Anyway, in our NOC we current have two LCD projectors displaying outputs from two different computers. On one of the display’s, I would like to be able to take 4 VGA outputs from 4 workstations, and display it on the screen (aka: Hollywood square style). Does anyone have any recommendations for an inexpensive device that will take care of this? I have found some nice devices in the 10k price range, which needless to say is a little outside the budget. Security companies sell these devices for Video for around $500, so I’m figure someone should have a VGA version of the device.
Thanks!
Spencer
Anyway, in our NOC we current have two LCD projectors displaying
outputs from two different computers. On one of the display's, I
would like to be able to take 4 VGA outputs from 4 workstations, and
display it on the screen (aka: Hollywood square style).
This kind of problem is normally solved using software.
If the applications driving the 4 VGA displays are all
using X-Windows, then try an X Window manager that supports
capturing a window and displaying it in miniature form
in a dashboard or button bar. It should be possible to
adapt this easily to display the 4 applications in
a 2 x 2 matrix.
If the applications driving the displays are not using X-Windows
then it should still be possible to build an X based
solution but you would have to start by using VNC on
the application machines to provide a remote viewer
that can display window contents on the X machine.
Chances are you already have people with the skills
to do this whose time is not fully occupied in their
day job. If so, the marginal cost could be close to
zero.
--Michael Dillon
A VGA (much less XVGA, which is probably what you really need) quad
splitter is likely to be pricey as crap. I'd recommend looking at
using VNC from the workstation you have now to pick up the screens you
need. Check out:
http://www.csd.uwo.ca/staff/magi/doc/vnc/extras.html
and specifically John Wilson's VNCMonitor, at:
http://www.wilson.co.uk/Software/vnc/VncMonitor.htm
which sounds like it will do the splitting for you. I've never used it
personally, but it sounds like it might do what you need.
Cheers,
-- jra
Or recent Xorg servers support the Xinerama extension, which will
do a lot of the heavy lifting for you...
We now return to our regularly scheduled flamefest about RFCs 3675 and 2826.. 
An X window manager like ratpoison or ion can easily do 2x2
tiling of windows, mixing continuously displayed host and remote
node sessions.
Chris
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Spencer Wood wrote:
This is kind of off topic, so please feel free to delete if you want
<grin>..
Anyway, in our NOC we current have two LCD projectors displaying outputs
from two different computers. On one of the display's, I would like to be
able to take 4 VGA outputs from 4 workstations, and display it on the
screen (aka: Hollywood square style).
What is the native rez of your lcd projectors?
On a related note, those interested in NOC display technology may also want
to check out the recent Wall Street Journal article (sorry, I don't have a
link) that suggests that we are about to see a huge drop in large LCD/Plasma
display pricing as several new factories are coming on-line.
I'm not sure if that changes the way we'll build NOCs - projectors have been
popular, but I'm not sure if that's only due to cost advantage.
(I'd like to say that I don't feel a thread on NOCs is particularly
off-topic. While I can't configure LCD projectors on an IOS command line,
I've sure configured IOS command lines on LCD projectors - reasonable
display technology can be the difference between a useless "Show NOC" and a
technically useful operations center)
- Dan
(I do not feel it as off-topic, btw).
Q. - what really are you going to see on this projected screen? I saw very
, very few systems and screens, which was really interesting for the big
screen. Most 'World map, colored icons, fancy lines' views are 99% useless
(many reasons). Big screen is desired, if you have compact view of your all
system, such as in Proactivenet (events + primary charts), or 'snmpstat' (up
to 300 - 500 active ports and links, including traffic bars, on one screen).
Even here, you will need MORE information.
Projectors are not designed for it. They are designed more for the
presentations, with 1200 x 1000 resolution, and so on. If I have 2,000
active links which I'd like to see, or 2,000 objects which I'd like to see
better, or something like this - I'd like to have integrated resolution as
4,000 x 2000, which iis, for example, 8 standard LCD screens.
So, what are real requirements for such projectors? 4 VGA screen on one
projector?