dual monitor and 2 single monitor setup

[hallymusic]

Hi,

I have a recording studio and I am trying to figure out the easiest way to run several monitors in different rooms all connected to the main PC situated in the control room... So, the setup would be

Control Room - dual monitor
Drum recording Room - single monitor
Main recording Room - single monitor

all connected to the main Audio PC in the machine room...

I've been looking at switches and splitters but the dual monitor setup in the control room is putting a spanner in the works...

So, here what i propose to do

connect my dual montor setup in control room to ATI dual head card - PCI express

connect each of the single monitors to an old matrox dual head PCI card....

Will this work, is it possible to have a PCI express graphics card and a PCI graphics card running on the same motherboard...

The longest VGA cable run will be 30 ft, is this ok or should i expect some signal loss, if so is it possible to buy a vga booster box...

Any help you can give me will be much appreciated
regards
hally

[IronWarrior]

Hmm, wouldn't the best way to steam the video feed to these monitors through a local internet connection?

[hallymusic]

Thanks for the reply Iornwarrior, how would i do this - can you elaborate a little on this idea, thanks

hally

[1stRaven]

There are a couple of options for you to use I think.

1. Multiple PCI express cards

I would look to run two Pci express cards if you can - a lot cheaper options if your motherboard supports it and you can run multiple monitors over each.

I have used a 25meter vga cable at work and it does. I was only running powerpoint but it worked well enough.

One thing to note here is that you can not monitor what is on the 'remote' monitors so we went for option 3.

2. Run a single high end card.

If your motherboard only had a single Pci Express port, and you are not looking to run high graphics on them, then maybe a single AMD high end card might work, running monitors over display port outputs. Not that cheap as you need an expensive card plus monitors that support display port inputs.

3. 3 x Pci Express Cards

This is the setup we run at work for a our reception display screens and it uses a triple pci express motherboard (the most expensive part).

1st card runs dual monitors (in our case, for the receptionist)
2nd card runs 1st 'remote' screen via vga, with a secondary output on the card cloned to a primary vga input on a third monitor on the reception desk.
3rd card runs 2nd 'remote' screen via vga, with a secondary output on the card cloned to a secondary vga input on the same third monitor on the reception desk.

You can then flick between the inputs on the 3rd monitor to see what the 'remote' screens are showing.

Hope that makes some sense.

[hallymusic]

Hi 1stRaven,

Thanks for ur suggestions, unfortunately i don't have any free PCI express slots, the are take up with high end audio processing cards and my dual head graphics card, however could i install my old maxtor dual PCI card into a free slot and do use ur suggestion 1. this wud mean my main monitors in the control room are running of my dual head ati card and the two remote monitors wud be connected to the dual head maxtor pci card. high quality graphics are not a necessity for my, i am just looking @ simple audio waveforms and at no time will i need to monitor whats on the remote monitors from the main control room monitors. So, what do u think PCI exprees dual head and an old maxtor PCI dual head?

thanks
hally

[1stRaven]

Its a setup I have ran before at home and it does work. Just limit your resolutions on the pci card to something sensible otherwise you start having frame loss issues.

[hallymusic]

Thanks for all the help, i'll install the PCI card and let u know how i get on

regards
hally

[StoreDailyMart]

Wow! Your thread is interesting. I haven’t tried this. I will try. Thanks for sharing.