Multiple Monitors

[need2shave 0]

I'm planning to do a surveillance system install for a friend. I'm planning to run all the cameras (10) to a 16 channel DVR. The client however wants four monitors in the business also. He wants to have all 10 cameras on the monitor and then have the ability to select a camera to go full screen also. Is it possible to do this with just a monitor (I was thinking you'd need a laptop or other interface device to select a camera to go full screen)???

 

The dvr has a BNC tv out port and a vga port. Given these two ports, I take it I'd have to use splitters (a splitter on the BNC port and a splitter on the VGA port) to send video to four monitors, right?

 

I also thought maybe a better solution would be to dedicate a laptop to the surveillance system. The laptop would have the interface software and also utilize a Matrox triplehead2go to send the video to three monitors. I've never used a Matrox triplehead2go however and am not sure if it would work....anyone have experience in this type of siutation?

 

If there are any other solutions I'm not thinking of, I'd certainly appreciate any insight.

 

Thank you!

[Soundy 1]

The critical question is, does he want the same camera(s) showing on all the monitors at the same time, or does he want to be able to selectively send different cameras to different monitors?

 

The former is easy... the latter is also easy, but substantially more expensive.

[need2shave 0]

same cameras on all the monitors...thanks!

[Soundy 1]

So... yes, a 4-way active video splitter would do. The exact device would depend on the type of DVR and what kind of outputs it has. If it has a "spot" output, you'd probably want to use that, so you're not using the same view as your "office" monitor - otherwise you'd have people in view of the other monitors seeing everything that's going on, including searches and playback.

[WiredWannabe 0]

The critical question is, does he want the same camera(s) showing on all the monitors at the same time, or does he want to be able to selectively send different cameras to different monitors?

 

The former is easy... the latter is also easy, but substantially more expensive.

 

sorry for necro'ing this thread.

 

but i'm curious if i have to do the second option, selectively send different cameras to different monitors. i'm bugged with it coz i got a request from a client to have multiple monitors on different locations but the other monitor only showing 2 cameras.

[Soundy 1]

Well, the simplest way would probably be a series of multiplexers with loop-throughs: run the cameras into one MUX, then out from those channels into another MUX, and so on for as many as you need. Each MUX then drives a separate monitor. You might be able to reduce the total MUX count if you can use the SPOT output for some monitors (difference is, on most, the SPOT output won't show a split-screen display, but many will let you run a sequence).