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OT-KVM Extension
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[Bob Zelin] “No matter what, someone is going to have to do a lot of wiring for you. “
Oh yeah, no doubt about that, just trying to do the smartest thing. Gefen sounds like a crap shoot at this point, and I know stringing lots of cable will work but that’s not really what we want.
Decisions, decisions.
Jeremy
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My experience with Gefen has not been good. I needed to go 150 feet with a 23″ monitor and never got it to work properly with the product they recommended. But in our case it may have had something to do with a radio tower a couple hundred yards from out building that was illegally boosting their signal…no way to know for sure, but in any case the Gefen didn’t work as advertised.
I also tried a DVI extender from Black Box but was only able to get it to work at a 75 foot length and only at 1600 x 1200. They do have a Cat 5 extender for USB that’s a good add-on if you find a DVI solution that works for your monitor. Let me know if you want that model number.
As far as air conditioning in our equipment room, we use a Mitsubishi wall mounted unit that didn’t require an external vent, but it did require a refrigerant line and a 3/4 inch flexible hose to expel the condensation to the roof. Not sure if your situation will allow any access to an outside wall or roof but the AC is very quiet and cools really well. Here’s a link:
https://global.mitsubishielectric.com/bu/air/products/room_air.html
Joe Murray
Edit at Joe’s
Charlotte, NC -
this is the answer that you don’t want. I am making these assumptions based on your posts here. I assume that you are used to buying products (like AJA products), and figuring out these things yourself. If you are building a machine room, with central racks, patch bays, perhaps a router (and even Gefen extenders), you will FAIL if you try to do it yourself. You need an engineer that does this for a living – either staff, freelance, or a systems integration company. I use Gefen extenders (with all their issues), and my clients think that Gefen is the greatest thing since sliced bread. Everything works when I get done. But when you build a big system you have PROBLEMS – and if you are making a living editing and doing graphics, you do not have time to deal with these problems. This is no different than building a big SAN storage system for your facility. You aint’ gonna “figure it out” by yourself by just poking around. You need to HIRE SOMEONE TO HELP YOU.
Some people can’t get AJA products to work by themselves, but as you know, you follow the instructions, and perhaps make a few calls, and you are in business. Same with the Gefen.
Gefen products ultimately work, thats why I keep using them. Believe me, if you are doing a machine room, the Gefen’s will be no challange when you are all of a sudden dealing with 600 – 2000 audio/video/control wires all coming to a central location. The Gefen is the least of your worries.Bob Zelin
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[Bob Zelin] “you will FAIL if you try to do it yourself.”
In all honesty, I tried to contact you through the cow, but it seems it didn’t work.
We are definitely hiring someone. The guy I talked to said he’s put in Gefen with varying success. I was coming to the cow to see what other people had to say. I personally do not know anyone that has used them and I figured someone here would know more about it. Although we are hiring someone to wire us up I like to make informed decisions and not get sold a bill of goods. Gefen is expensive. I hate expensive headaches. So far (knocking on wood) all of the major purchases that we have made have been smart business decisions. Going to a central machine type of room is going to be a smart decision for us as well as it will increase efficiency. Since this is not a major installation (WGN we are not) and we do have a choice of Gefen or no Gefen, stringing the extra wire might be worth it for us if Gefen likes to not work.
[Bob Zelin] “and if you are making a living editing and doing graphics, you do not have time to deal with these problems.”
Actually, we are a a team of mechanics that specialize in foreign cars. We just like AJA products so much that we decided to give editing a whirl.
Jeremy
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Awesome. Thanks a ton, Joe.
We are in fact on the top floor so if we need to, running a hose outside shouldn’t be too much of a problem. Until it leaks.
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Yes it could leak, but it has a pump that pushes the water out through the drainage hose. I have had a couple of minor issues – once I had the thermostat turned down to 63 degrees and it accumulated some ice inside the unit that melted and dripped on the floor. And just recently the condensate line froze because there was too much extra hose lying on the roof out in the cold. Once our AC guy trimmed the hose we haven’t had that problem, and it doesn’t really accumulate that much water anyway. Certainly not enough to cause major problems.
Joe Murray
Edit at Joe’s
Charlotte, NC -
Just a tip from when I helped rewire a machine room that used CAT5 Geffens. Do yourself a favor and run one or two extra CAT5 cables to each room. It’s cheap and much easier to run it all at once as a bundle than a year or so later when something fails.
-Sam
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THanks, Sam.
What does this accomplish? Are you saying if one of the Cat5 cables go bad, just swap it out for one of the extra ones?
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well, in our case, yes and no. our Geffens were very temperamental and it was nice to have an extra pair of CAT5s and we were trouble shooting. Also if i remember correctly we had a few cables that did not work with the Geffens but worked find for internet access. why, i have no idea, like i said they were temperamental. our Geffens only worked as matching pairs as well (same models, but one set did not like being switched with anything other than it’s partner it was shipped with). i think using KVM extenders is awesome, and central machine rooms rock, but they are kind of a bitch to get setup correctly and flawlessly. and yes, it is super helpful to have someone around that has done it before.
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Thanks, Sam.
Jeremy
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