[Mike Broich]

Yep, that turns out to be exactly how he was doing it….three boxes, and a pile of interconnect cable….oh, boy.
Now….does anyone know of a cheap quad that outputs VGA instead of composite?

[Mike Broich]

Well, yes, you can tell by the fact that I’m using a Grass 100 that I’m at the low end of the equipment budget spectrum. I’d hoped that, since the production trailer on Ebay had a Grass 100 also, that there was now an economical way to turn an LCD into a multi image display.
My trailer is already overloaded, so if I could save on the weight of CRT monitors, that would be a plus.

[Mike Broich]

I have used three Canon VC-C4’s for an annual religious conference (combination business meetings / worship ceremonies) for about 10 years. 2 are stacked one above the other on a metal bracket I made, the other sits on the opposite side of the stage. They live on top of metal poles with power and control routed down through them. The control lines are about 200 feet long and run to a Telemetrics controller in the control room. The Telemetrics controls up to 4 cameras, (one at a time) and has 4 “presets” for each camera. The presets save pan, tilt, and zoom information for quick recall.

What I’ve learned:

*) Have a tally system, or at least a Program monitor for the person controlling the cameras, so that they are less likely to move a camera that is “live”

*) Impress upon the camera operator the importance of double-checking which camera he thinks he is about to move….if you press a preset button, the camera moves at it’s highest speed, so you don’t want it to be “live”!

*)The quality of the VC-C4’s is just barely acceptable…I would rent Sony BRC 300’s (or, drool, 700’s) if I could.

*) You can send 9600 baud control signals down 200′ feet of wire, even though no one would recommend it.

*) You can pan a camera “live” if you have to, but the Telemetrics controller is a little “Jerky” at the slowest speed (Just barely moving the joystick)

Hope this helps.

Mike

[Mike Broich]

Can a Watchout display computers utilize multi-monitor cards or the Matrox Triplehead2go boxes to reduce the number of licenses needed?
That might work in this application, since individual monitors are going to be used and edge blending won’t be needed.