QLab on 8 screens.

[Kingcaffeine]

resolution, codec, RAM, vram, disc access timed are all going to affect your bottom line on this one. A Macpro with 2 smallish ssd's 20 or so gb. RAM and four decent video cards would suffice. your output to the tv's will be low rez and I suspect you'll get away with less-than-HD for the computer out. qlab would be fine, although look into vdmx or izzie depending on your cueing needs. right tool for the right job and all that......[GOOGLE][/GOOGLE]

Hello, everyone. I'm hoping you can help me figure out how to run a projection rig.

I have done projections several times before, but never on this scale. The director and scenic designer have asked for one projector and seven television screens, all running different video through the show. Unfortunately, the company does not have nearly enough money to rent a couple of Hippos, so we are looking for a different solution.

I am thinking of suggesting a Mac Pro running QLab, maxed out on video cards, with a USB- to VGA device for the monitor. We would also put at least 10GB ram in it, as well as have 7 PC to Video adaptors to convert DVI or VGA signal to Coax for the television screens. Does this sound like a reasonable setup, or am I completely out of my mind? I would welcome any suggestions you might have.

TL;DR version: Mac Pro running Qlab with 10GB RAM and 4 video cards (+ 1 USB to video for a monitor) + 7 PC to Video convertors (VGA to Coax) + 1 projector. Crazy?

 

[hcproductions]

I ran this sort of set up once, only I used 4 outputs from an 8 core mac pro with 6gbs of ram. I used qlab and sent the signals to 4 flat screen tvs. I went vga out of graphics cards and converted the signal using the pc-tv conversion boxes you are talking about.

I ran into a lot of issues, most of them not relating to qlab.

BUT some things to note:
I used a KVM extender instead of doing the mac screen share technique. The kvm extender plugged into the graphics card so I could see the monitor, and consequently crashed qlab several times. I contacted the Qlab programmers, and they assured me that this couldn't be the cause of the crashing, but after I unplugged it, the system worked fine. Not really related to your post, but just thought I would share.

The tvs did not fire at the same time. They were in close distances and needed to pop on for certain musical numbers. They fired almost at the same time and although very slightly off, still enough for the design team other than myself to notice. This looked pretty bad, and I am not quite sure what the issue was with it. I sent one signal to a 4 way vga splitter and they all popped on at the same time, so I knew it wasn't the cabling or the tvs. I'm assuming it was either qlab or the computer.

TVs seem to be a lot less forgiving in terms of signal than projectors, so make sure you aren't running any cable along with automation motors or lighting rigs. Kind of standard knowledge, but I didn't think of it at the time when I was doing it...and it caused some minor issues.

Hope some of this helps.

 

[rossgrahamdesign]

Hello, everyone. I'm hoping you can help me figure out how to run a projection rig.

I have done projections several times before, but never on this scale. The director and scenic designer have asked for one projector and seven television screens, all running different video through the show. Unfortunately, the company does not have nearly enough money to rent a couple of Hippos, so we are looking for a different solution.

I am thinking of suggesting a Mac Pro running QLab, maxed out on video cards, with a USB- to VGA device for the monitor. We would also put at least 10GB ram in it, as well as have 7 PC to Video adaptors to convert DVI or VGA signal to Coax for the television screens. Does this sound like a reasonable setup, or am I completely out of my mind? I would welcome any suggestions you might have.

TL;DR version: Mac Pro running Qlab with 10GB RAM and 4 video cards (+ 1 USB to video for a monitor) + 7 PC to Video convertors (VGA to Coax) + 1 projector. Crazy?

So what did you end up doing?