Ask Slashdot: Tiny PCs To Drive Dozens of NOC Monitors? 197
mushero writes: We are building out a new NOC with dozens of LCD monitors and need ideas for what PCs to use to drive all those monitors. What is small and easy to stack, rack, power, manage, replace, etc.?
The room is 8m x 8m. It has a central 3x3 LCD array, as well as mixed-size and -orientation LCD monitors on the front and side walls (plus scrolling LEDs, custom desks, team tables, etc) — it's designed as a small version of the famous AT&T Ops Center. We are an MSP and this is a tour showcase center, so more is better — most have real functions for our monitor teams, DBAs, SoC, alert teams, and so on, 7x24. We'll post pics when it's done.
But what's the best way to drive all this visual stuff? The simplest approach for basic/tiny PCs is to use 35-50 of these — how do we do that effectively? Almost all visuals are browser-only, so any PC can run them (a couple will use Apple TV or Cable feeds for news). The walls are modular and 50cm thick, and we'll have a 19" rack or two, so we have room, and all professional wiring/help as needed.
Raspberry Pis are powerful enough for this, but painful to mount and wire. Chromeboxes are great and the leading candidate, as the ASUS units can drive two monitors. The Intel NUC can also do this — those and the Chromeboxes are easily stackable. My dream would be a quad-HDMI device in Chromebox form factor. Or are there special high-density PCs for this with 4-8-16 HDMI outputs?
Each unit will be hard-wired to its monitor, and via ip-KVM (need recommendations on that, too, 32+ port) for controls. Any other ideas for a cool NOC are also appreciated, as we have money and motivation to do anything that helps the team and the tours.
The room is 8m x 8m. It has a central 3x3 LCD array, as well as mixed-size and -orientation LCD monitors on the front and side walls (plus scrolling LEDs, custom desks, team tables, etc) — it's designed as a small version of the famous AT&T Ops Center. We are an MSP and this is a tour showcase center, so more is better — most have real functions for our monitor teams, DBAs, SoC, alert teams, and so on, 7x24. We'll post pics when it's done.
But what's the best way to drive all this visual stuff? The simplest approach for basic/tiny PCs is to use 35-50 of these — how do we do that effectively? Almost all visuals are browser-only, so any PC can run them (a couple will use Apple TV or Cable feeds for news). The walls are modular and 50cm thick, and we'll have a 19" rack or two, so we have room, and all professional wiring/help as needed.
Raspberry Pis are powerful enough for this, but painful to mount and wire. Chromeboxes are great and the leading candidate, as the ASUS units can drive two monitors. The Intel NUC can also do this — those and the Chromeboxes are easily stackable. My dream would be a quad-HDMI device in Chromebox form factor. Or are there special high-density PCs for this with 4-8-16 HDMI outputs?
Each unit will be hard-wired to its monitor, and via ip-KVM (need recommendations on that, too, 32+ port) for controls. Any other ideas for a cool NOC are also appreciated, as we have money and motivation to do anything that helps the team and the tours.
Barco... (Score:4, Interesting)
https://www.barco.com/en/solutions/Control-rooms
Re:Barco... (Score:5, Interesting)
You say Raspberry pis are "a pain to mount and wire." Have you really thought about this?
1 - Power (wire one)
2 - HDMI (wire two)
3 - wifi plugin. Can be set for static IP. Even a minimal router will allow you up to 50 clients on one WiFi subnet. Apple airport, for instance. And you can use more than one, so you can go up to 250 clients if you really need to. No wires. Unless we're talking about a really huge amount of bandwidth, wifi should do it. If not, ethernet cable, which would be wire three. Same issue with any client, though, so...
My first question is, how are you going to get simpler than that? 2 or 3 connections. Seems like a doddle, frankly.
So as to mounting:
Is there some reason you can't use double sticky tape and just slap the thing on the back of the monitor? Or, if not that, which *is* a little hacky, use one of the ultra-inexpensive cases and put at the foot of the monitor like any other PC, only smaller, using less power, less obtrusive, etc?
As to configuration, you can prepare the OS + software for these anywhere, walk up to the PI in question, insert the card, power it up, and you're done.
None of these will need keyboards; any management you want can be done by SSH. Though why you'd have to manage an information repeater I don't know.
As to reliability, it's pretty good, and hell, if one goes down, you unplug it, plug in a new one, and go on about your day.
I really don't see the problem. Why would you do this particular task any *other* way?
fyngyrz [slashdot.org]
(anon because mod points)
Re:Barco... (Score:5, Insightful)
I would stay away from Wifi for anything that is actually in important continual use, or is intended to impress people on tours. I've seen way too many kiosks and displays that don't work or have error messages because of software and connection problems, and it looks rather bad and unprofessional. You can get Wifi to be pretty reliable, but it is easy enough to use a wired and avoid the chance of it going down when you most need it.
Re:Barco... (Score:4, Insightful)
Uhh, anybody using a "Wireless Router" in an enterprise environment needs to be kicked in the teeth.
Also, don't use wireless for anything mission-critical. Monitoring systems are critical imho.
Re: Barco... (Score:3)
Sticky-tape on the back of the monitors?
Sounds very impressive, quite professional.
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Sounds very impressive, quite professional.
probably more resistant to vibration than screws that don't include loktite.
Re: Barco... (Score:4, Informative)
There's also VESA brackets for the Raspberry Pi. [amazon.com]
Fight for your bitcoins! [coinbrawl.com]
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I mount raspberry pi's with velcro tape. the $8 plastic case + velcro is cheaper and more flexible than the vesa mount cases. it's all mounted behind the monitor so nobody sees it. and 1ft HDMI cables are pretty easy to obtain. After that they boot up to being ethernet enable monitors, setting up the first SD card to do exactly what you want takes a bit of time. but copying that to N identical configurations is not hard.
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SmartTV's are a DumbIDEA.
Fight for your bitcoins! [coinbrawl.com]
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Re:Barco - Any Video Wall Controller (Score:3)
Yeah, sounds like they really need a video wall controller instead of each monitor being independently driven. With a video wall controller you can drive all the monitors from a single controller and then resize 'windows (or inputs)' across the hole thing, in a corner, etc. Each input becomes a window. You can also save layouts/change them according to shift/etc.
With a video wall controller you specify the number of inputs/outputs you need. Many also allow for IP based sources (cameras, remote screens v
Video Wall Controller (Score:3)
Yeah, back in my defense-contractor days we built several video walls for connected C&C rooms.
The high-end systems could put multi-display graphics at 1080p60 from any console to the theater and were based around the 64x64 Thinklogical DCS KVM over fiber modems and fed into a VistaSystems Spyder 12x8 video wall controller (of course they have larger units to drive your 3x3 wall, and you'd also be able to have a "preview" scaled down display of the entire wall which is also good for recording or broadcas
Re: Video Wall Controller (Score:3)
Some of the well known ones to look at are "RGB Spectrum", "Christie Spyder", Extron QuantumView, And the the reigning king Jupiter Systems.
The best of these will let you define a virtual canvas as large as your wall is, and inputs are used as windows on that canvas, any layout you want. And presets are very nice and flexible
you can daisy chain display port (Score:2, Insightful)
http://www.displayport.org/cables/driving-multiple-displays-from-a-single-displayport-output/
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or get a Displayport Hub if you need to convert the display port to connect to the monitor.
VDI & Thin Clients (Score:2)
One server, run virtual desktops and have 35-50 thin clients driving your monitors.
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Agree, get a stack of thin clients from eBay.
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Yea serious companies don't buy random equipment on eBay. Once you're paid more than maybe 75k/year, your time is better spent building cool shit than testing/supporting dodgy used hardware.
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Get a stack of zero clients and use vmware horizon view there are some out that support 4 DVI out, you can use DVI to HDMI cables for your connections.
You can set them to auto connect and connect on disconnect.
I work for a MSP and when we get to build our show place NOC like you are doing we will be using Zero Clients and a VDI Infrastructure back-end.
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VideoLAN VLC.
You can just stream a huge virtual desktop from one PC and split it into a set of wall screens and stream each individual screen to a client as a normal video stream.
Waste of time, though, because you're destroying performance to do such things.
I'd suggest looking at the myriad over-the-top flight simulator systems people build, which just spend the money and buy a graphics card capable of natively driving that many screens.
NVS (Score:4, Interesting)
Take a look at the nVidia NVS line of GPUs, they're designed for digital signage but would probably work for you - the new ones support up to 32 displays driven from a single machine (4 cards).
NVS 810 (Score:2)
8 mini DP per card with 4 that is 31 screens.
Re:NVS 810 (Score:4, Insightful)
NVS isn't a "high-end graphics" card, it's specifically designed for driving lots of low-end displays such as in digital signage or systems monitoring. Yes, it's ~$700 for the new card and if you want to dick about with configuring, cabling and managing 16+ Pi's then you're quite welcome to, but if you want something straightforward for a showcase center then it's well worth looking at.
What's so hard about R-Pi mounting? (Score:4, Informative)
There are a variety of cases to help you mount the Pis. They're lightweight enough to where you can literally just heat shrink them and zip tie or foam tape them down. Pis or similar are going to be your lowest-power, lowest-footprint option no matter what. And since these are just operating informational displays, you really don't need anything more than VNC (or the like) to control them, because bandwidth is not an issue. A KVM, IP or not, is literally just something which can fail.
I'm not a Pi advocate specifically, but I fail to see what's wrong with them for this application.
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Nothing hard about RPi mounting, but have you ever used a browser on a Raspberry Pi? The GUI sucks, it's so slow.
Nothing against RPi, but using it for a NOC for displaying info in a browser is NOT ideal.
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We rolled something like this using RPi at work recently. It works really well. We used VESA mounted enclosures to attach them to the back of the monitors.
There are other options, but they all cost more. The Pi can be powered from the monitor's USB port (make sure it can supply more than 500mA, or buy those Y cables that pair two ports up) and we used a minimal network booting system on the SD cards so we can update easily and the local disk can be read-only. Sudden power loss is therefore not a problem, ju
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I agree. An RPI is a simple, cost effective way to do this. I would not bother with a case, though.
I would likely put a stack of RPIs on a board together with an Ethernet switch and a fat USB thingy with multiple outputs for power. Check Amazon for '12port Satechi'. Attach board to a single monitor. VESA100?
Boot all of them from the same image loaded from tftp, minimal configfile on SDcard to tell the RPI what URL to display. "Static" IP-address assignment via DHCP/MAC-address. A bunch of HDMI cables from e
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Not at the 2 amps required by the pi. I have yet to find any TV set that delivers the full power needed to run a Pi.
mine is running from the TV USB port (Score:3)
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My 52" Sharp TV won't power a Pi, so there's plenty of precedent. It's old, though. The port is only for firmware updates.
Re:What's so hard about R-Pi mounting? (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyone using a Pi gets a rude awakening when they hit an existing limit to the platform and burn through time trying to get around it.
And now it's time for your rude awakening.
The graphics are marginal for anything not covered by the existing MPEG codecs, so any kind of browser plug-in based animations and graphics are likely to be a painful experience,
And here it is: You have no idea what you're talking about. The codecs are irrelevant because none of that kind of functionality utilizes video. All of that stuff is software-generated and video codecs don't come into play at all. The modern Raspberry Pi has plenty of CPU for doing javascript-churned animations. The GPU is the best part of the whole thing, arguably.
not to mention the fact that their
"there"
is no CPU / GPU room for future proofing should someone bring in a "killer app" without support today for their purposes.
Their current primary contender is a NUC driving two displays. There's no CPU/GPU room for future proofing in that scenario, either, and one machine has two handle two browsers. They explicitly state that the Pis will handle their needs today. If they want to upgrade to something bigger and shinier later, it will probably have hardware requirements in excess of whatever crappy little machines they specify now no matter what they are, so they should go for whatever is cheapest and uses the least power.
So you don't go into using the Pi with plans to upgrade your software later. You use the Pi (or an odroid, or whatever, who cares) because it's small and cheap and quiet and meets your needs. When they don't, you have an intern put them on eBay.
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one machine has two
"to"
handle two browsers
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People who like the Raspberry Pi are often the passionate type who live and breathe IT and security.
They're tinkerers. I don't want tinkerers in my command centre, I want solid reliable professionals.
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But, really, is this actually a real functioning super-secret "command center"?
Or is this some PR stunt so people can be given the tour and go "ooh" and "aaah".
I'm having a hard time taking this seriously as a "command center", because the question isn't "how do I make a NOC which lets me monitor my stuff in real time and respond to it", but instead says "how do I make a really cool looking NOC-type-thingy so I can give clients a tour of it to get them to sign the contract".
Nobody is asking how to make this
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Hmm. Good point, I'm thinking more of the actual "we hit five 9s and the client's pissed off anyway" support we provide, not the "look, magic!" sales pitch.
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I use several ODROID C1's as micro servers in my closet, and hands down the RPi2's are much more stable. Not sure about the C1+ though.
When the first odroid came out (U1? I forget) I looked at the warranty, and it was thirty days. That was enough to put me off. If they can't give you a warranty longer than a month, their product must be a festering piece of shit. Have they increased warranty periods, or are they still telling you up front that they are shit at making hardware?
Get a PC. Simple like that (Score:2)
PC on a stick (Score:4, Interesting)
http://gizmodo.com/this-130-wi... [gizmodo.com]
Asus and Intel are making these types of devices. There are probably other companies making them by now as well.
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Yeah, that's what I wanted to mention too. That or the ChromeCast or whatever.
He already seem to be aware anything can run them so why not just get that anything and let it run them?
Why is this on Slashdot? In case someone have a better idea?
Guess low-end PC with four graphics cards * at least 3 displays each may be more cost efficient? =P
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Why is this on Slashdot? In case someone have a better idea?
I think the TMTOWTDI -ness of this question is why it's on slashdot, and I enjoy that, even though I haven't seen anything I wasn't aware of yet.
I also thought the compute sticks (or cheap knock-offs or chromecast-like devices) would be a very viable option - and I think they'd be better than a RPi for this use case (much easier to buy a bunch of them, and have any NOC monkey pop in a new one).
That said, there's so many ways to handle this, it's crazy. It's pretty impressive how many options there are. Just
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Or don't have separate input for each system and use Synergy to control them all from one PC.
USB3.0 - DVI/HDMI Adapters (Score:2)
As the content is likely mostly static: What about a single PC with many USB3.0 -> HDMI adapters + USB 3.0 Hubs? Sure, refresh rate will likely go down to something like 10 Hz because of bandwidth limitation but that should fine for your kind of content and driving all screens from the same PC could be very useful for administration.
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and give up all the bandwidth / power of the pci-e driven real video cards?
MSP == mediocre service provider (Score:1)
What is the name of the MSP, so I can avoid dealing with them? If they could not solve that prolem themself, it is scary to think how they can "help" customers.
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Yeah, there's two references to the tours in the submission, and it sounds very much like it's as much marketing as it is functional.
Suddenly I'm imagining a room in which the tech people never actually go, stage dressed with some carefully chosen people, and which will serve for a great tour but which otherwise will have nothing at all to do with operations.
Meanwhile the actual staff are in dingy cubicles, with ancient CRT monitors, and not ever able to see this glorious presentation of the monitoring cent
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Ambery (Score:2)
Easiest solution is NUC style (Score:2)
I'd use a NUC form factor with one mounted on the back of each monitor (or mounted on the back of every other monitor since it has two outputs). Basically no maintenance, easy to expand, and the off-the-shelf solution means easy to upgrade later. Will never fail if a small SSD is used, and has an ethernet hard port and plenty of resources (including 8-32GB of ram). Most monitors already have the necessary mounts.
-Matt
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Indeed, though one would have to examine the NUC/BRIX specs carefully. They are being driven (typically) by a mobile chipset GPU which will have some limitations.
In fact, one could probably stuff them without any storage at all, just ram, and netboot the suckers from a single PC. I have a couple of BRIX (basically the same as a NUC) for GPU testing with 16GB of ram in each and they netboot just fine.
Maintainance -> basically none.
Expandability -> unlimited w/virtually no setup/work required.
Performa
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50 mini pcs (Score:1)
Matrox video card + 1 PC. (Score:3)
Just use a single PC and a matrox card and call it done. HDMI fiber extensions and walk away.
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^ This.
Do you really want to manage dozens of little machines? Matrox will give you gobs of outputs on a few cards. They're nothing you'd game on, but champs at what you're looking to do. Signal extension can get pricey, but if you want to do it right, and give yourself some flexibility, look at Creston's DigitalMedia Matrix. I think of it as a premium extension solution that includes free routing and KVM capabilities. Mix and match I/O flavors, and supports both UTP & fiber extension.
VESA-mountable PCs (Score:3)
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We have had great luck with the zotac zbox ci320 boxes which are also vesa mounted and fanless and look great mounted to the back of monitors. Zotac also offers several higher end versions but for our needs the ci320 is plenty. We have ubuntu running on them and they work well. The only real drawback is that at least the ci320 only has hdmi out so you'll either need a monitor with hdmi in or need some type of adapter.
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Nice. There's also Mini-Itx.com [mini-itx.com] with many different boards and cases. They're like larger, beefier Raspberri Pi's and should be able to power 2-3 monitors each I think.
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The problem with VESA mountable PCs for this usage, most times you want to mount the monitors on the wall. you can't if you're using the mounting holes to hold a PC... better to use video extenders from a server room/wiring closet with old repurposed laptops. or small NUC like computers driving multiple monitors. from far away.
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They're cheaper than an NUC, but more useful than a RPi.
Chromecast sticks? (Score:3)
If it's strictly browser-based, chromecast sticks (not the boxes) should work. Google is advertising that use, no less.
Hmmmm ... (Score:2)
Basically I read this as "we want to have some really cool blinking lights when we walk customers through here, even if none of this stuff actually does anything".
Is this marketing, or actually intended to be functional?
Please tell us you are really going to have people working in this room and monitoring stuff and that this isn't just for show.
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Someone must be impressed, otherwise people wouldn't build one.
So, on the field trip for the tour, who do you think goes? PHBs and other people who don't know what they're looking at?
Intel NUCs (Score:2)
Video Wall Controller (Score:1)
Sounds like you need a video wall controller. You then specify the number of inputs/outputs from it. You can then size monitors/resize/do all sorts of stuff. Several vendors have API's available to take control of the video wall controller via scripts/etc.
Pick any Digital signage software you like (Score:2)
What you really need is a digital signage solution to manage the displays. There are lots. Almost all of them are capable of embedding a web page on whatever they describe as a 'layout'. This will give you the advantage of being able to display any other kind of content as well. Now all you need is the smallest stack-able x86 machines you can find, to put in the closet nearest to your displays.
Go for servers (Score:4, Interesting)
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Having done this twice in the past 4 years, my suggestion is to use rack mounted x86 PCs/servers with dual graphics cards. With ATI cards you can go to 8 or 16 monitors per server and as long as you keep a ratio of 1 screen / cpu, you should be fine (capacity wise). Using PCs (a) will allow for easy maintenance and (b) will be easy for others to work on them. PCs are also much easier to upgrade (hardware wise) as they keep the manual effort needed to a minimum. We've done this with PCs and PIs. PIs are a fun project and so far they work well, but you *will* be swearing in the process as you will have to figure out many things, including power, cabling, mounting, etc.
I built a setup like this (50X LCDs) closer to 10 yrs ago with a rack of servers, and I think it was a mistake. I should have used small desktop PCs. I was somewhat budget limited, so it was a bit of a stretch to get all the monitors driven by the limited set of servers + multiple video cards. In the end I had an array of client machines network-booting from a single server. I could have used a rack of small desktops as the clients and had 2x more CPUs and higher performance graphics cards for the same
AMD (Score:1)
A small PC, you say? (Score:4, Interesting)
A pc can drive 12 or more screens. DP screens are (Score:2)
A pc can drive 12 or more screens. daisy chainable DP screens are the best for cutting cables.
Or you can get 6 head mini DP ati cards with 6 mini dp to hdmi ACTIVE adapters each. a pc with 2 X16 slots even at X8 X8 can drive 12 screens. Maybe even a board with x8/x4/x4/x4 or x4/x4/x4/x4 should work as well to have 32 screens.
an 1150 Xeon (can't use on board video unless it's pci / pci-e based) is cheaper then a i7 and gives you Quad-Core + HT.
ClearCube Zero clients (Score:2)
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While you're at it, check the monitors... (Score:3)
From the way this question is worded, I've got a hunch that you just bought common screens for the displays.
Danger, Will Robinson. Ordinary screens aren't rated for 24x7 use, and they WILL burn in over time, among other things. If you're not using screens that are purpose-built for this kind of nonstop usage, you need to back up and change that or it'll all be for nothing.
I'm used to seeing data walls and multi-monitor room displays of this sort designed from soup-to-nuts as a full solution by a service provider that specializes in doing so. There's a reason for the existence of an industry to serve that purpose; it's not as easy as just putting up a lot of big television screens and plugging them into small computers, as you're beginning to discover. Be aware that you almost certainly haven't run into all the problems yet, and it may be cheaper to contract with an outside company to do it all. (I do not work for such a company, just to be up front about it. I'm not stumping for business here.)
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Burn-in? In this day and age?
I'm buying the cheapest Chinese LCD junk I can get my hand on, putting them up as digital signage, and leaving them on 24/7. So far, 18 months and not a sign of burn-in.
I'm also running them off thin-client things (nComputing, that were unanimously panned as being useless for anything else in this day and age but were old clients that were bought a LONG time ago) that have VESA mountings and can run from a single central VM running TS. Combine it with some open-source digital
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Burn-in? In this day and age?
I'm buying the cheapest Chinese LCD junk I can get my hand on, putting them up as digital signage, and leaving them on 24/7. So far, 18 months and not a sign of burn-in.
I'm also running them off thin-client things (nComputing, that were unanimously panned as being useless for anything else in this day and age but were old clients that were bought a LONG time ago) that have VESA mountings and can run from a single central VM running TS. Combine it with some open-source digital signage software (Xibo) and it all just works. That might well be a way - if they're running lots of servers, it'll be better to have a lot of thin-clients just doing the displays and a central overpowered computer actually running the browser - no cable spaghetti, built in VESA mountings, can even run off PoE if you do it right. One switch, one VM, and a one-off investment in thin-clients and you're done, rather than some knocked-together homebrew junk that will fall over more than the stuff it's monitoring.
Burn-in is the very, very, least of your problems and god knows what you're buying to see burn-in.
(Hint: My signage is all white-background, with hard B/W logos and text, up for days on end. No burn-in).
Believe it or not, but it does happen. Ask any NOC/SOC/equivalent facility, and ask them what kinds of monitors they have up on the walls...and why. I've seen it on stuff that was bought last year.
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The year 2000 happened (Score:2)
Power supplies fail, backlights die, but burning in is no longer a thing to worry about with consumer LCDs.
True, it's not a
Gesture control (Score:3)
I think one CPU per screen is overkill... (Score:2)
I think one CPU per screen is overkill, unless each is going to be it's own discrete Display. A single PC with a bunch of high-end/multi-port display cards would enable you to have a fully-customizable display, rather than 50-60 discrete desktops.
For single cup per display purposes, you could throw a bunch of the Infocus Kangaroo PCs at the problem.
Or, if you really feel you have to throw 50-60 Raspberry Pis at this problem, consider hiring someone to make you a card cage that can hold dozens of RPis in a 2
Gigabyte BRIX? Dual or triple output (Score:2)
Processors are all over the map from Celeron up to i7.
You hiring? (Score:2)
Can't believe nobody's asked that yet!
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YES we are, in every area, but jobs are in Shanghai. We are in fact looking for NOC engineers and process people. Senior engineers in all areas: Linux, DBA, Security, Performance, Troubleshooting, tools, managers and much more. We are building the world's top MSP and running numerous multi-hundred mullion user systems, doing the most difficult things on the Internet today.
I know you are probably being a bit facetious, but our career site:
http://careers.chinanetcloud.c... [chinanetcloud.com]
BrightSign? (Score:2)
One big screen , 1PC + RPi's (Score:2)
http://www.piwall.co.uk/information/installation
and:
http://dmx.sourceforge.net/
Seriously, one PC for the horsepower then just networked rpi's to create 1 giant screen. who needs KVM when it's just one screen?
depending on the screens you choose the rpi's can easily mount to the back of the monitor, get power from the screen's USB port if it has it, hdmi to the output and the only "wire" you have to manage is the screen power and 1 network cable. Seems simple and scalable.
X WIndows with XbigX (Score:2)
Surprised nobody has mentioned it.
There are several solutions using X11 to split a virutal screen among slave PCs
E.g. XbigX http://www.x-software.com/en/p... [x-software.com]
Plugable USB Video Adapters (Score:2)
Why tiny? (Score:2)
We use smartTVs (Score:2)
For my company's purpose we just use smart TVs, specifically 40" mi TVs for things like netmons/buildmons/stats/etc, and built iframed sites to display different sources of data in a single screen. No external PC to manage and since browser support was the only requirement, works out fine.
Don't forget ... (Score:2)
(Monty Python reference, for the young.)
C.H.I.P. from Next Thing? (Score:2)
Intel Compute Sticks? (Score:2)
Have you thought about using Intel Compute Sticks for this? They aren't super powerful, but they're only $99 and can more than handle running a web browser.
I actually liked the Raspberry Pi idea better, but if you want to use Windows for your screens... This option might work.
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Damn good idea!!!
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Allow me to offer a different alternative: the poster [slashdot.org] has a history of asking such questions.
So, you can optimistically say "wow, this guy gets to do cool things and is using the intertubes for due diligence".
Or, you can cynically say "Wow, first managing passwords, then dealing with managing access for new employees, and now dealing with a realistic-looking NOC ... how does someone get out of their depth so often and need our help?"
By the third "how do I solve this problem which is part of my business mod
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Hmm, as the OP I value Slashdot's input and ideas on these things.
Our life and what we do is a tad more complicated than most others, in fact, quite a bit more complex than anyone I talk to, and despite my and our decades of experience in these areas, and sustained global searches for solutions, we often have to invent our own systems and technology - you'll see more of this from us over the next 24 months as we open source our best Ops and Management tools.
By the way, my thread on password management resul
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