Tiny PCs to drive a dozen NOC monitors?

Cerulean

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http://ask.slashdot.org/story/15/11/09/1459250/ask-slashdot-tiny-pcs-to-drive-dozens-of-noc-monitors

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.

I thought this was very interesting. I have always wondered about how setups are done, so I decided to create this thread to inquire here. Is there anyone here who is knowledgeable about their NOC setup and would care to share its technical setup? :) I would love to learn more about how to set these kind of things up (not that I would have an opportunity to do it).
 
If it's browsing only, you can get those $100 PC sticks and you're good to go.

The other option (would cost more) would be to implement a VDI solution with thin clients at each desk

Depends on how much money do you want to spend and who's going to manage it?
 
If it's browsing only, you can get those $100 PC sticks and you're good to go.

The other option (would cost more) would be to implement a VDI solution with thin clients at each desk

Depends on how much money do you want to spend and who's going to manage it?
 
run coax and sdi converters and centralize your video head ends in your racks

this way you could theoretically run them all off of one machine if it had enough interfaces....

and it would make upgrading or reconfiguring a lot simpler...

would increase your costs a bit but would be better in the long run
 
while running everything via HDSDI would be pretty bad ass it would probably be very expensive and overkill... HD-SDI > HDMI converter is going to cost you $100/display for cheap converters... plus like $5k for a HDSDI matrix router... plus HDMI > HD-SDI converters etc... going to be very expensive...
 
I work in a NOC, we have basic desktop PCs with add on video cards so we can handle 4 monitors for each of our own workstations. We also have a couple PCs running stuff in the front that we don't have to touch as much, so it frees up monitor space. The IT dept is very nazi about the devices that go on the network, so something running Linux or any OS/hardware not running the standard image would not be allowed. I could see using something like RPIs being pretty nice though, and definitely use less power, not that it really matters when the building is pulling like 400 amps from each phase. :p

Personally what I'd love is if we could get like 2-4 4k monitors, as it would give us much more pixel real estate. Could probably get away with 2 actually, since a 4k monitor is equivalent to 4HD ones right? We have tons of apps we have to watch so it's almost a form of art to get them to all fit so you can watch them all at once.
 
while running everything via HDSDI would be pretty bad ass it would probably be very expensive and overkill... HD-SDI > HDMI converter is going to cost you $100/display for cheap converters... plus like $5k for a HDSDI matrix router... plus HDMI > HD-SDI converters etc... going to be very expensive...

don't necessarily need a matrix router, but yea, itd add some cost
 
well if you just use coax for transport it would probably be easier/cheaper to do some sort of HDMI over CAT5/6 since I am sure there will be tons of ethernet cabling in a NOC anyway

we use these

http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=6532

to go over a pair of CAT6 cables for remote displays
 
We use the HP 800 G1 tiny machines to drive our monitors, majority of them autologon with a service account and have Chrome as the shell instead of Explorer, URL is set in the registry. Others just autologon and we launch an app used for monitoring

We do have a few of them that are extended from the equipment room (~75ft away) via HDSDI / HDMI converters/extenders, although we didnt have to buy them as we are a TV channel and of course had them laying around.
Several of them are mounted behind the TV and use plain display port connections.
All of them are on a KVM system from Thinklogical, that we had to buy, and was alot from what I hear.

Trying to upload a pic from my phone, might take a bit
(7824x1760)
PICTURE
 
well if you just use coax for transport it would probably be easier/cheaper to do some sort of HDMI over CAT5/6 since I am sure there will be tons of ethernet cabling in a NOC anyway

we use these

http://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=6532

to go over a pair of CAT6 cables for remote displays

Sounds like the best solution to me. $16/pair + Cat5e/6 per monitor? Almost cheaper than a long HDMI cable...
 
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Simple.

Matrox M9188 PCIe x16

Drive 8 monitors, plus 1 monitor from onboard motherboard for an awesome 9 monitor setup.

Only $1800
 
NVidia NVS-810? 8 mDP ports in a single-wide card, and up to four cards in a single system.

that's how i'd do it... and hit up blackmagic for the converters... monoprice if feeling cheap

and use VNC for remote control... should be able to set it up per screen...

maybe look into displayfusion too, great software, use it to organize my 4k work monitor
 
Sounds like the best solution to me. $16/pair + Cat5e/6 per monitor? Almost cheaper than a long HDMI cable...

trust me the ones I linked are worth the extra cost, they are active and have actual repeater IC's in them... we tried those cheap ones and did not have good luck with them
 
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The entire setup they're using is browser based.

If they truly need to monitor 16 screens at once, then their best options are Chrome sticks or Rpi's.

Around $25-35/ea x 16 and done.
 
Matrox Triplehead2go might be an option too, not sure if they make HDMI ones but you could have a single RPI/mini computer drive 3 monitors. Save on the amount of mini computers you need. Though they arn't cheap... so may be moot point.
 
The entire setup they're using is browser based.

If they truly need to monitor 16 screens at once, then their best options are Chrome sticks or Rpi's.

Around $25-35/ea x 16 and done.

can you run a chromecast as a standalone browser?

the rpi would need a sd card power supply, case etc...

probably better off with an amazon fire stick at that point, $40 and it's ready to go
 
Our NOC uses a large multi-plexer, but honestly it's not simple.
The display signal is sent over baluns, which pick up interferences, and through a scalar which kills text clarity,

I would have much preferred attaching NUC units to each display so that they all have the precise color settings and no ambiguity about what's driving what.
 
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