Client has one 65" TV as his main display but has two 42" plasmas above it left and right. He will have 3 HD cable boxes so each will have a dedicated box....wants to watch 3 sporting events at one time.

It gets interesting - when he sees something awesome on one of the little 42s he wants to shift that picture to the bigger 65" TV.

I was planning on a T2+ RTI for control, but a scheme to switch the 65" to one of the other channels is a little tricky. I am considering using his Denon receiver as the a/v switcher for the big TV and with a press of the remote, switch to the upper left or right TV's cable box for instance.

A couple issues: The Motorola boxes only have one component out. Will I have to use a component splitter on each box to get two outputs from each? What brand of splitter is decent and rea$onable?

Switching the Denon to one of the upper cable boxes is fairly straightforward via remote. I was thinking of the possibilities of *swapping* pictures from a 42" to the 65" but that sounds like a completely different critter from a control point of view. Do you have any thoughts on that?

Thanks for any and all advice!

This is an absolutely perfect application for a matrix switcher. Run all 3 cable boxes into the switcher and 3 outputs from the switcher to the TV's, then you can have any source to any TV and the ability to bounce them back and forth.

The real trick, and I haven't thought about how you would do it, would be having the control system keep track of what input was going to what output so you could just do a "switch Left to main" and "Switch Right to Main". With AMX/Crestron, you can do this by tracking feedback and variables. With and RTI or similar, it gets tougher.

I have a similar setup in a theater, large screen projection with two small sets off to once side, and the customer can listen to, or switch video amongst all the screens. I'm using AMX to do this and it took a while to get the logic working right.

Aside from using a Matrix switcher, the alternatives get to be kludgey very quickly. Also think about audio, is he only going to want to listen to the source that is playing on the main screen, or might he want to hop to the audio feed from one of the smaller TV's without switch the placement of the video?

Brad

That's great Brad. What model and pricing do you recommend for a matrix switcher?

I believe he'd be happy with the main TV sound only.

Key digital msw 8 x 3

Yeah, the Key is a great piece and with its Basic RS-232 control would work great withthe RTI.

Matrix the 3 cable boxes, but set them up as defaulting to specific sets. Input one always goes to TV 1 Input 2 to 2 Input 3 to 3. then has 2 buttons on the top of each control page be "Flip Left Plasma to Big screen" and "Flip Right plasma to Big screen"


You might want a "Reset" button on there somewhere as well that puts the tuners back to their apropriete Default TV's.

The primary function I can see for this would be DVR's. Being able to keep the recording going as you flip inputs/outputs so that you can go back and review something on the big screen....

Just remind the client to reset his TV's when theres a break inthe action..... And you always can change the channels to get the picture where you want it as well.

Of course you could track the inputs and outputs much more efficiently witha AMX or Crestron system..... Would make it much simpler.... But..............

I'll have to defer to Fred and the other product guru's here.. I do happen to think that you can't go wrong with most of the Key Digital products though. I do engineering, design, and programming but not sales or purchasing, so for pricing I can't help you. I know its not going to be dirt cheap, but given how much money you're putting into the display side of the job, the client deserves a switching system that can perform.

I'm still thinking about how you could effectively control the system, given that you're dealing with a "one way" remote. It's certainly not going to be as smooth as doing something with 2 way. You could perhaps use an RTI as the front end, but put an AMX NI-700/900 or similar Crestron product as the brains of the operation. That would give you the UI you want to sell to the customer at a reasonable price while providing you the integrator with a powerful enough backend control system to allow the simplicity of buttons such as "Left to Main" and "Right to Main" for screen switching.

Brad

I am completeing a similar gig using a Key Digatal 8x3. It's a super cool switch. Approx. $1300 retail if I remember correctly. I am using URC MX3000 for control and it is a little quirky trying to design the interface/macros to seamlessly switch both audio and video. Takes some work but makes for a "showcase" type media room. We are also integrating karaoke (ugh!) into 2 of the 3 displays. I wish you well.

I'd also recommend the Neothings Avalon 8x4 (integrator model).

[Link: neothings.com]


Uses standard RCA connects...
Converts coax to optical, and vice versa
Very fast switching via RS232
You can switch any audio input to any audio output.
You can switch any video input to any video output.
You can switch audio and video a the same time.

I ordered a Key Dig 8x3 for a regular client, (*DIYer) but he didn't want to deal with BNC connectors (no way for him to terminate) so we got him the Neothings piece. He likes it and it looks cool.

Works good (from what I've seen) and is another alternative.

The KDS model seems to be better known, so I'll ask... have you had any of the Neothings in the field for some time so you can vouch for their long term reliablilty? The RCA option is a decent one and may suit this client really well.

Thanks for the great responses.

Tom:

Now that I've read this thread the Key Digital is definitely the way to go... or the Neothings looks cool too; just don't know anything about those... As for the BNC ends, it's not a big deal to get BNC>RCA converters. Either one will do RS-232 so you could be rock-solid with a T2+ and RP-6 combo!

Agree that the KD stuff is more established.

Bill from Neothings is a regular on these forums (or has been)... so I'm sure he'll eventually catch wind of this thread. I asked him on the phone the other day about the reliability, and he said they have been very good and RS232 has been bulletproof (but what else could he say, really?).

Seems like a nice guy... small company... and I'm sure he's got some new products in the works as well.