How to drive 11 displays

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stat30fbliss

stat30fbliss

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Jan 29, 2013
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Hey there, I am a Web & Software developer, and I just picked up an interesting project where the client would like a sort of digital picture frame in the lobby of their building.

The requirements are 11 1080p monitors or flatscreen TV's placed on a wall to create one large display. It is my task to write a piece of software for these monitors that will use them as extended displays, and show some artistic film clips and images to spicen up the lobby. All of the monitors will effectively add up to one large display.

They will be purchasing whatever hardware is necessary to drive these displays. I just need to decide what machine to build for them.

I am a gamer, and have built a couple of desktops in my day, but the scale of this job is a new frontier for me. I already know what I am going to do about the software, but I am unsure what the best way is to power and spread images across all of these displays.

My initial assumption was a powerful tower with a 4-way 780 SLI, assuming three monitors per card, and 1 spot left open. But then I realized I have no clue what I am doing in this department, and should turn to people who know more than me.

Also, if I did wind up using Nvidia cards to run this set-up, would the stock Nvidia driver software do what I need it to and help me customize all of these displays to my liking? Or is there some third party software that is more efficient and could help get the job done?

Any other pitfalls I should look out for when embarking on this project?

Cheers!
 
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k1114
It's called a video wall and there are plenty of companies who set up video walls. You can however find plenty of software like vlc player (which is free) that has video wall support. And there are many other software that can make other software maximize across all monitors though usually need to be bought. Otherwise you could just stretch any window over multiple monitors if you don't mind the border. As manofchalk said, display fusion and ultramon is usually what gets around forums. I've never dealt with video walls but plenty of stock traders wanting 6 monitor setups post for help here.

As for hardware requirements, you don't need such powerful hardware just to show clips and images...
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stat30fbliss

stat30fbliss

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Jan 29, 2013
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I just got the request on number of monitors yesterday, so I am doing some preliminary research. You bring up an excellent point, and make me want to suggest 10 or 12.
 
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manofchalk

manofchalk

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May 11, 2012
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Whats going to be displayed on these screens? If its just movies, you really don't need anything special in terms of GPU horsepower, even at such a massive resolution.

My gut feeling is to get enough HD770's (or cards of thereabouts) to drive the displays, wack em in a not too flash rig (doesn't need to be anything special) and use something like Display Fusion or Ultramon to manage the screens.
Though I also don't have any experience working on something of this scale, so I could be wrong here.
 
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k1114

k1114

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May 2, 2010
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It's called a video wall and there are plenty of companies who set up video walls. You can however find plenty of software like vlc player (which is free) that has video wall support. And there are many other software that can make other software maximize across all monitors though usually need to be bought. Otherwise you could just stretch any window over multiple monitors if you don't mind the border. As manofchalk said, display fusion and ultramon is usually what gets around forums. I've never dealt with video walls but plenty of stock traders wanting 6 monitor setups post for help here.

As for hardware requirements, you don't need such powerful hardware just to show clips and images. http://www.amazon.com/VisionTek-Products-Express-Graphics-900614/dp/B00C7EPSVS You could just get 2 of these but if you don't get monitors with displayport, the price of active displayport adapters will raise the price above just getting 3 cards that support 4 monitors each. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161402 Also keep in mind if you have an igpu, that will add more monitors. And you will not be in cf/sli.
 
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stat30fbliss

stat30fbliss

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Jan 29, 2013
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Thanks so much for the help guys. My only other concern is stretching the images across all of those displays, and things not getting pixelated.

Glad to hear that you think a couple of 770's should be able to do the job.

I will also keep Display Fusion, Ultramon, & VLC Player in mind as I work towards figuring out precisely how I want to approach this.

The requirement is to write a piece of software that listens to to the stock markets. If the markets are performing well, show a certain set of videos, if it is declining, show another set of videos. I am handling the back-end, and then my partner is an ActionScript (Flash) developer whom I will deliver the API too, and he will trigger what we want on a Flash Stage.

And let me also say that I am not necessarily concerned with having to use free software. If I need to buy some excellent piece of software or hardware that ensures this project gets executed well, I am all ears :)

Thanks again.
 
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manofchalk

manofchalk

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May 11, 2012
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^ Yup, meant the HD7770. Sorry about that typo.

Your going to be having 4x3 1080p screens, so your looking at a resolution of 7680x3240 (or thereabouts depending on how their arranged). Unless your footage is that resolution, pixelation will happen. So lets just say that the footage being displayed you want to be in the highest res possible.
Though if you also factor in that if this is a video wall, chances arent likely the people watching will be up right up close to it. At a set PPI (Pixels per Inch) quality will appear to increase the further you are from it. So pixelation can be fixed by distance.
 
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k1114

k1114

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May 2, 2010
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Eyefinity is limited to 6 monitors. So for a video wall, you just can't use it. They were supposed to raise the max but that announcement was 3 years ago and still nothing.

As far as number of supported monitors, nvidia has closed the gap since the 600 series can do 4 monitors with only needing 1 dp like the flex cards. With the flex card being a special edition only from sapphire, I'd give nvidia the win here since the majority of people won't use more than 3. Though that 7770 is the same price as a 650 with 4 ports and amd still generally prevails in multi monitor setups.

A bit off topic since this only applies to eyefinity and surround but the other aspect nvidia is ahead on is cf needing all monitors on the first card and sli can use the other cards. Though there are caveats. I'm sure amd will step up on the next series but nvidia will too. Competition is such a nice thing for consumers.
 
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