Hi there,
I’m new to the forum but a TD user for some time.
I’m getting in two professional theatre performance projects invloving 3x 1920x1080 screens on stage. For rehearsals i used to plug the three HDMI cables from my laptop (MacBook Pro 2019 i7 2,6 GHz Monterey), but i need a more reliable solution for touring now (in some small venues like 100-300 seats auditoriums)
The main drawbacks are:
- Those 3 screens are seen as 3 external screens from my computer (which is normal) making a higher GPU load at the first place, without TD running.
- A slight disconnection of one of those HDMI links make my computer in “monitor setup mode”, with black screen for some seconds, then praying that everything would come back as is was.
- In some venues i need long HDMI connections >15m, requiring signal converter (as Blackmagic HDMI-SDI/RJ45 stuff). it’s still 3x video connections running from the stage to the control desk. Sometimes unstable, causing problem 2, and won’t resolve problem 1.
I’m looking for:
- Something quick to setup in touring
- With the lowest latency as possible (there are some real time interactions with the musicians on stage)
- Getting rid of those unstable direct HDMI connections
- 1080p compatible
So i was thinking about 2 solutions:
- Using HDMI video wall controllers such as Matrox QuadHead2go as advised on Derivative’s Multiple Monitors page[1].
With one 4k HDMI-SDI/RJ45 → SDI/RJ45-HDMI converter[2] i can run on long distance from the control desk to the stage, then drive the 3 screens from this box somewhere on the stage and medium long HDMI.
Pros : Low latency, high quality
Cons : Still a 4k external screen on my GPU, won’t resolve problem 3
Any experience with those kind of gear ? Is it reliable and how is the quality and latency ? Or any brand to advise ?
- Using 3x NDI-HDMI decoder and a PoE switch on stage.
I will use 3x NDI Out TOPs, 1 RJ45 cable running from control desk to the stage → Switch → 3x NDI-HDMI decoders → Screens
Pros: No distance problem anymore, seems easy to setup (i’m ok in network setup as i am live audio engineer at the first place)
Cons: More latency (even with large bandwith network ?), video compression
But the thing is, there are lot of NDI-HDMI decoder hardware available, with glowing but unclear sales pitch, and i know that there could be codec incompatibility with some hardwares of different brand using different internal codecs.
Wich one works with TD NDI sources ?
Did some of you already used those kind of gear ? Did you experienced annoying things like unconsistent latency, compression artifacts… ?
Otherwise, what are other available solutions suited for those needs (other reliable network protocol, specific hardware only known by this video performance community…) ?
Thanks in advance for your help !