Jon Peddie Research - a technically oriented marketing, research, and management consulting firm in the graphics industry.

Your very own switchboard

Posted by Jon Peddie on November 19th 2009 | Comments Closed
Categories: Hardware Review
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Here at Mt. Tiburon Testing Labs we run several computers with AMD or Intel processors of various sizes. We have a variety of monitors, keyboards, and mice, and the one we want is never attached to the machine we’re going to run tests on. Not only that, when we do unravel the rat’s nests of wires, one of them in inevitably is either too short or too knotted up to reach and so a few frustrating minutes are lost sorting that out.

We’ve tried to get a KVM switch that would help us manage it and couldn’t find one that handled all the USB switches, could carry dual link DVI signals at max bandwidth, and wasn’t encumbered with old PS2 connectors. That is, we couldn’t until Michael Becce at MRB Public Relations introduced us to Cambridge UK based Adder Technology.

Michael arranged for us to get an AdderView Pro MultiScreen to put through the paces. This machine was designed for us, or so it seems, whoever thought it up must have heard our cries.

“The unit allows up to four DVI-I heads per computer to be switched, “ says Nigel Dickens, engineering director of Adder. “Bring it on. “Not only that,” Dickens bragged, “due to our high quality, efficient switching technology, each video head can support four full dual link digital video displays.” Music to our ears – literally, read on.

Actually, as incredible as it might seem, Dickens and his team didn’t have us in mind when they designed the AdderView Pro MultiScreen. Instead, they recognized a need in professional applications such as medical imaging and broadcast for multi head DVI switches that could be used alongside specialist interface devices such as graphics tablets, 3D explorers, joysticks, and so on. In addition to the impressive video performance, these units offer more than just straight switching between four systems. The KVM switches speakers and two separate USB devices attached to the AdderView Pro units. Devices can either be switched in unison, as normal, or you can mix your peripherals between any of the systems to suit your current tasks.

For instance, you could be creating emails on one system, listening to a soundtrack from another while a third is sending documents to your printer and a fourth performing another task with a different USB peripheral.

In environments such as benchmarking, or medical imaging the application Adder identified, , the AdderView Pro MultiScreen series will allow displays to be shared across multiple computer systems, therefore eliminating the need for multiple high resolution displays.

The unit features Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) Emulation and profile DDC ensuring that separate EDID data from each video display will be distributed through to the appropriate video adaptors within each computer - this is extremely important in a benchmarking lab. The extended DDC EDID profile ensures that the switched graphics card is always optimized to work with your screen.

The system carries USB 2.0, and video bandwidth up to 2560 x 1600 for the 30-inch screens.

There are various sized units. The AV4Pro-DVI-Dual is $995, AV4Pro-DVI-Triple sells for $1395, and the AV4Pro-DVI-Quad is $1795. Adder has distributors worldwide so it won’t be difficult getting one of these puppies. More details are here: http://www.adder.com/UK/products/Datasheets/av4pro_MS_0809_elec2.pdf

What do we think?

We’ve been testing (and testing with) the AV4Pro multi screen four – look at the photo of the back panel to get a sense of what this machine can do - any monitor to any PC and (as far as we can tell) any combination. We had two monitors running off of one PC, and then we had one of those monitors running off another PC. We were able to use one keyboard for multiple PCs, one monitor for multiple PCs, and various other combinations. In fact it cost us a little production time while the folks here played with the various combinations.

The combinations are selected on a front panel switch matrix which took a few minutes to figure out (someone suggested we read the manual, and he’ll be out of the hospital in a day or so.)

This is a solid piece of really good engineering. It’s well built, and it does the job it’s advertised to do. If you’re using multiple PCs and/or monitors and need to change their configuration from time to time, this is the box to have.