Page 1 of 1

Searching for software to help manage 2x6 displays

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 1:52 pm
by njenabnit
He is some background:

I work on the trading floor of an energy company and am responsible for managing a series of display screens. They are all NEC 32 inch thin bezel panels and are managed on windows machines running windows 7. I forget which video cards they have, but there are 4 ATI video cards on each machine that scale out over each section of panels. The screens are setup like this:

PC1- Powers 2x6 panel
PC2- Powers 2x6 panel
PC3- Powers 1x10 panel
PC4- Powers 2x6 panel
PC5- Powers 2x6 panel
PC6- Powers 1x10 panel

I have the option of running them all in eyefinity, but right now they are setup as individual panels in an array.

There are two main issues that I am having with these panels.

#1- Specific screens will flash on and off and cause the whole array to become unorganized or minimize all of the apps stretched across multiple displays down to one display. I would like some sort of software that will automatically reorder the panels to the correct order.

#2- When the machines are rebooted, I have to open each app back up manually and spread them across the screen in the correct order. I am also looking for some sort of software that will save a software "profile" and when i click it, it will open everything back up on that machine on the correct screen.

I am not sure if any software like this exists, but if it does it would save me close to an hour every other day and provide some stability for when i am out of office. Does anyone have any software that I can look into? My google-fu didn't pull anything up for me.

Re: Searching for software to help manage 2x6 displays

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 3:11 pm
by SuperSpy
I can't help you with your other issues, but this:
njenabnit wrote:
#1- Specific screens will flash on and off and cause the whole array to become unorganized or minimize all of the apps stretched across multiple displays down to one display. I would like some sort of software that will automatically reorder the panels to the correct order.

Sounds to me like either you have a connection issue causing 1 or more of your monitors to disconnect from the pc or your video driver is crashing causing all open windows to cascade back to the primary screen during (re)detection of displays.

Re: Searching for software to help manage 2x6 displays

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 3:54 pm
by Bensam123
Yeah, 1 sounds like a hardware issue of some kind. A loose connection or the driver getting reset for some reason.

Windows 7 manages application positions on multimonitor displays. Everything appears where it was after you reboot your system.

Make sure you have the most recent drivers for your video cards. I could see that being a issue, depending on when the last time was it was updated.

Issue 1 could be affecting all the other issues too. Your displays don't normally redetect every time you reboot... In my experience, even when I replug them they don't reinstall. They just pop up in their last used configuration.

Re: Searching for software to help manage 2x6 displays

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 5:15 pm
by njenabnit
That has indeed been the issue in the past. The AV company that installed the setup uses DVI to ethernet adapters and back to DVI at the screens. The longest run is probably 100 ft or so. Of course when they look at it, NEC says it is the adapters and the adapter company says it is NEC. I am more looking for a way to manage it in the interim while the AV group gets their act together.

Re: Searching for software to help manage 2x6 displays

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 7:07 pm
by Bensam123
Woaw... that would probably do it. It could be a cable that's crimped wrong on the ends or poorly.

I don't think that will end with your AV company fixing things or there being a magic firmware update that fixes everything. That said, Displayport has some metering built in for long runs and it's possible to get really long cables cheap on Amazon.

Re: Searching for software to help manage 2x6 displays

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 7:08 pm
by JustAnEngineer
Bensam123 wrote:
It's possible to get really long cables cheap on Amazon.
Always check www.monoprice.com first when you are shopping for a cable.

Re: Searching for software to help manage 2x6 displays

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 9:14 pm
by JdL
JustAnEngineer wrote:
Always check http://www.monoprice.com first when you are shopping for a cable.


+1

Re: Searching for software to help manage 2x6 displays

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 11:28 pm
by ryko
Not sure if it will work for you but try ultramon.... http://www.realtimesoft.com/ultramon/