In our production space we have all of our computers back in a back closet, but student in the next room controls these computers. There are several reasons for this decision: Every piece of equipment that gets super hot or makes noise goes in the closet, so our video room has a more controlled temperature and is quieter. Wiring between equipment and computers is easier, since your only running a single wire to your desk per computer. But probably the most beneficial part is the patch-ability of the room. For a normal weekend service, we have 6 students running the room, but for some events we only need one person, but the computers are across the room. Well, you can patch any computer to any desk, allowing us to change desk positions on the fly. And here is how we do it: We use the Gefen CAT5 1000 S and R and an ordinary CAT5 patch bay.
Every computer in our closet runs USB and VGA into it’s own Gefen CAT5 1000 S (for sender). All of these run CAT5 into a patch bay. From the patch bay simply run to the desk where a Gefen CAT5 1000 R (for receiver) sits connected to a VGA monitor and a USB keyboard and mouse. And that’s it!
They’re very easy to setup with absolutely no configuring. They’re hot-swappable meaning you don’t have to restart the computers to move them around. I would say that our biggest complaint is the video quality. I’ve never really seen video over CAT5 look great, and this is no exception. It’s super compressed and sometimes the video doesn’t fill up the whole monitor (which is weird… I don’t understand that!). But, the only person that has too see that is the person sitting at the desk, and the quality is completely legible, so it doesn’t impede or distract, so the benefits far outweigh a little quality degradation. And, the Gefen CAT5 1000 S and R is only $695 for the set. If this sounds like a lot, think of the man hours alone that you’ll save just from moving computers around! For us, it’s totally worth it!
Gefen makes other extenders, none of which I have used, but they should be just as awesome.
Rating: 
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Greg Baker |
I have seen video over CAT5e/6 work really well with Atlona products. I have used the powered vga products and the HDMI products, and they work flawlessly. Video quality is excellent.
Passive (non-powered) video over CAT5e/6 have never worked for me and I hate them.
Steve |
Awesome! I’ll look into the Atlona stuff.