Multi-screen video walls are great to look at. But they can be a pain to configure using finicky matrix switches.
No longer! Now there’s a fast, no-fuss way to set up a video wall using a NETGEAR M4300 10GB Intelligent switch. The reason? Unlike other AV over IP switches, the M4300 comes out of the box preconfigured and ready to use. (If the power ever drops out, no problem: The M4300 holds its settings.)
NETGEAR Senior Sales Engineer Derek Falberg walks through a four-monitor video wall setup using the M4300 in the YouTube video entitled, ‘How to Set Up a Video Wall with a Pro AV M4300 Switch‘.
According to Falberg, “what this technology allows us to do is to push uncompressed 4K high-def video using standard copper or fiber ethernet cabling, through a NETGEAR 10 gigabit switch.”
Here’s how Derek Falberg does it.
First, he assembles the following components:
- a video source; in this case, an Xiaomi Mi Box 4K video Android streaming box;
- four 4K video displays mounted in a 2 x 2 pattern;
- four 4K video encoders and decoders;
- a router to provide DHCP IP addresses to the devices on the video wall;
- a ZeeVee Maestro AV over IP video management box;
- a laptop computer to control the system;
- standard copper ethernet cables (fiber ethernet cables can also be used);
- HDMI cables.
Now that he has all the components, Falberg connects the video wall in this order:
- he starts by connecting the Mi Box video source to the first encoder using an HDMI cable;
- he then connects that first encoder to the M4300 switch using an ethernet cable.
With this connection established, Derek Falberg then connects the M4300 to all four decoders using copper ethernet cables, and then connects each of the four displays to the four decoders using HDMI cables.
Next, Falberg connects the router to the M4300 switch, along with the ZeeVee Maestro AV over IP management platform box and the laptop to the router.
All that remains is to open up the ZeeVee Maestro interface on the laptop, create/specify the video wall on-screen, and drag-and-drop the Mi Box video source to the video wall icon.
Presto: Instant video wall!
Derek Falberg’s caveat: “Only NETGEAR M4300 switches work out of the box with no configuration needed.” Use them along with the equipment listed above, “and you can have a video wall yourself.”
Additional Resources
NETGEAR’s web page on M4300 Intelligent Switches
The link to NETGEAR’s web portal about the M4300 switch.
Quadram Institute Creates World’s First Endoscopic Facility Entirely on SDVoE AVoIP Backbone
The M4300’s role in a 4K video over 10GpE video network used for life-saving endoscopic procedures.
6 Gbit/s uncompressed 4K video stream switching on a 10 Gbit/s network
A groundbreaking IEEE paper on transporting 4K video over a 10GpE IP infrastructure.
Achieving Fast 4K Video Throughput Using M4300 AV Over IP Switches
Blog #1 in this series
