Distributed video in 2021

[knowitall]

I’m having a hard time justifying it to myself.  In non-surround rooms I don’t care about tv audio thru speakers. Roku sticks can get the xfinity app and that is basically all sources. Haven’t touched a dvd in 7 years, don’t care about OSD. The ONLY (For me) advantage would be surveillance cameras on TV.

how are you selling it or why are you buying it?

 

Matrix or a MoIP systems is a large up front cost. 
 

pros:

tv audio thru speakrs

surveillance nvr distro

 

Cons:

$10k for 6 tv 

[brekfastb]

total waste of money unless you have a video wall.

Put the money toward lighting, shades, better speakers and audio components


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[chopedogg88]

Just curious where you are getting your pricing from. Control4 6x6 HDMI matrix kit is $5k at MSRP.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

[eggzlot]

43 minutes ago, knowitall said:

I’m having a hard time justifying it to myself.  In non-surround rooms I don’t care about tv audio thru speakers. Roku sticks can get the xfinity app and that is basically all sources. Haven’t touched a dvd in 7 years, don’t care about OSD. The ONLY (For me) advantage would be surveillance cameras on TV.

how are you selling it or why are you buying it?

 

Matrix or a MoIP systems is a large up front cost. 
 

pros:

tv audio thru speakrs

surveillance nvr distro

 

Cons:

$10k for 6 tv 

Another pro: all TVs are in sync with the same content which is useful if you host big gatherings for sports, award shows etc.  maybe not now with COVID and all but it’s still a great use of distributed video that hopefully we can use again soon!

also for a system like mine - it’s just me and the wife - it’s a lot less maintenance.  I can distribute 1 streaming box to 6 TVs. It’s a luxury but when a password changes or we add a new app I don’t have to update 6 boxes, just one.  Again it’s a luxury but it’s certainly nice 

[knowitall]

45 minutes ago, chopedogg88 said:

Just curious where you are getting your pricing from. Control4 6x6 HDMI matrix kit is $5k at MSRP.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk
 

Spec’d 10x10 cus you know - growth. And need downmixing

[SMHarman]

For 199 per screen if you use unifi protect you can add one of these for camera views.

https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi-protect-accessories/products/unifi-protect-viewport

[Neo1738]

I like the ease of use for multiple TVs, if I have something on the bar TV I like being able to turn all the speakers in the basement to that input so I can hear no matter if I'm shooting pool, playing darts, or drinking a beer. Also if we do sports (obv w covid that's not happening) but I can turn on sports in the theater and walk to the bar get a drink and have video/audio perfectly in sync. I can go up to the kitchen for some food and not miss a beat. Better than making everyone wait for me to pause and restart the game. Security cameras is another very convenient addition. 

[Gene]

9 hours ago, SMHarman said:

For 199 per screen if you use unifi protect you can add one of these for camera views.

https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi-protect-accessories/products/unifi-protect-viewport

I'm wandering if you need to have unifi cameras (or cloudkey) to use this device?  What if your using another brand of cameras but wish such a multiview display to be shown through HDMI if you plug into your POE switch that has all your POE cameras.  Does this work?

[TundraSonic]

For us a video matrix seemed like a waste of money for antiquated tech. When people had to pay exorbitant fees for each cable box a matrix made good sense. I'm not sure that's the case anymore. Especially when you consider that just an HDB-T transceivers often cost more than an Apple TV and have massively less functionality.  

In our case we have an Apple TV w/ each system so 13 Apple TV's. In most cases this is one per TV but in some cases there are multiple TV's per system such as the master bath that has 4 TV's sharing a single Apple TV.  Video is mostly kept local but in a couple of cases is backhauled to the rack and fed to multiple Anthem receivers. Audio is all backhauled to the rack and fed to a Triad matrix for distro. Overall this saved about $34K (that got spent on other HA/AV/Security enhancements that otherwise would not have been in budget) and with no loss in functionality.

Surveillance/NVR is Security Spy. This has a quite good Apple TV app so live cameras and playback are always available on any Apple TV system (as well as MacOS, IOS, C4 and web interface). With the new TVOS it will be able to also use PIP. Much better capability and cleaner than any NVR+Matrix solution we looked at and it also allows us to mix/match cameras better than hardware NVR's.

[Neo1738]

Only issue is an update to netflix could require 13 different log ins to apple tv, also who needs 4 tvs in the master bath?! lol jk but there are uses for integrated video.

[turls]

The fragmentation of streaming is a newer development that helps push distributed video...never know when Roku or Amazon or Apple are going to have exclusive content only available on their devices.  Peacock and HBO Max only on Apple for example...

[Neo1738]

Additionally with today's data capped internet plans you would have to stream the same 4k content onto multiple devices to have in more than 1 room resulting in more data usage and more bandwidth usage. 

[SMHarman]

I'm wandering if you need to have unifi cameras (or cloudkey) to use this device?  What if your using another brand of cameras but wish such a multiview display to be shown through HDMI if you plug into your POE switch that has all your POE cameras.  Does this work?

I believe it needs at least a UI controller. I've not used their cameras so don't know if you can connect third party cameras to their infrastructure.

 

It would be a cloud key 2 plus HDD at a minimum.

 

[SMHarman]

The fragmentation of streaming is a newer development that helps push distributed video...never know when Roku or Amazon or Apple are going to have exclusive content only available on their devices.  Peacock and HBO Max only on Apple for example...

That makes the C4 GUI to pick your watch channels pretty awesome.

[eggzlot]

30 minutes ago, TundraSonic said:

For us a video matrix seemed like a waste of money for antiquated tech. When people had to pay exorbitant fees for each cable box a matrix made good sense. I'm not sure that's the case anymore. Especially when you consider that just an HDB-T transceivers often cost more than an Apple TV and have massively less functionality.  

In our case we have an Apple TV w/ each system so 13 Apple TV's. In most cases this is one per TV but in some cases there are multiple TV's per system such as the master bath that has 4 TV's sharing a single Apple TV.  Video is mostly kept local but in a couple of cases is backhauled to the rack and fed to multiple Anthem receivers. Audio is all backhauled to the rack and fed to a Triad matrix for distro. Overall this saved about $34K (that got spent on other HA/AV/Security enhancements that otherwise would not have been in budget) and with no loss in functionality.

Surveillance/NVR is Security Spy. This has a quite good Apple TV app so live cameras and playback are always available on any Apple TV system (as well as MacOS, IOS, C4 and web interface). With the new TVOS it will be able to also use PIP. Much better capability and cleaner than any NVR+Matrix solution we looked at and it also allows us to mix/match cameras better than hardware NVR's.

Apple TV doesn’t have mini apps. So from what I gather no direct launching

and yes as others said it’s a fragmented market.  I have 1 of each - roku, Apple TV and a shield tv.  Then I distribute those out to all the TVs in the house.  Again it’s a luxury but it’s more flexible and easier to manage.  Plus as I mentioned perfect video and audio sync throughout the house. 
 

it’s by no means a requirement.  It’s a very nice luxury like automated shades.  You can certainly pull a cord to open a shade.  Why spend 1,000’s to automate them?

[Köhler Medientechnik]

As always, it depends on your use cases and requirements.

It´s true it´s not a cost save to have equipment centrally and just distribute the AV throughout the house. It´s much cheaper to locally attach streaming players to the displays.
But support is more effort. I don´t want to regularly update the 13 ATVs mentioned above - i guess in that case you have a facilty manager anyway who´s keeping track of the stuff as some of our clients have. But then it´s not a cost saver anymore

It also depends on the number of people living in a house - that usuallly determines the max. number of concurrent streams you need to have available.

As i said in the other thread, i´d go for locally attached sources if you want maximum picture quality (home cinema, media room). For low priority applications (kitchen, bath, kids, etc.) i´d go for HD distribution and that´s actually pretty straightforward and by far not that demanding in terms of infrastructure and cost like 4K.

[SMHarman]

Only issue is an update to netflix could require 13 different log ins to apple tv, also who needs 4 tvs in the master bath?! lol jk but there are uses for integrated video.

Netflix is the biggest bugbear. So many allows sign in by the 4 letter codes on Roku but not Netflix. After I had my Netflix account taken over it has a securely generated Google password but it's a bugbear to type that in on a keyboard let alone an OSD.

[SMHarman]

Most TVs allow an audio out for a matrix and audio in other rooms etc.

[RAV]

Comes down to how many TVs are in the house.
Do you want to have the same program playing on multiple TVs at the same time?
Do you have a source, like Kaleidoscape, that justifies distribution.

There are many solutions for audio return for built in speakers, and soundbar options, so audio is less of the catalyst.

[lippavisual]

Cable is still king in my eyes and most of my customers.  Apps are not even close to a great experience, unless you know exactly what you want to watch.  Using Xfinity for Netflix or other streaming service is SSSSSLLLLLOOOOWWWW.

Video distribution is definitely a luxury, but a luxury worth having.  I have a family of 5, me and the wife each have our own cable box and all the kids have a single box.  The kids can watch their box on any tv or tablet.  Party mode, all video/audio in sync, including the backyard by the pool.  I can mix and match 4K/1080 sources and TV's without downgrading signal quality.

Best part is I only have one place I need to go to connect/fix/replace equipment, my rack.

Problem is these boxed or canned matrix systems.  Stupid expensive especially if you want to push 4K everywhere (insert eye roll, most people don't even notice the difference).

Modular systems is where it's at because you can start small and grow as life moves on.

Videostorm can be a very competitive in pricing and offers a lot of features for PiP, camera/text popups, etc.

[Neo1738]

3 hours ago, SMHarman said:

Most TVs allow an audio out for a matrix and audio in other rooms etc.

Good luck getting it to sync w the TV is the issue. Not as seamless as a distributed video w down-mixing solution. Not impossible but generally not as seemless.

[SMHarman]

Good luck getting it to sync w the TV is the issue. Not as seamless as a distributed video w down-mixing solution. Not impossible but generally not as seemless.

Absolutely but for the occasional game day party taking the arc or a RCA pair into an audio matrix gets the job done.

[Neo1738]

12 minutes ago, SMHarman said:

18 minutes ago, Neo1738 said:

Good luck getting it to sync w the TV is the issue. Not as seamless as a distributed video w down-mixing solution. Not impossible but generally not as seamless.

Absolutely but for the occasional game day party taking the arc or a RCA pair into an audio matrix gets the job done.

Guess it depends on how much you entertain. Before COVID for me we were at least 1x a week on average.

[South Africa C4 user]

40 minutes ago, Neo1738 said:

Guess it depends on how much you entertain. Before COVID for me we were at least 1x a week on average.

And now you can entertain over Zoom... which distributes video just fine