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In our office we have circa 8 computers and two big screens. Pretty frequently we need to change PC source to different one. For example we start with PC 1 - TV 1 and PC 4 - TV 2. If we want to change to PC 3 - TV 1 and PC 7 - TV 2, we need to take the VGA / HDMI / Display Port / DVI cabel and put it in different computer. Its a hassle and there is a lot of cables on the table. Is there a way to do it where we won't have to touch a cable? Some matrix with a lot of inputs and outputs? Thanks!

edit: Btw all the computers normally have their own keyboards, mouses and monitors. Sometimes we need the output to go to the big TVs instead of monitor. So its not KVM or software thing (atleast what I have seen, Synergy or Multiplicity or similiar). Hardware solution is preferable.

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  • How many connectors do the monitors have? I'm not sure if one with 8 exists at all, but if so, you could connect all pc's to both monitors, and use the source switch on the monitor to select a pc. If the pc's have a videocard with two outputs, you could hook them up to both monitors too. This i what I used to have, but with 2 pc's only. An alternative would be to use just a single pc connected to each monitor, and rdp/vnc into the other 8 pc's. This may not be an option if you use video or 3D though.
    – Berend
    Commented Aug 4, 2017 at 9:54
  • Those monitors unfortunately don't have 8 sources. But even that woudlnt help, we sometimes need to use specific (DVI or HDMI..) source on specific PC. And PCs have 2 veideo sources but we would need 3 since they are on their own monitor and then those two big monitors.
    – Josef Novák
    Commented Aug 4, 2017 at 10:35

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I believe that a KVM switch (or two) is what you should aim for..

If you don't want to have a common mouse/keyboard, just don't connect it and just use the graphics capability of the switch.

It all depends on what your needs are.

Any computer can be displayed on any screen Any computer can be displayed on any screen

This way, any one of the 8 computers can be displayed on any one of the two big screens. This requires two big KVM switches and at least three graphics ports on each computer. It also is somewhat more complicated to know what display to show on the big screen.

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Half of the computers can be displayed on each screen Half of the computers can be displayed on each screen

This way, the computers only need two graphics ports, and it only requires two smaller (and cheaper) 4-port KVM switches. It is also less confusing on what is showed where...

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  • Thank you for your time. We would definitely prefer the first solution as the posibility to use both big monitors is needed. The problem is those PCs don't have 3 graphics ports. I was thinking more about some ??matrix?? where we connect every single PC and both big TVs for good and just change the input / ouput somehow. Is there even a hardware that would help us with that? I canẗ believe nobody ever needed to solve that.. Is there something like that or are BIG KVMs (even though we dont want common mouse / keyboard inputs) our only hope? Thank you!
    – Josef Novák
    Commented Aug 4, 2017 at 10:41
  • Well, the only Matrix KVM switches i know about is those made by Black Box.. blackbox.com/en-US/store/…
    – Magnus
    Commented Aug 4, 2017 at 10:53
  • If you have each PC to have their own KB+Mouse - sure no problem, but you will still need a keyboard+mouse on the "monitor" to select which PC it is showing. You can also operate using that kb+mouse, but nothing stopping you from using the kb+mouse connected directly to the PC. - This is my experience using a KVM over IP (similar to the blackbox, just different brand called Adder)
    – Darius
    Commented Aug 4, 2017 at 13:13

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