VO-BB - 19 YEARS OLD!

mcm

Is anybody using a set-up with your PC (not Mac) in one room and a second monitor and mouse in your sound booth?

I've been wanting to do this for a while even though my booth is in very close proximity to the computer. I don't know how to make it work though. Any ideas?

And any ideas on an inexpensive flat screen (non CRT) monitor?

Jeff McNeal · Guest

Yes Mary, I have such a setup. I am running two flat screen LCD monitors. I purchased both at Costco. One is 17" and is on the mixing desk and the other is 15" inside the booth affixed to the wall in front of my microphone. In order to make it work I had to purchase a powered video splitter and found a nice four port from Fry's Electronics that works great. The manufacture is IOGEAR. The splitter was needed in order for both monitors to sync properly.

mcm · Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 11:54 am Post subject:

Jeff, thanks for the speedy response!

It looks like you are using the monitor instead of a paper script/copy stand. That was just one of the reasons I wanted to do this. Very cool.

Jeff McNeal · Guest

You're welcome, Mary. And that's exactly right. No paper to print or contend with. I also receive faxes through the computer, so even if the script is in fax form, I can read it off the monitor. A second, USB mouse in the booth allows me to scroll the copy if needed, and also allows me to self record/edit, etc.

It works great. I don't miss the paper AT ALL.

brianforrester · Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 12:51 pm Post subject:

Hey Mary,

I'm also using a flat screen in my sound booth, with wireless usb mouse, however the difference is that I do all of my recording on a laptop, and it has both the flip top monitor (sorry for the non-technical term... what the heck is it called anyway?) and an S-Video and monitor out jack. I plug the monitor directly into the monitor output and bob's my uncle. Actually, I do have to adjust the resolution but that's simple enough.

There are a couple of options that you can entertain... the method that Jeff is using would work quite well, and I imagine would be relatively innexpensive (correct me if I'm wrong Jeff), or you could look at purchasing a new video card... either added in addition to the current card, if you have an open pci or agp slot, or purchase a new card that has 2 monitor outs or one monitor out and an s-video output. The challenge with the s-video output is that you would then have to either purchase an adapter for the s-video or a monitor with s-video capablility (I don't even know if they exist to be honest!) A good quality card with both monitor and s-video out would run you about $125 or $150 usd. I just looked at dual monitor output card and it runs about $280 CAD at Canadian computer retailer, here's the link...

http://www.compusmart.com/Product/Default.aspx?CatalogID=0&SupplierPartNo=316527&ShowSpecs=True

Personally, my preference would be to install a second video card, if of course you have any open slot on your mainboard.

It's definately a good investment. The main reason that I did was to conserve space, but a positive spin off was that it redued the heat in my booth! I don't need to have the light on, therefore less heat (I'm sure optometrists will advise me that it's bad for my eyes, but maybe I'll just end up reading scripts in brail in the future) :wink:

Happy hunting... keep us posted.

Cheers,
_________________
Brian Forrester Voice Overs
www.brianforrester.com
brian@brianforrester.com
778.668.5715

Gregory Best · Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2005 6:03 pm Post subject: video cards

There are also some slightly more expesive video cards that have outputs for two monitors on the one card With Windows XP you can extend your desktop across both monitors which ges you more deasktop real estate. You then can have your audio editing program open on one monitor and the copy in another program on the other. We have this setup for my wife to do graphics on her computer. I have the video card in mine, I just need another monitor for mine. Its only $$$.

Just a thought...

Greg

Jim Barton · Guest

Midimuso · Guest

Jim...methinks a wireless keyboard would do the trick for on the fly editing. No need to leave the booth that way!

I use wireless for in-booth editing and control-room editing......it's good to be able to move the keys/mouse around without wires everywhere.

Cheers,

Mike
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Jeff McNeal · Guest

Jim,

On the rare occasion that happens, I can usually commt the changes/corrections to memory and just do it that way. It is extremely rare that a producer makes changes significant enough to require that I leave the booth to annotate the copy. That's why I have not bothered to install a keyboard in the booth to date.

Also, I noticed comments above regarding graphics cards with two outputs or additional graphics cards, which makes a lot of sense. I only went with the outboard processor because my PC slots are loaded and switching out the graphics card (which has a TV tuner built in that I use to aircheck my local news promos) wasn't an option.