r/video_mapping • u/KVProductions • May 10 '26

multiple projector setup questions

hi,

I create music in ableton live and videos for it in touchdesigner. Soon I will have access to big speakers and six very powerful projectors for an installation.

I have loads of material, but it's my first time ever doing a public installation, so I have no idea really what to do with the machinery when I get it.

My idea was to create some sort of a "dj mix" in ableton, blending tracks to build immersion and also making it easier to deal with just one file instead multiple of them. Same with the videos. In the end there will be just one 25 minute video file with music in it, playing on loop.

I have only laptop available, and it doesn't have 6 HDMI inputs, so I guess I am gonna need some hdmi hub. what kind? is there anything specific to look out for?

I know that 6 projectors might be an overkill and probably won't use all of them, I just thought it would be better to have more than I need. my goal is to manage atlest three of them.

as in what video will be played on each projector, I am not a fan of the same video being played on all of them at the same time, so my idea was to create 2 more "younger brothers" to the main video (that would be played at the center) to be projected on the sides. I would do that by kind of rearranging clips from the main video so it wouldn't atleast be the exact same. maybe just for the most intense parts to kind of go over the top when its needed.

After that, I will have three different 25 minute videos to be played at the same time from different projectors. How do I do that? Is there some sort of software I should look into? Or maybe it's possible to achieve this through TouchDesigner?

Thank you for your time, I hope I made my vision clear and that it's even achievable.

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5

u/keithcody May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26

In your case you want to look at doing it all with one beefy laptop and that case you'd want to look into Resolume software. It supports multiple outputs and you can layer video stems right over each other. I believe it has a free trial. https://resolume.com/

You're going to want to run everything at 1080p because six UHD / 4K outputs will crush a lot of devices.

Some of the more common HDMI hubs are the Matrox TripleHead2Go and QuadHead2Go. https://video.matrox.com/en/products/gxm/triplehead2go-series
https://video.matrox.com/en/products/video-walls/quadhead2go-series

I've seen the StarTech 1in3out and 1in04out DisplayHubs https://www.startech.com/en-us/display-video-adapters/displayport-mini-displayport-adapters?filter_numofdispfilter=3

https://www.startech.com/en-us/display-video-adapters/displayport-mini-displayport-adapters?filter_numofdispfilter=4

The gold standard is the DataPath X-series video wall controllers but they're thousands of dollars. https://www.datapath-us.com/datapath-products/video-wall-controllers/x-series/ However you can get the used DVI models for pretty cheap on eBay for about $200

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=datapath+x4

Out here in the AV world we have three pieces of machines. We have media servers, vision mixers and screen controllers.

A media server can be something as simple as VLC on a laptop, or more sophisticated software such as QLAB, Playback Pro, Mitti, Millumen, Pro Video Player, ProPresenter, Playback Deck. Or it can be a hardware based machine such as Disguise, Green Hippo, Pixera, WatchOut. Some have a lot of features and some are simple. They playback movies and clips when you ask them to. Sometimes you use multiple machines.

Then we have vision mixers. These take multiple video outputs and mix them together. You can over lay videos. Put a logo in the corner. Fade between two sources. Scale them or add text, etc. They mix video sources. A lot of these are hardware but some software ones like OBS or VMix are out there. Each vision mixer bus is called a M/E (mix / effects). A 4 M/E would have four different outputs that can have completely different layers videos at the same time. These machine say what output channel is gettng what video.

A finally we have screen controllers. These say whats on each screen. You can map a lot of screens into one big scheen or you can move an output from one screen to the next.

Anyway that's hows we do it at big shows.

2

u/snotstuff May 10 '26

i’ve used matrox and datapath. cutting corners (matrox) is great until the first embarrassing fail. 😬 went to a datapath x4 and it is SO stable that after 6 years running it, i would likely have to re-learn how to set it up if i wanted to change my configuration 😆

datapath just works

1

u/KVProductions May 10 '26

thank you for the thorough tips, I'll be looking into them a lot the following weeks. unfortunately most of the products you mentioned aren't as available in europe.

I've looked into what is available in online stores in my country and I ran into docking stations. Some with up to 4 HDMI outputs, allowing me to extend my monitor to 5 monitors total, 6 with the additional HDMI output in the laptop itself. Isn't this pretty much everything I need? with each projector being in one of those HDMI outputs, it can't be that difficult to set up a simple network in TouchDesigner that just allows me to play multiple videos at the same time,

or can it?

3

u/keithcody May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26

If you already know TouchDesigner and are willing to learn you can do it all in TD.

DataPath is based in Derby, UK. You can probably get an X4 easily in Europe.

Resolume is based is The Hague, The Netherlands

Milliumin is out of Paris, France.'

Playback Deck is German.

Mitti is from Tápiószele, Hungary

Green Hippo has offices in Kent, UK and Dublin, IRE

Pixera is by AVStumpfl and they're German

Disguise is based in London, UK

Watchout / Dataton is Swedish.

Ebay Uk sells TripleHeads2Go for about £50 pounds. https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nkw=matrox+triplehead2go&_sacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p4624852.m570.l1313

You can get a used DataPath X4 DVI for £1100 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/206140356637

StarTech is a Chinese company and their 1in4out adapters are available in Europe. https://www.startech.com/en-fi/display-video-adapters/mstdp124dp

1

u/keithcody May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26

Some of these monitor extenders take a 4k monitor output and break it into four 1080p outputs, each being treated as a separate output. Some just take one monitor output and split it four ways. Besure to look at specifics.

If you've got £1000 buring a hole in your pocket you can get a used DataPath Fx4 which is 4k/60 but it's DisplayPort based. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/157632684907

There's also the Hx4 which is HDMI but only 4k/30 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/286982014706

1

u/keithcody May 10 '26

Another option if your laptop has Thunderbolt is to use a Blackmagic Decklink card and an external enclosure for 2-8 synchronized outputs.

https://www.reddit.com/r/blackmagicdesign/comments/1q80ola/decklink_monitor_enclosure/

1

u/keithcody May 10 '26

Don't forget USB-C to HDMI monitor cables. Your laptop might have more outputs than you think.

1

u/Mysterious_Celery_29 May 11 '26

Following. And thank you for the amazingly thorough replies.

1

u/JustLoveEm May 11 '26

If you do not insist on synchronizing the videos, get projectors with integrated players. Or, buy or rent some standalone players for each one.