Would this work? - Mac + VNC + iVGA + Tricaster?

[davechalmers]

Hi there,

Just pondering this whole 'lack of MacOS X iVGA client' thing, and came up with a slightly clunky workaround option, and wondered if this would fly.

Suppose that you have a tricaster, and another PC (laptop) for presentations etc.

Suppose then that someone turns up with a Mac laptop (it MIGHT happen!) and you absolutely HAVE to present some special app or video or something that is only on that machine. (Hey, it's the CEO's laptop or something, and he's REALLY touchy about it...and he signs the cheques!! :-)

Presumably you could connect up a mini-network (hub needed) between the Mac Laptop, and Tricaster, and run a VNC server on the Mac laptop
(e.g. http://www.redstonesoftware.com/osxvnc)
and then run a fullscreen VNC client on the PC laptop
(e.g. http://www.tightvnc.com/)
and 'capture' the screen of that client using the iVGA client
and send that to the Tricaster.

Did you follow that?

So..... would this suck?
Does the iVGA app totally take over the enet bandwidth available?

Of course, in an emergency, anything working is better than nothing, but would it slow to a crawl, or be usable? I know, I know, depends on how fast the machines are etc.
I guess one option would be to have two ethernet interfaces on the PC laptop (built-in and PC-Card) and 'share internet connection' between the two.

I can foresee two real problems with this approach:

1. Why bother? - if you think about it, the only really justifyable reason to HAVE to use a Mac is if you are running some specialised app that ONLY runs on macs.
PPT, keynote, video files etc. are ALL transferrable and playable on either platform, with a little thought.
There aren't many 'file sharing' issues that a USB FLASH drive and a copy of Quicktime on both machines can't fix.

2. Of course the BIG problem with this is PERFORMANCE as you have both the VNC AND the iVGA shoving screen data down the same ethernet interface, which has got to become a bottleneck. I am assuming gigabit enet is essential for decent performance.

Of course, if Newtek added a 'VNC client' mode to the network-in function that would simplify things too, and give near-universal (albeit at limited performance) access.

Sorry, just thinking out loud here, and trying to make this whole Tricaster thing more inclusive.

Thanks

Dave

[Paul Lara]

Does the iVGA app totally take over the enet bandwidth available?

No, the screen is sent over ethernet as a compressed stream, and only sends static screens in a burst across the network, and not much else is sent until that screen changes.

:cool:

[stanbunger]

Has anyone given Dave's theory a real-world checkout?

When the boss has his PowerPoint (or, maybe, Keynote) presentation loaded on his PowerBook, I'm not the guy who wants to tell him, "Hey, you'll have to use my Dell laptop to run your presentation!"

Until NewTek can give us an iVGA client for the Mac, we need a workaround. I carry a scan converter which connects to the laptop's "monitor out" port and converts to NTSC video, but the results can be variable (and it's a clunky piece of hardware anyway).

[Tarheel Cougar]

You should be able to just use the S-Video output directly on the side of the Mac (or most laptops) if all you want to do is use NTSC and leave the scan converter at home. The 15" Powerbooks and up have S-Video outs built in (the small ones may too, I don't have one so I dont know). The real beauty of the IVGA (and this proposed network workaround) is using full VGA resolution for a projector, and not taking up one of the scarce three inputs. But if all you want is NTSC, and don't mind losing an input, the built in s-video output has been adequate on the PC end for me in a pinch.