“Jean-Francois Baril has a complicated problem to solve: ‘I need to have two monitors that mirror my iMac display, so that I can buy one iMac and use it in three different adjacent rooms (in a doctor’s office),'” Glenn Fleishman writes for Macworld. “Baril wonders if display mirroring would solve the problem.”
“Yes!” Fleishman writes. “Any iMac model with two Thunderbolt ports can support one monitor via each port using the DisplayPort video standard, which uses the same connector type and passes over the Thunderbolt standard.”
“Of course, with keyboards and displays in different rooms, you’ll have to make sure that multiple people aren’t trying to use the same computer at once,” Fleishman writes. “It’s still just a single session you’re working with mirrored across multiple displays. You could find yourself confused when you struggle to move the mouse pointer onscreen as it keeps getting dragged elsewhere.”
How to use one Mac in multiple rooms explained here.
MacDailyNews Take: Anybody doing this? If so, how have you set it up so that you can use a single Mac in multiple rooms?
This is such HORRIBLE idea… while this will work, when the doctor is in exam #2 and working on the computer, the patient in exam #3 is going to see everything that is being entered while it is being entered…
That was exactly what I was thinking. It just screamed HIPPA issues.
Doctors also use computers for things that aren’t confidential. There is no way that any doctor would view sensitive material on a shared screen
It could be that they want to display healthy living promotional messages and videos in multiple areas, but also interrupt it with messages calling a particular patient to their appointment. The screens could be viewed in several locations, but only the doctor and receptionist would have a keyboard, while public areas like the waiting room would only have a screen.
Aye, this is a weak solution to a non-problem.
Use an HDMI switcher/repeater like those used in a teaching lab environment — put as many endpoints as you like in as many rooms as you like, and call up the machine on any/all of them on demand.
Someone has already invented something to achieve this. It is called a laptop. You can actually move it from room to room with you.
Exactly. I’ve also seen workstations with monitors in each examination room. The roving laptop so far appears to be the better solution.
Instead of this rigamarole, they’d be better off with three, networked, base model Mac Minis set up with password protected patient files.
Should be affordable for a doctor’s office and wouldn’t cost much more.
I had a Mac mini hooked up to a monitor in one room and the hdtv in another. That way it could be used for regular stuff plus also play movies via iTunes. With the advent of the Apple TV that went away since I can play movies via wifi.
Remote Desktop makes more sense for this application. But in reality they do need a server like approach.
I had to do this and had heaps of problems. Depends what they want to show. Since what I did was web based I bought 10 Google Chromecasts and in Chrome you set up people and can have 10 web pages showing on each of the TV’s. Maybe I should read the article.
Primary Mac is in your main work space. Get a secondary older Mac (like your previous Mac) that can run the latest OS X (or close to it), for the other nearby location. Enable screen-sharing on the primary Mac. Use the secondary Mac to show the primary Mac’s screen in full-screen mode. If the network connection is reasonably fast, the “lag” is minimal and does not hinder usability, unless you are doing something like watching an HD video (or playing a graphically challenging game). And if you want to watch YouTube on the secondary Mac, just “switch Spaces” to use its own browser.
No long cables and holes in the wall. The method described in the article is not very elegant or practical.
Take an iPad. Or iPad Pro
Use air display app
Till the time you are on the same wifi. It woks wonders.
All the best.
This is ridiculous. The guy is a doctor. This is a business expense. Stop helping this guy be cheap. at 250 to 500 dollars an hour you can afford a more expensive MacBook Pro and move it from room to room. Modern medical software requires real processing power, so don’t try to get by with an anemic MacBook Air CPU it won’t work with most software.
What do you know about “modern medical software” really? Nothing.
There is a huge move to cloud based solutions. I know, I work in the field.
What exactly does “250 to 500 dollars an hour” have to do with anything? Do you know how much it costs to run a business? Auxiliary staff, lease, student loan, insurance against the never ending frivolous lawsuits, Obamacare, etc etc etc. Go back to playing on your xbox, moron.
I’ve seen shared screen setups in recording studios….one for the engineer, one for the talent (for scripts, lyrics, etc.).
My iMac is connected via an HDMI switcher to my TV, but the switcher/router also routes HDMI signals around the house to other screens.
We’ve occasionally used a BlueTooth keyboard and mouse in other rooms to operate the iMac and view it remotely.
The most frequent way that we use it is with the 4oD catchup service ( UK Channel 4 terrestrial station ), which does not work with our Sony so called ‘smart’ TV and doesn’t work with Apple TV either, but the setup has also been used for viewing other sites.
If we are having a party, we have the list of music visible in all rooms, but only allow one operational keyboard with a DJ MIDI controller next to it.
Got 150ft. Thunderbolt cable? Gawd.