ATEN wants channel pros to know that its KVM switches provide capabilities beyond data center applications.
This week, the company launched a communications initiative aimed at helping VARs and SMBs to understand other applications for its Panel Array Mode technology.
Panel Array Mode
KVM switches have been typically utilized in data centers to monitor and control multiple computers or servers from a single keyboard, monitor, and mouse.
ATEN’s Panel Array Mode enables users to monitor multiple targets from a single screen. Each selected target’s video output appears in a separate panel and users can select which panel to view in full screen by clicking on one of the images.
The technology can also be leveraged in “a range of applications,” says ATEN in a recent statement. Those applications include manufacturing, distribution, and quality control as well as surveillance with the aid of a CCTV controller.
“By leveraging Panel Array Mode in surveillance installations, control of an entire facility can be centralized and up to 40 CCTV DVRs can be viewed simultaneously on one screen,” the company asserts.
ATEN’s Panel Array Mode-enabled KVMs:
- CS1708i/CS1716i — Eight- and 16-port IP USB/PS2 KVM switches
- KN2108/KN2116/KN4116 †– Eight- and 16-port CAT5 IP KVM switches
- KN2124v/KN4124v — Twenty-four-port CAT5 IP KVM switches with Virtual Media functionality
- KN2132/KN4132 — Thirty-two-port CAT5 IP KVM switches
- KN2140v/KN4140v — Forty-port CAT5 IP KVM switches with Virtual Media functionality
Multi-Building Scenarios
One of the applications ATEN wants channel pros to consider for Panel Array Mode-enabled KVMs is the multi-building scenarios.
In a typical surveillance installation for a multi-building facility, a CCTV controller is paired with only one control point for each building. A dedicated security team is needed to monitor and control each building at all times. With Panel Array Mode products from ATEN, the company says as part of this communication initiative, manpower is significantly reduced by centralizing the entire facility via one KVM, such as the 24-port KN2124v CAT5 IP KVM switch.
“One ATEN customer in the manufacturing and distribution industry is leveraging Panel Array Mode in a product testing environment, ATEN tells Channel Pro-SMB. That company is Arrow Electronics.
Arrow selected ATEN KVM switches for test rack solutions in select integration centers, where customized computing solutions are developed for their OEM customers. The Panel Array Mode feature enabled technicians to view the status of up to 16 test units simultaneously.
“With ATEN, we are now saving time on each test bench, well exceeding our expectations,” says Brian Armstrong, Arrow’s vice president of OEM computing solutions, “thereby allowing more products to be configured and tested in less time.”
ATEN CEO James Hsieh wants other channel pros to find similar ways of using his company’s KVMs. “ATEN KVM switches with Panel Array Mode can be leveraged in all types of applications,” he says, “from data centers and server rooms to new applications, such as manufacturing and surveillance installations.”
Hsieh adds that Panel Array Mode was developed to “provide customers with a unique technology that will enable them to leverage our products in new ways, such as monitoring security video feeds or production lines within a manufacturing plant.”
