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Feature: HP Labs meets GamePro Labs

Feature by The Gamepros | 04/11/2007 | 15:41:26 PM PST

Pluribus

Perhaps the most eye-catching and impressive--from a "gear lust" standpoint--technology on display was the Pluribus system, which allows you to combine the outputs of multiple projectors together to form a "super projector." The setup on display consisted of twelve projects linked together by three Matrox TripleHead2Go units which hooked into an HP system with two video cards.

Each video card was equipped with two video outputs (4 video outs linked to three TripleHead2Go units = 12 connections). While the math and setup sounds complicated, the end results are anything but: the image that was projected on the screen was huge, bright and crystal clear; in short, it was everything you could want in a projected image.

The presenters also had each projector keyed to the F1-F12 keys on the computer's keyboard, which allowed them to turn off individual projectors with the press of a key; this allowed us to see at a glance the effect that each projector was having on the entire picture. Best of all, the system is scaleable--one of the presenters assured us that the system could go from a minimum setup of two projectors to as many as could be imagined. We watched as people played the Xbox 360 version of Madden '07 and the words "ultimate setup" definitely applied.

Pluribus obviously is not meant for the average gamer's living room--the cost of the equipment alone places it outside the budgets of everyone whose last name isn't Trump--but the application possibilities are fascinating. For instance, as competitive gaming becomes more and more popular, Pluribus could offer up a relatively affordable and, most importantly, mobile solution for gaming leagues to display their matches to large audiences. We can also easily imagine a future scenario where a scaled-down version of Pluribus would allow an average gamer to pair the outputs of two (or even three) cheap projectors at a cost that is far less than the price of a high-end unit.

While Pluribus will most likely stay in the lab for the near future, we are seriously hoping that HP continues to develop this fascinating technology.