W
hen the folks who make the Raspberry Pi made good on their plan to release a multi-core version of the tiny computer with 1GB of RAM earlier this year, I saw it as the perfect opportunity to put thesingle-board Linux box to work—real work—in our company’s network operations center.
NYSERNet, Inc., is an optical networking company that provides high-speed connections for New York state’s leading universities and research centers. Part of our job is to keep an eye on a fiber network that stretches from Buffalo to New York City. If something does down, we NEED TO KNOW QUICKLY
In the past, we had a walk-up command center that featured ten wall-mounted 19-inch monitors
powered by two large-form Windows PC towers loaded with heavy-duty video cards and enough VRAM to make everything work. The screens showed network maps, data-center views and weather, among other things.
But during a recent office remodel, we decided all the cabling, clunky-looking PCs and video-card sharing needed to go. We wanted the new space—with two new 50-inch Ultra HD monitors instead of the army
of 19-inchers—to be clean and uncluttered, and to offer staff and visitors a nice sense of “Aw, cool!”
Enter the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B.
With its powerful new four-core processor and double the RAM of its immediate predecessor, the RPi seemed to be the perfect computer not only to drive our large new 4K monitors, but also to run several important applications used by the NOC team, including a Java-based network map, Iceweasel (a Firefox Web browser derivative) and InterMapper, a proprietary network monitoring tool. Raspbian, a Debian derivative that fits well with our Ubuntu shop, would be an ideal choice for the OS.
Before we could dive in and turn over a very public—and necessary—
system to a pair of $35 RPis, I had to make sure they had enough video power to drive the large televisions. After all, we needed the 4K resolution in order to get the pixel depth necessary for sharp screen views and enough graphical real estate to
accommodate the applications we’d be running. The old ten-screen setup featured a different
application window on each monitor;
the two-screen setup needed to show just as many windows.
FEATURE Build a Large-Screen Command Center with the RPi 2
I ran some preliminary tests on an HP Mini running Windows 8.1 and on the RPi 2 Model B. The Mini could muster only 1080p, but I found
the RPi could indeed provide the resolution I wanted with its built-in full-size HDMI port and on-board Broadcom graphics. I also found I
could do it without having to set the poor RPi on fire by overclocking it to the max.
Choosing the RPis
For this project, I needed two RPis, one for each new large-screen TV.
You easily can set up more. I ordered Figure 1. A 50-inch Vizio TV displays a NYSERNet, Inc., network map in high resolution, powered by a Raspberry Pi 2 Model B, the small black box to the left. The RPi is shown pulled out from its normal hiding space behind the screen (photo by John S. Tonello).
two of the latest Raspberry Pi 2 Model B kits, which each included a computer, an 8GB SD card, a
vented plastic case and a USB power supply. This particular RPi is ideal because it’s powerful enough to run high-resolution video and our network-monitoring applications simultaneously. The previous RPi B+
with 512MB of RAM didn’t provide QUITE ENOUGH HORSEPOWER FOR WHAT I needed. If you don’t need the Ultra HD resolution, an older RPi may work fine.
The rest of this article assumes you know how to set up a Raspberry Pi.
If not, I’ve listed a good article in the Resources section that explains how to do it. I used Raspbian as my base OS.
Once your RPi is up and running, it’s a good idea to connect it to your network. If something goes wrong with the video settings during this setup, you’ll want another way to edit the configuration files. Giving the RPi an address on your network and setting up SSH will do just that.
If you’re able to find a kit with a pre-installed Raspbian (or NOOBS)
SD card, that’ll work fine. Other flavors, such as Arch Linux ARM and Pidora, also may be good options, since this solution relies more on the RPi’s base configuration and less on the OS that sits on top of it.
All told, the kits cost about $65 each. I purchased a couple 12-inch HDMI cables too—one for each RPi-TV pair.
Choosing the Screens It was important to get
high-resolution screens for this project, and after a bit of shopping, I settled on the Vizio 50-inch 4K Ultra HD LED Smart TV (P502UI-B1E). It features 3840x2160 resolution, a 120Hz refresh rate and the 16:9 aspect ratio I wanted. It didn’t hurt that this particular television came in at less than $800 delivered.
Configuring the RPi
Using the raspi-config tool (built in to Raspbian), you can fine-tune how the computer handles memory, video display and a host of other RPi parameters. For my purposes, I used it