On the bottom monitor row I have 4 left to right at eye level on my editing computer,a quad Core QX6700 extreme running Vista 64 with 8 gb memory.

My "center" monitor is #2 where I run run the main Vegas UI. On the left (#1) I run the trimmer. To the right (#3) I use either as the full screen preview occasionally to watch a sequence of edits, or an explorer window with files, generally pictures. I also use 3 and sometimes 1 for titling.
Seldom do I use 4. I might run Outlook or IM on that screen.

On top of those 4 I run two monitors. My SBS on one and XP on the other which runs my weather station to the internet (www.CFAssociates.com/wx), as well as a DVD printer and I run Outlook and IM on this machine when rendering on the editor. I use a KVM switch to move the main mouse and keyboard between the 3 machines. But I cheat and have a second keyboard (Bella DV) and mouse dedicated to the editor on a higher level. I also use a Contour ShuttlePro V2 on the editor.

Reality is, I do the majority of my editing on screens 1 and 2. 3 gets some use, and 4 seldom.

David

http://www.NewsVideoTeam.com

DSCalef:
Are you running two video cards? Does your KVM switch the 7.1 sound also?
JJK

I have 3 monitors 2 LCD 22" and 17" 1 CRT 19" flat screen
I have main timeline and preview + some docked on the middle 22" trans, text, timecode, explorer, scopes on the right 17" and do full screen external preview on the CRT for color comp.

I also have several presets setup soo I can have different edit workflows I just tried stretching the time line on both LCD monitors and putting the preview trimmer + Vasst notepad on the center monitor and the FX editor on the right one, while still having external preview on the CRT ( that is all I use it for..)

Hope that helps if you want screen shots email me...

I do have 2 identical PCI-E video cards each with 2 DVI ports. They are XFX NVidia GeForce 8800 GTS cards.


My KVM switches only mouse and keyboard. I have L R sound only from 2 computers feeding two inputs on one set of speakers. No sound on Small Business Server.

If you have the room then you should consider one large monitor instead. I went dual monitor last year and had a friend go with one single (36") around the same time. I look at his setup and am sorry I didn't do the same. You can do this now because large flat panels are fairly cheap today whereas the only economical answer years ago was multiple monitor.

There's no pain staking color balance or alignment (which I can never seem to get QUITE right) between monitors to be done. You can stretch the preview to an absolutely crazy size if need be, and it's pretty wild seeing a timeline in front of you stretching out to the size he can get it without screen breaks. By zooming in and enlarging the tracks he can pretty much turn the timeline into a full sized preview if he wants. His only problem was getting the screen to sit so the center was at eye level. He ended up having to do a little reconstruction on his workstation which solved the problem.

Personally, I'm quite sold on it and when it comes time to do this again I will surely go 36" or even think about going 42". I think screen real-estate is pretty important these days especially if you're going to edit. The bigger you can go without loss of resolution or clarity.... the better