ViBook boosts productivity with low cost, simple-to-use multiple display technology

Milan, Italy – December 15, 2008. Most people are familiar with images of financial dealer rooms with each person having several displays on their desk. It is a great way to increase productivity as users can have several programs open at once, each on a different display without having to open and close panes. Village Tronic, one of the pioneers of multi-display solutions, has announced ViBook™ which now makes it very easy and inexpensive to run several screens from one computer using just standard USB.

Jon Peddie of Jon Peddie Research, explained, “Having several screens can dramatically increase productivity for almost any computer user. Now that the costs of displays and the multi-screen technology have dropped significantly, we are forecasting a market growth for multi-screen solutions of between 25% and 50% in 2009 as people realize just how much better and productive their working environment becomes.”

One of ViBook’s first users, Harry Newton of www.InSearchOfThePerfectInvestment.com, added, “I love my ViBooks. I use them to run four screens – my internal laptop’s screen – and three external monitors, the largest of which is 22” and 1680×1050 pixels. On one screen, I have Outlook. On another Quote.com, which shows real-time share quotes. On another I’m working on a large Excel spreadsheet or doing some Word stuff. The fourth screen is running Firefox. I can scissors and paste between screens. And I still have room to sneak in my Stickies list of Things to Do. My four screen arrangement saves me enormous time.”

Up to six displays can be driven by one Windows based computer and up to four for a Mac OS one. This gives a huge amount of screen area that can significantly increase productivity as many different programs can be open and visible at the same time. Each display is driven by an ultra compact ViBook that plugs into the DVI socket of the display and the other end of the cable goes to the USB port of the desktop or notebook.

“Using USB means that it is extremely easy to set up multiple displays,” said Ascanio Orlandini, Village Tronic’s CTO. “ViBook’s unique plug to display makes it easy to add an extra monitor – it is just like plugging in a USB to DVI cable. Our multi-screen software is just as easy to set up taking only a few minutes to initially configure. Now everyone can surround themselves with an extended desktop of independent applications running on their own dedicated screen or one huge desktop spanning across several screens.”

Technical details
Designed and manufactured in Italy, ViBook is extremely small at only 4.3cm by 7cm by 2.4cm (1.7 in by 2.8 in by 0.9in) and has a three year warrantee. It is supplied as a complete USB Graphics System that includes a DVI to VGA cable for high quality analog output to displays, a VESA mounting cradle and Village Tronic’s sophisticated multi-screen software for an enhanced user experience – VT MultiDisplay software for Windows and VT Voilà for Mac. Other cable options are available as optional extras.

The ViBook Graphics USB-DVI Cable is compatible with any computer system with an USB 2.0 port running Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5; and Windows 2000, Windows XP (32-bit), Windows Vista (32 and 64-bit). It can support displays up to 22” in size, with a resolution of 1680×1050 (widescreen) and 1600×1200 (standard) in 16 and 32 bit color. As it draws its power from the USB within the specified power rating, no additional power adapters are required and it can even work via a USB hub. It can be used with or independently of the video card already installed in the computer and can even drive projectors and HDTV displays.

Pricing and availability
ViBook is priced at US$129 plus local tax and is available now.

Pictures
Illustrations and pictures are available at http://www.villagetronic.com/e_me_pics.html

About Village Tronic
Village Tronic is an international, multi-display company and has been pioneering multi-display solutions since 1993. In 1996, it became the world market leader for independent graphics cards for Motorola based Work Stations. In 2004, Village Tronic started the multi-display revolution for notebook workstations with the introduction of VTBook for the Windows, Macintosh & Linux platforms. For further information about Village Tronic and their products, please visit the website: http://www.villagetronic.com . email: press {at} villagetronic(.)com

Americas: Leanne Miller — Village Tronic US — Phone +1 316.858.0937 — Mail: press {at} villagetronic(.)com

Europe: Ascanio Orlandini — Village Tronic Italy – Phone +39-02-24126732 — Mail: PressEurope {at} villagetronic(.)com

Asia: Pendy Wu — Village Tronic China — Phone +86.20.3998.1362 — Mail: PressAsia {at} villagetronic(.)com

ViBook is a trademark of Village Tronic.

For press information, photographs and reviews, please contact Nigel Robson, Vortex PR. Email nigel {at} vortexpr(.)com Tel +44 1481 233080 www.vortexpr.com