The Userful solution
Userful offers a software visualisation platform, often billed per subscription and per source, hosted or streamed across your network.
AV-over-IP platform · alternative
An alternative to Userful.
Userful drives video walls over the network, usually on a subscription. If you are looking for a sovereign alternative, with no subscription and compatible with used hardware, EMD is built for exactly that.
- Refurbished & warrantied
- Sovereign software
- No subscription
With EMD
EMD replaces the subscription with a lifetime licence, runs locally without the cloud, and works on standard hardware you already own or that we refurbish.
Why used
The right hardware, without the extra cost.
Compatible hardware (mini-PCs, capture cards, displays) is readily available used or refurbished, at a fraction of the price of new.
- One-off payment rather than a subscription
- Sovereign, works without the Internet
- Refurbished and warrantied used hardware
- French support
REFURBISHED
+ EMD
guaranteed quality · controlled price
What Userful does, and for whom
Userful publishes a software platform for visualisation and audiovisual distribution over IP. The principle: servers process the sources, and the network carries the image to the screens. A single console manages image walls, digital signage and distribution to many points.
The platform targets control rooms, operations centres and corporate display, in particular when the screens are spread over several floors or several sites. It is sold as licences, often by subscription.
Where the budget goes over ten years
A subscription is paid for as long as the wall is in use. Over ten years, the total depends on the number of sources or screens covered, on renewals and on how prices change. On top come the servers, a network sized for video, and its maintenance. In any subscription model, the right of use follows the current contract.
With us, the software is bought once: a perpetual licence, paid only once (Control, €1,911 excl. VAT, see the prices), with no annual fee.
The rest is standard hardware, new or refurbished, which you replace piece by piece, from the supplier of your choice.
What we do differently
Easy Multi Display is a software publisher, not a hardware manufacturer. Our Drag & Drop software runs on a standard PC, under Windows or Linux, and drives from 1 to 40 screens on direct output, more with image wall controllers. Each wall is divided into 24 zones at most, saved as scenarios.
The sources are those of a command room: HDMI capture of business workstations, RDP remote desktop, VNC session, network streams, cameras, websites. Everything works with the network and the Internet cut. CollectivView even displays up to 40 HDMI sources with no network at all between the screens.
Keeping your Userful, or complementing it
Distribution over IP keeps all its meaning when hundreds of screens are scattered across a building or several sites. In a single crisis room, with one wall and a few workstations, a PC connected by HDMI is often enough. The two approaches can coexist: the main wall on Easy Multi Display, wide distribution on the existing infrastructure.
Compatible mini PCs, capture cards and screens are easy to find second-hand, and we refurbish standard hardware for our installations. See our second-hand equipment page, or describe your room to us.
Frequently asked questions
Userful and Easy Multi Display: your questions
Short answers to the questions we are asked most often about this equipment and about how we drive or replace it.
Does Easy Multi Display work without a network, unlike an IP platform?
Yes, sources can arrive by HDMI through capture cards, with no network between the workstations. CollectivView thus displays up to 40 HDMI sources on a wall, with no network link at all between the screens.
How much does a software alternative to Userful cost?
The Easy Multi Display licence is perpetual, paid only once (Control, €1,911 excl. VAT). The hardware is standard, new or refurbished, and priced separately according to your room.
Do I need a subscription or an Internet connection for Easy Multi Display?
No, neither. The software, installed under licence, works locally, with the network and the Internet cut, with no subscription and no online account.
Can the screens of an existing installation be reused?
Yes, Easy Multi Display drives any screen that accepts a standard video input. Several fire and rescue services (SDIS) have renovated their room without changing a single screen.
A project around Userful?
Tell us your need: we find the hardware and equip it with EMD.