Let’s be honest; when I saw my appointment with Avocent (who?), I found their web site, saw that they produced KVM switches (what?) and immediately penciled in a (yawn). I couldn’t have been more wrong—just got back from the meet, and I’m jazzed.

Avocent is shipping KVM over a network, and I want one. In case you don’t know, KVM technology stands for keyboard, video and mouse, and desktop units, like the four-port unit that I currently have, let you control multiple computers from one keyboard, mouse and monitor. While I couldn’t live without mine, it’s not the sexiest piece of hardware in my office.

Networking makes it so. Here’s the sexy scenario. You’re a post house and share certain resources, like an Autodesk Smoke or Flame unit between multiple rooms. Can be Mac or Windows. You could cart the unit around as needed, or get one of Avocent’s Digital KVM Extension over LAN and control it from any workstation on the LAN.

Here’s another scenario, slightly less sexy. You’re security-conscious, and want to keep all CPUs in a secure location, while accessing them from your desk or studio. You can get really long cables, or get the Avocent unit.

Here’s my prosaic scenario. I have ten computers or so scattered over a house and home office, all on the same LAN. I would love to have one of these units to access the remote CPUs.

The unit works by digitizing the graphics output sent to the digital monitor and transmitting that over the LAN. I saw a demo over a gigabyte network and there was no noticeable latency or quality loss. You really couldn’t tell that you weren’t attached to the computer.

The unit comes in single ($2,100) and dual head ($2,500) models, so if you’re a dual monitor editor, you can duplicate that setup remotely. There’s a server component that lets you setup accounts to control access to the remote computers. If any of these scenarios fit your situation, get more information at www.avocent.com.