How To Deploy a Game Console In the Office?

SkydiverFL writes "Does anyone have an idea for a good solution for using a game console (Xbox 360, PS3, etc.) with a laptop and / or external monitor? I am planning to set up each of my developers at the office with a shiny new Xbox 360, surround headphones, and Gold memberships. The only catch is that I have to do it 'gracefully.' I would be grateful for any input on the technical setup and politics (how to get it in and how to work through the politics)." Read on for further details on the situation. SkydiverFL continues, "Long story short, I am the MIS Manager / Lead Architect for a blue collar non-tech company. My team needs to be happy, but the folks in the rest of the office do not really understand what that means for the types of personalities that exist in our department. Even though my team is tucked away in a different part of the building, we do have clients and employees come back here from time to time. I cannot set a monitor on their desk. The console can be here, but it needs to be not so 'in your face.' Each developer currently has a maxed out Dell Latitude D830 laptop, docking station, and a wide screen 20" LCD. The LCD has a dual-input configuration — one for SVGA and one for DVI. The DVI port is in use by the laptop. It would be preferable not to feed the console directly into the monitor. We have employee monitoring software in use and need to track the usage of the console. So, it seems best to use a capture card along with some type of viewer utility. This would allow us to have a record of when and how long the console was used, in case anyone else in management ever has a problem.

Comments

Re:you are wasting company money.

[karnal]

I was going to respond originally at the parent level, but I want to add to this post since it seems to make the most sense.

1. Put limits in for breaks/after hours only use.
2. Put the system in a place that other employees cannot get to.
3. Do not advertise the area to anyone but whom should know about it.

Those being said, a long long time ago I worked for a company that had a few tech people playing Age of Empires during lunch. In the beginning, they'd play after hours but over time it migrated into an hour+ long lunch time of having all of the on-site technicians playing. This caused a few problems I'll highlight:

1. The game was being played using company resources (computers) and utilized the company network.
2. There were instances where customers were turned away at lunch time because the employees claimed "break time."
3. Management had some approval on this, but high level management had no clue it was happening.

What I'm guessing happened is someone complained to the higher ups that they got turned away from support even though the techs were at their desks. You CANNOT show your customers that a game is more important than supporting the business.

In my opinion - if there are clear lines of support hours, then outside those "core hours" you could probably pull this off. During business? Well, I'd have to think unless it's an all or nothing (allowing ANY employee to use the systems during a break) you'll have severe people issues. And there's no amount of technology that will help you overcome a jealous employee.

Side note: Used to smoke. Building is smoke free, have to drive off the lot to smoke. Co-workers complain that the smokers get more break time because they take >15 minutes to get off property, chain smoke 2 and come back. Be all end all is that someone is always going to be pissed about something like this, and it's probably better off without even having the option to play games during business hours.