When you have a video surveillance system in place, sometimes you need a monitor that displays live camera streams only, and you don't need a full powered workstation that might also need a connection license to the VMS. So you might use a "video decoder" device like something from Next Level (NLSS), Aimetis, or ACTi for example, which connects to the camera network and pulls streams directly from the cameras and outputs them via usually HDMI directly to a monitor, bypassing the VMS system.
In that case, the cameras being displayed live will only has to serve 2 masters: the VMS system and the live view video decoder. But what if the customer wants 2, 3 or more of these live displays? You can add more decoders, but now your asking the cameras to serve many masters, possibly impairing it's video performance for the recorder (where you always want the highest resolution at your desired framerate).
To me the solution would be to have some sort of computer or AV system that pulls a single stream from the cameras for live view, and also has enough power to serve multiple decoders pulling duplicates of the same streams. That way the cameras continue to serve only the VMS and the live view system, keeping the performance optimal for both.
I know there are theoretical ways or advertised capabilities to do this, but my interest is what kind of solutions are there for something like that which have actually been tried or witnessed working?