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Thin clients absolutely can do this already. There are a variety of ways to transmit low latency video around a home from HDBaseT solutions to multicast / network driven ones. Nevermind basic solutions like sunshine /moonlight... Nvidia variants etc.
I have a single racked PC for feeding my home which has 3 'desk' endpoints and two tvs... all of which are fed from the same location and can be dynamically matrixed (albeit the choke point is usb2 to each location because I'm cheap.). Latency is maybe 1.5-3 frames from live. Other solutions are normally around 5-8 which while higher are sufficiently snappy and won't effect competitive play (professional level notwithstanding.)
A lot of latency comes down to tuning your solution and research. The vnc method you refer to is the lowest common denominator running on ancient technology and codecs simply because it is a widely supported standard.
Edit: As far as 144 goes- I don't have any displays that run that but I have two running at 120 with no issue.
What is the cost of the thin clients and are you doing this over copper?
Are your desks multi monitor? To get the bare minimum in my households scenario I would need at least 12 streams at greater than 1080p
For 5 seats how much did it cost versus just having a computer in each location? For example looking at hdbaset to replace just my desk setup, I would need 4 ~$350 devices, just looking at monoprice for an idea (https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=21669) which doesn't even cover all of the screens in my office.
The two workstation nooks (spaces) have the capability to have a second monitor but I've since retired them in favor of ultrawide monitors which I find are a better experience in general. My current working solution is a split between two technologies: one thin client (second monitors) and one network distribution solution using multicast (primary displays and USB). Both run on copper 1 gig but the multicast traffic requires a switch that doesn't suck and vlan usage. On average a single port can reach 70-85% usage sustained. I believe my longest run is 150' ish.
Cost per node is roughly 300- so comparable to what you are experiencing. If I went stupid cheap I could probably cut that to maybe 150-250 depending on my luck with eBay and patience.
In terms of capabilities you could argue that this could be done without distribution using a nuc solution... but you'd have to split resources to reach node you'd need a full feature set at.
My central server is a threadripper build with 2 gpus for direct passthrough to 'gaming' vms and a split gpu handling the rest of the needs of the other systems. Thanks to the matrix capabilities any given seat can be any system... or in some cases 2 seats can be a single rig (2 room gaming off the same display). There is a cost savings to be found in splitting resources from a more expensive build out to cheaper nodes... but ymmv depending on active seats and specific needs. I believe as a general rule it should be less costly and more efficient (power/heat) than individual solutions.
Thanks for the breakdown! This is probably the most helpful breakdown I've seen of a build like this.
Absolutely 👍. I'll just add that there are a lot of alternate routes to get the result you want so research and experiment but ideally set a deadline which can help with decision paralysis. Later changes are a problem for future you 😁.