Viral respiratory tract infection is among the leading causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Rapid screening methods for multiple detection of a wider range of pathogens become very important for diagnosis of respiratory infection. This article describes conventional detection technologies and several emerging multiplex assays that have potential applications in the diagnosis and monitoring of respiratory viral infections. These techniques include new rapid culture system, multiplex reverse transcription-PCR, real-time reverse transcription PCR, solid and suspension microarrays, mass spectrometry as well as metagenomics methods. The development and application of these techniques will not only improve the ability of rapid detection and control of viral respiratory infection, but play pivotal roles in the rapid characterization of new viral pathogens.