Interactive Whiteboards v Something else

[garethEds]

Hello peeps,

 

My IWB has broken today - it's 9/10 years old and one of the first in the school. It was a serial board but despite trying it and ordering a new cable it isn't working at all. Gutted.

 

So down it has come revealing a blank wall.

 

So - what are people using these days? Several schools have said that IWB are old now and we need to look at large touchscreen tvs that can show apple tv etc etc

 

Any ideas

 

Gareth

[chazzy2501]

the Epson interactive projectors are good. eb-475wi about £1000 ex VAT. 2 pens 800p image around 88" image.

[nadeem]

We have the Epson interactive projectors - they seem very nice.

[fiza]

We are looking at the new Epson EB-595Wi as an alternative to our aging smartboards.

[Pyroman]

We've been looking at touch screens. So far we've seen geenie, clevertouch, c-touch, infocus jtouch/bigtouch, iboardtouch and probably a few others.

 

At the moment the bigtouch is looking good for us, the software is alright, not brilliant but you can do most things in powerpoint/word etc that you'd normally do in SMART Notebook and it does come with its own software although not as feature filled as i've said. The big seller is the price, i've had a quote that's roughly £600-800 quid cheaper than the next priced board which, on several screens, is a heck of a saving which can be put into other hardware.

 

The c-touch is a nice screen, the tools are pretty standard as they seem to rely on people having office rather than building their own tools which is fair enough and they also have a collaborative bit of software that works via web page so no installation of apps on ipads/ tablets etc.

 

Geenie probably has the most feature filled software but it's at a cost of having to license it rather than it being bought outright.

 

All of the screens in my opinion are pretty much the same it's the software you have to look at. See below for trial versions of software for different boards. I've just been playing on one of our touch screen monitors with the software to get a feel for it and which i prefer.

 

iboardtouch - Downloads - iBoardTouch

Infocus Bigtouch - InFocus BigNote Trial Download | InFocus

CleverTouch - Download Trial | CleverLynx

C-Touch - downloads

Genee - Interactive Whiteboards, Visualisers, LED Touch Screens in UK, Audience Response Systems, ICT Equipment Manufacturer and Supplier - not sure if they have a demo but that's their site

Edited April 2, 2014 by Pyroman

[woody]

If you like Promethean and their ActivInspire, I've heard they now do a touch screen. Haven't seen one up close though.

[j_the_geek]

Our most recent IWB, or interactive projectors, are from Dell. The pens allow for mouse movement away from the board (kind of like using a laser pointer) and charge through USB.

The Epson ones are good too.

[Sylv3r]

Had a demo of the Promeathean Panel yesterday. It looked good, but didn't really have a play as due to a technical issue - the guy couldn't get it to work. Was possibly expensive the models quoted above - I think he quoted RRP just under £3k

[Pyroman]

Price i got quoted for the 55" Infocus Bignote was £1200, @ around £800 saving per screen compared to competition you can't go wrong really

[Alis_Klar]

When are these coming down in price? Can only dream....

Microsoft Windows 8 [82-inch Touchscreen][Hands-on][MWC 2012][HD] - YouTube

Perceptive Pixel - Home

[Danp]

the Epson interactive projectors are good. eb-475wi about £1000 ex VAT. 2 pens 800p image around 88" image.

 

Do you find they have any 'black spots' ie, areas where the touch does not work? Just wondering as there must be a point where the hand is in front of the projected image.

[chazzy2501]

no, no black sports but it is possible to position yourself in between the projector and pen.

 

it has a camera and needs to see the pen.

 

edit: rereading the post: people hold the pen like a brush rather than a pen so no, you don't get in the way.

Edited July 4, 2014 by chazzy2501

[Gibbo]

My IWB has broken today - it's 9/10 years old and one of the first in the school. It was a serial board but despite trying it and ordering a new cable it isn't working at all. Gutted.

 

An old Smartboard? There's a tiny thermal fuse on the circuit board that fails. If you slide the board out of the board (!) then there's a chance a decent electronics whizz will be able to sort it for you.

[dhicks]

Price i got quoted for the 55" Infocus Bignote was £1200, @ around £800 saving per screen compared to competition you can't go wrong really

@Pyroman - where did you get that price - is that including Smart Notebook and VAT? I can find the 55" version including Smart Notebook on AVPartsMaster for £2,000 with VAT, which isn't bad at all, but it's always worth seeing if I can get it cheaper somewhere else :-) Did you buy these in the end, are they working well? We have some older Infocus projectors around - they were cheaper devices in the first place, and are now very old and need replacing, but they've lasted well and given us very good value for money, so an Infocus touchscreen sounds like it might be a bargain.

[unixman_again]

We have several science staff who refuse to give up We where given a load of IWB a couple of years ago and most have only been used as projector screens (both kinds of projector).

[Pyroman]

@Pyroman - where did you get that price - is that including Smart Notebook and VAT? I can find the 55" version including Smart Notebook on AVPartsMaster for £2,000 with VAT, which isn't bad at all, but it's always worth seeing if I can get it cheaper somewhere else :-) Did you buy these in the end, are they working well? We have some older Infocus projectors around - they were cheaper devices in the first place, and are now very old and need replacing, but they've lasted well and given us very good value for money, so an Infocus touchscreen sounds like it might be a bargain.

 

No the £1200 was EX VAT and without SMART Notebook. (Un)fortunately i dropped lucky when i bought the screens, they were trying to meet sales targets and so dropped the price, i've just bought another one and that was nearer £1500 for just the screen. They work well, had no complaints so far, they're not brilliant for anti-glare but the nearest board with aniglare came in about £2k i think. We'll see how the new screen goes on because it's in a part of the building where it will definitely get some hammer so i'll report back if it gets smashed to bits!

[HTCPCP]

We have just started to go down the iBoard Touch route... Just don't let anyone not on the ground floor have them unless you have a lift (we do, but weren't allowed to use it so had to struggle up the stairs with them)! They aren't the lightest device in the world....

[Pyroman]

We have just started to go down the iBoard Touch route... Just don't let anyone not on the ground floor have them unless you have a lift (we do, but weren't allowed to use it so had to struggle up the stairs with them)! They aren't the lightest device in the world....

 

Agreed! the infocus ones are 60 kg, took me and the site manager to lift them onto a trolley we bought for them but ideally could have done with 3 people lifting

[dhicks]

Agreed! the infocus ones are 60 kg, took me and the site manager to lift them onto a trolley we bought for them but ideally could have done with 3 people lifting

 

Good to know, thanks - we've got to get them up two flights of stairs and attach them to walls in such a way that they don't fall off. Did you get stands with yours, the kind that fit flush on the wall but rest the weight on the floor?

[witch]

We have several science staff who refuse to give up [ATTACH=CONFIG]25542[/ATTACH] We where given a load of IWB a couple of years ago and most have only been used as projector screens (both kinds of projector).

 

A couple of years ago the caretaker and I inspected our OHPs and found that one bulb had gone (far too expensive to replace), one cord was very badly damaged and hard to replace, and one...had fallen off a desk....

Edited July 11, 2014 by witch

[witch]

Does anyone know if there are any which can run Promethean software. We are all Promethean and the HT wants two more but the space is just too short for the smallest Promethean board

[dhicks]

Does anyone know if there are any which can run Promethean software. We are all Promethean and the HT wants two more but the space is just too short for the smallest Promethean board

 

The smallest projected board, or the smallest LED touchscreen? Promethean now do touchscreens - we were quoted around £3,500 (for a 55" screen, I think) including VAT, installation and a couple of external speakers. They sound like they are very good quality, with extra-smooth non-glare glass fronts, and I assume they're licensed and work with Promethian's software.

[diddylord]

If you can use one of the Epson projectors we have those projecting onto normal whiteboards using the a mix of the Promethean software and Epson's own. That seems to work well.

 

Can't help with the iboards I'm afraid as we don't have any.

[Pyroman]

Good to know, thanks - we've got to get them up two flights of stairs and attach them to walls in such a way that they don't fall off. Did you get stands with yours, the kind that fit flush on the wall but rest the weight on the floor?

 

On the ones attached to the wall we used a UNICOL Pozimount and for the trolley we used a UNICOL vs1000 with "K" base and braked castors. The only issue with the one on the trolley is that with the brakes on it could potentially fall over backwards if you leant on it too much, it's not a breathe on it and it'll fall over but if a kid shoved it there's the potential. If you just wanted a holder without the drilling into walls then they do the "K" base without the wheels or they do a very thin floor mount that can be drilled into the floor with 2 chrome poles and a holder keeping it up.

 

I know i sound like a rep for UNICOL but they're pretty well made bits of kit and reasonably priced.

 

Edited July 11, 2014 by Pyroman