BETT 2015 - Stuff I saw but didn't get time to write about!

[Dos_Box]

As you can imagine, I was very busy last week and in between meeting/greeting I had very little time to get around the stands.

I did however get around a few, but with pressures on my time being what they are I didn’t get time to post up about them, but now I’m back in the office I do.

So, in no particular order here we go:

 

Stone Computers:

 

As well as allowing me to feel nauseous for 3 mins whilst going through the roller coaster demo on the Oculus Rift they also showed me something rather interesting which at first glance looked nothing more than a 2u rack mount server. This however is a bit deceptive. It was actually a server/SAN combo!

The Stone Integrum is a 2u machine capable of up to 20TB of storage which also provisions for the ability to host 3 servers on a separate board which operates independently of all of the RAID controllers etc.

So in the event of an unlikely failure of any of the RAID components you can still have fully functioning domain controller and servers to allow for logins and other domain functions without the need for other independent servers.

Nice for smaller schools and organisations.

 

 

 

 

 

ICT Solutions for Education & the Public Sector | Stone Group

 

 

LearnPad:

 

I know many of you here rate LearnPad and their products quite highly and at BETT they had on display, for the very first time, a whole new range of devices and accessories. I won’t go into details about the LearnPad software or management, but what made these stand out was the dedication to wireless charging.

Based around 8 device stackable storage/charging towers the LearnPad Tectus system means that there is no longer any messing around plugging in devices or worrying about them not getting charged. You put them on the shelf and magnets guide the devices so it is located centrally and charging begins automatically.

This system supports their Octavos, Quartos, Decimos and even iPads /iPad minis that accept wireless charging!

They also had some nice tables which not only had a central touch display to work with but also charged devices placed on them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

LearnPad Tectus - LearnPad UK

 

 

ClickView:

 

I had a nice chat with Evan Clark, the MD of ClickView who wanted to show me their latest offering, ClickView TV.

ClickView TV is an online streaming service that is free to use for schools.

ClickView select the most relevant free-to-air TV and organise it for you to select and stream.

This is still in beta but you can register and take a look here. Please note you must be a school to use this service.

This service (according to the site) appears to be available for the UK, Australia, and New Zealand.

 

 

ClickView TV

[dhicks]

The Stone Integrum is a 2u machine capable of up to 20TB of storage which also provisions for the ability to host 3 servers on a separate board which operates independently of all of the RAID controllers etc.

 

Dell had a very similar device on their stand - an all-in-one 4-server rackmount with an attached RAID array that you could carve up as needed betweeen individual servers. It looked pretty much like a whole school's server infrastructure in one box.

 

They also had some nice tables which not only had a central touch display to work with but also charged devices placed on them.

 

The best part was the magnets that nudged the tablets into position - you just plonked the tablet down in the general area of the charging pad and it neatly arranges itself so it's square on the pad.

 

ClickView TV is an online streaming service that is free to use for schools.

 

And, it would seem, it integrates directly with our VLE (Firefly), so teachers can simply click on an "Insert ClickView video..." button to add a video to a VLE page for a lesson.

[sparkeh]

Can someone clarify a point about the ClickView TV?

 

On this page Sign up to ClickView TV today! near the top it says:

All programs are carefully highlighted for their educational relevance and value in the classroom and are accessible to teachers and students using your school’s Screenrights licence.

But at the bottom it says:

All programs found on ClickView TV are hosted and served under the terms of ClickView’s Screenrights Resource Centre licence. So, you can have complete peace of mind when viewing and sharing programs from ClickView TV!

 

And isn't the Screenrights licence an Australian thing anyway? Confused now...

Edited January 26, 2015 by sparkeh

[hardtailstar]

The Click View TV will be good for us.

 

thanks for the post.

[FN-GM]

Dell had a very similar device on their stand - an all-in-one 4-server rackmount with an attached RAID array that you could carve up as needed betweeen individual servers. It looked pretty much like a whole school's server infrastructure in one box.

 

It was also pretty much silent and doesn't require Air Con either. Its called the Dell vrtx

[Chris_Jones]

It was also pretty much silent and doesn't require Air Con either. Its called the Dell vrtx

 

The VRTX has been out for nearly a year now, we put on in last summer and replaced an EMC SAN and 4 Citrix servers with this single 5U box running Hyper-V.

Its smaller, quieter, uses less power and is quicker!

Would definitely recommend to any school looking to refresh their infrastructure.

[Dos_Box]

Can someone clarify a point about the ClickView TV?

 

On this page Sign up to ClickView TV today! near the top it says:

 

But at the bottom it says:

 

And isn't the Screenrights licence an Australian thing anyway? Confused now...

 

It's OK, I asked Evan about this.

In the UK the rights are managed by the Education Recording Agency to which the govt pays a licensing fee per pupil each year, so it's already covered

[Joanne]

It's OK, I asked Evan about this.

In the UK the rights are managed by the Education Recording Agency to which the govt pays a licensing fee per pupil each year, so it's already covered

 

Awesome. I'm looking into ClickView... looks amazing. Do you think they will ever incorporate youtube videos?

[sparkeh]

It's OK, I asked Evan about this.

In the UK the rights are managed by the Education Recording Agency to which the govt pays a licensing fee per pupil each year, so it's already covered

Awesome! Thanks!

 

Just signing up and it asks if you have an ERA licence, I assume we can just click yes? Well, more accurately, I just did

[Dos_Box]

I should have made it a bit clearer that Clickview work with the ERA. It's not just a 'thing' you can do, but if you are in a school and sign up they handle the licensing for you.

Not sure about YouTube, but that's a whole load of different licensing issues.

[Joanne]

Yeah I guess it is. Still a useful resource. If I get the green light I'll be getting the onsite cache!

[sparkeh]

Mmm just browsing ClickView TV and it looks good. Thanks for the heads up.

 

Just to be absolutely 100% sure I checked the ERA website and all UK schools appear to be covered already.

[simpsonj]

Does anyone know where Clickview is picking up a school's email domain from? It's picked up our old County email address domain (which was used by all schools in our County), not the one specific to our school and I can't access ClickView as that domain name was killed off a few months back.

[rickjames]

Just for ultimate clarification, but ClickView TV is 100% free right? I don't want to be signing us up only to be badgered about adding things like Exchange and so on, so forth.

[sparkeh]

Just for ultimate clarification, but ClickView TV is 100% free right? I don't want to be signing us up only to be badgered about adding things like Exchange and so on, so forth.

Seems that way. Haven't used it extensively yet but no badgering yet.

[rickjames]

Ta. I've just signed up and apart from it initially linking me through to the Australian Clickview TV it seems pretty handy.

 

To anyone who's done a little more with it how'd you go about setting this up for staff to use? They don't seem to have any documentation at all which makes me think 'setup a sole account and pass the credentials around to staff'

[sparkeh]

Ta. I've just signed up and apart from it initially linking me through to the Australian Clickview TV it seems pretty handy.

 

To anyone who's done a little more with it how'd you go about setting this up for staff to use? They don't seem to have any documentation at all which makes me think 'setup a sole account and pass the credentials around to staff'

Oh yeah meant to mention the AU link thing.

 

I just created a clickview@ email account and passed the details to staff.

[rickjames]

Ah, righty, I'll do that then.

 

Legally speaking are we allowed to use the .au and .nz versions of it as well? The more resources for teaching staff the better, obviously.

[sparkeh]

Ah, righty, I'll do that then.

 

Legally speaking are we allowed to use the .au and .nz versions of it as well? The more resources for teaching staff the better, obviously.

Caveat: I am not a lawyer

 

I don't think so. The content on the UK site is covered by the ERA licence which applies to UK broadcasts.

 

The other sites are covered by their own domestic licences.

 

I hope someone proves me wrong