Life Channel and Anomaly displays...current thoughts

[Snookered]

Hi all

I've just attended a meeting with our SLT and a guy from Life Channel.

All sounded fantastic, the guy said he used to be an actor and it showed, he reeled of so much info so quickly he sounded like he was one of those guys who has to get the T&C's in before the end of a radio ad. He came up with incredibly high prices and then started to offer discounts if we agreed there and then, still looking at around 8-10K per year for 3 year's.

I liked the idea of their own channels, at least there would be something interesting to watch, but does anyone one stand there for a few minutes and look at the screens?

Has their software improved, I've seen from previous post's that it was lacking, but that was a few years ago now.

I'd rather use a couple of Raspberry Pi's and some second hand large screens than pay this sort of money.

Can anyone recommend them?

 

(I also noticed that Life Channel and Anomaly Group are tied together when looking at company and director info online)

Cheers!

[NeustroEduIT_Christine]

Hi ,

We work with a School who used to have Life Channel, they moved away because it was too expensive for what they were getting. They decided to wall-mount screens with desktop PCs behind them (Rasberry Pi's would definitely work too). They then purchased a digital signage solution, which allowed them to create their own content, allowing them to promote the School and activities etc.

I know you were looking for feedback but just wanted to give you our second-hand experience.

Thanks

Christine

[F3000]

We used to have TLC from around 2008 to 2011. When the prices came in for renewal it was a no brainier to stop (the original idea being the previous Head's). In terms of content at the time, most of it we found was not relevant to us and some of it was longish videos, which nobody was ever going to stand there and watch without any sound, I actually struggle to remember exactly what content it was now. What we did was to (what probably a few on here have done) move over to Xibo, using the exact same hardware which was used by the TLC. Things may have changed from 2011 of course.

[dry]

In a previous school we used TLC- it was ok in the way that it was relatively straight forward for not particularly tech literate staff to update.

 

Content was things like 'how to brush your teeth' and 'how to use the bus'- which always made me chuckle when I walked past the screens (bearing in mind the audience was secondary school kids!)

 

In the end we found it too limiting. We couldn't find a way to completely disable the Life Channel content, which was inconvenient for things like open evenings when we wanted to display one image with timings for talks all night.

 

Reached the end of the contract but TLC didn't come and retrieve their kit, so we were free to re-purpose it for Xibo.

[Snookered]

Purely out of co-incidence our SLT were at a meeting yesterday and Life Channel came up in discussion, it seems that they are trying a different tact in order to get a meeting with Heads.

This message below was sent from Sussex Safeguarding Children Board to Surrey CC

 

Dear all

 

Towards the end of last week and today two companies – The Life Channel and Anomaly have been calling schools in Brighton & Hove saying that the DfE have asked them to contact head teachers about a sensitive safeguarding incident in the area. They never leave their details or advise who from the DfE has made this request. So far they haven’t got through to headteachers but the staff they have spoken to have contacted me to make me aware. The DfE say they haven’t heard of these companies – just wanted to make you all aware in case this is a happening elsewhere

[Pottsey]

Last time I used them a few years back they had what looked like lots of content but it was rarely changed or updated. So the same things kept showing. It was very overpriced and the software was a pain, getting rid of them was one of the best things we did. You can get the same thing Life Channel provide by downloading suitable free videos from youtube or other sources.

[gillop]

Like others, we had TLC, only 2 members of staff ever produced content for it, and although their content was supposed to change every month, the odd item may have changed but the bulk didn't, the pupils got fed up of seeing the same videos over and over again.

 

My colleague is currently trying to set up Xibo on the existing kit, but we wish we could afford an eStream Media Server as it would appear to do the lot including Digital Signage.

[Techie2000]

I know 3 schools currently stuck in TLC contracts with no option to get out other than to pay the extortionate amount in full. Plus like others have said- it's very limiting.

[Smee]

One of my schools are currently in "discussions" with TLC as the install they had has never worked properly and the head wants out. Clever salesman saying all the right things to get impressionable schools hooked! The TLC helpdesk is currently blaming the hardware for all issues. And the content is still about cleaning teeth and health eating. No change for nearly a year.

[Techie2000]

Smee, how have you got on with trying to get out of the contract? We were informed it was impossible as they have a finance company sign the school up for a loan to pay for the services. We've tried a few times - have even spoken to the finance company ourselves but neither want to know. The only way out would be through a vast amount of schools leaving together (power in numbers etc etc); unfortunately our LA isn't supportive enough to consolidate the schools to build a large case against TLC...

[Duranis]

Avoid them at all costs!!!! Hardware is poor, support is beyond terrible and the cost is ridiculous. Also as Techie2000 said they work through a loan to pay for the service so pretty much impossible to get out of once your in.

 

My experience with them below for what its worth, baring in mind I only started here last September (warning: long rant below ).

 

We have 3 screens in use, 2 external 1 internal that they fitted. When I started there was one external screen that didn't work (and apparently hadn't worked for longer than 3 days since it was installed 8 months before). I had 7 separate call outs to get this thing fixed before then finally just ripped it out and replace the whole unit (which was also a farce as they tried to do it in the pouring rain but bought no equipment to do it properly, our amazing site manager had to supply the equipment and brain power to get it sorted).

 

Bare in mind that the quickest an engineer ever came out was 2 weeks after I logged the call. In the almost 3 months of trying to get them to fix it properly I had it working for 3 days. One of the times it wasn't working was because the install engineer had not set the PC in it to auto power up after power lose, I had to wait over 2 weeks for them to just come turn it on (and then the engineer was moaning because he had to drive 2 hours to get to us for a 2 minute job). After that I insisted they leave me keys and login details so I can access it myself. Whenever I called to log an issue it always involved having to constantly chase them for answers afterward.

 

Not long ago I had a phone call from them saying that they needed to come and do some software "updates". Maybe its my fault for not asking enough questions but it turned out their "updates" where completely changing the entire system. This was done without discussing it with us first and as it was an entirely new system all of our old content was deleted (they did no backups or even told us this was going to happen so we could do it) and we couldn't access the new system (the engineers left without even talking to anyone) and it was only after I screamed down the phone at them that they sent us login details (but no instructions or documentation on how the new system worked).

 

The new system was not up to the spec that we originally wanted (no ability to have different content on different screens and various other issues) so I phoned them to arrange a meeting with one of their management team, myself and our SLT to discuss the massive amount of issues we had. When the meeting comes around they sent a training guy who had no knowledge of the issues we had faced and zero power to do anything about it. He at least managed to fix a few of the issues we had with how it worked but the other fixes he promised us still have not happened.

 

A couple of weeks ago I got a letter from them saying that we had to sign a new agreement for our hardware cover to continue to be valid. This agreement wants us to physically cover our external screens every evening and over weekends or they will refuse to fix any faults with them. In my opinion if their external screens are not up to the capabilities they where sold to us as then that is not my problem and I'm not going to waste our site managers time messing about with covers on them every day.

 

At this point I have pretty much given up trying to get a decent service out of them. As mentioned above the content they do provide is too long and boring, its of zero interest to parents. The children occasionally play along to the exercise one at break time but we could easily get some royalty free or very cheap content that is much better. Once it is paid off I will be switching us to something like Xibo.

 

Seriously just avoid, they are the worst company I have ever had to deal with.

 

Edit: Also, Xibo hosting for £1.20 a month per display.

http://springsignage.com/hosting

 

You could always set up your own host as well which is fairly straight forward. Even if you factor in installing external screens it still works out a lot cheaper than TLC. I have been thinking re-purposing old laptops as digital signage to go in the windows of each classroom. Even if I use the hosting option above for Xibo it works out cheaper for 17 screens than TLC does for 3.

Edited March 30, 2015 by Duranis

[Smee]

From what I can gather from the head, they called TLC and were told that they had to deal with the hardware suppliers. The school phoned the hardware suppliers who said the issues where with TLC! The school then told TLC that they wanted out of the contract as it wasn't fit for purpose. After a lot of phone calls TLC sent someone out over the easter break to "sort the system out" I was back at the school yesterday and the head was getting the display info changed. Whether it works as hoped for I don't know yet. I'm afraid I've kept well away from the issues, TLC tried to blame my network for their problems but I soon "explained" to them the error of that! I wouldn't mind but the school did have a working internal display system but were won over by the super smooth sales pitch and the thought of a display in the playground! Will update any further info when I go back to the school. As for asking for help from the LA, I don't think anyone wants to admit they've been sold a lemon to either the LA or their governors.

[ModeratelyGruntled]

Bumpety Bump

 

Hello

 

Do we think the TLC would mind if I 're-purposed' their boxes mid-contract? I've inherited a school mid-way through an agreement and the software is so lame it's unbelievable. I want to flatten the clients and put Xibo on but CBA to wait for the contract to end.

 

Thoughts?

[dry]

Bumpety Bump

 

Hello

 

Do we think the TLC would mind if I 're-purposed' their boxes mid-contract? I've inherited a school mid-way through an agreement and the software is so lame it's unbelievable. I want to flatten the clients and put Xibo on but CBA to wait for the contract to end.

 

Thoughts?

 

I'd tread carefully. From what I understood when I spoke to them, it's still their equipment so they could ask for it back.

 

Bear in mind that all they use is SFF Dells in the cabinets with VGA splitters. You can easily pick one up second hand for ~£30 on ebay that'd be totally adequate to run Xibo on. You could then remove TLC's Dell and store it until the end of their contract. That way, if they do come back for the kit, you've still got it and can plug it back in as if nothing has changed.