'Modern' equivalent to SmartBoards?

[Ben_Stanton]

Hi all,

 

Our smartboards are coming up to a good 8/9 years old and some are showing signs of imminent failure. So, we are possibly looking to replace them on a rolling basis.

 

With the 'do they actually get used interactively or just as a glorified, overly expensive powerpoint clicker' argument aside, what are people using in todays 'modern' classroom as an equivalent?

 

We have 1 CleverTouch display, but these are crazy expensive and even though it's super good looking and fully interactive, it still really doesn't get fully utilised (I appreciate this may be a staff training/education element here).

 

Our current set-up is standard cieling-mounted projectors (not short-throw).

 

Thanks in advance,

 

Ben

[localzuk]

We use interactive projectors such as the Epson EWB485wi and the NEC NP-UM301WG. We've also got a few CleverTouch LCDs in as well.

 

One of our feeder schools is going to be replacing all their old IWBs with Smart 65" LED TVs, and the price they have was about £2700 per screen, installed. So they're not *that* crazy expensive any more.

[Ben_Stanton]

Thanks for the info. Any UK sales info for the above interactive projectors @localzuk?

 

I think we paid £3500ish for the LCD a couple of years ago and they have come down in price i'm sure. But, smartboards are only £1000ish so may still be the most cost efficient solution.

 

Ta

Edited February 26, 2016 by Ben_Stanton

[Sagima]

Our primary is replacing all of theirs with Smart 6065 interactive displays, the high school part never really feel in love with interactive whiteboards but the odd department (maths and modern languages) use them but they get replaced with a 88" whiteboard and an Epson EB-595Wi if they break now.

[localzuk]

Thanks for the info.

 

I think we paid £3500ish for the LCD a couple of years ago and they have come down in price i'm sure. But, smartboards are only £1000ish so may still be the most cost efficient answer

 

Ta

 

£1000 for the board, plus £300+ for the projector, + £300 for install, plus lamps, plus maintenance time.

 

So, yes they cost a little less, but they are also more work and have ongoing costs.

[Ben_Stanton]

Fully appreciate where you're coming from on weighing it up.

 

However, we do any new installs in-house. We don't spend £300 on a projector either and lamp costs are negligible over life-span. It's a good general equation to work by though.

 

- - - Updated - - -

 

Thanks @Sagima, do you have rough ball-park costs for the Smart 6065 at all?

 

Cheers

[dhicks]

I think we paid £3500ish for the LCD a couple of years ago and they have come down in price i'm sure. But, smartboards are only £1000ish so may still be the most cost efficient solution.

 

This might depend rather on how your school operates, but we find we wind up re-locating equipment a fair bit, hence we're tending to buy LCD screens as they can be placed in wheeled stands and simply moved to where you want them. We recently bought a Promethean 55" screen with a motorised stand (so we can adjust the height, for different ages / height of children) and built-in OPS PC (8GB of RAM, SSD, Core i5) for £3,600 (price includes VAT). No installation charge as there's no installation, we just have to slot the screen on to the stand and away we go.

 

The OPS PC hasn't turned up yet so we can't give a definative this-is-the-setup-to-go-for yet, but certainly the Prometean boards currently seem to be the best value LCD screens out there at the moment - not the absolute cheapest, but the cheapest good-quality, proper 10-point multitouch and with OPS slot support.

[karldenton]

We use Mimio. Put a basic drywipe whiteboard in a classroom and Mimio in one corner. Teachers can write on the board but also use it interactively with the pen.

[Sagima]

Board was about £2800 ex vat last year (we haven't gone shopping for quotes this year yet) - we swapped out a third of them and we planning on doing about half the remainder this year.

 

We run them at 1080p - we had a go at seeing what we'd need to buy for the computers to run them at 4k but it was deemed too much. Their PCs are due for a refresh over the next two years so we'll see how much easier it is then.

[localzuk]

The £2700 I mentioned earlier was for a Smart 6065, installed, so you should be able to get them for around £2500-2600 without installation I think.

[Blue_Cookeh]

We sucked up the cost and replaced all our SMART boards with CleverTouch screens this year. Teachers are loving the ability to use them without a computer, with a computer, as normal TVs, streaming iPads etc to them.

 

It's a really nice solution, and they're far easier to see in bright classrooms than the old Casio/SMARTboard combinations we had.

 

... plus we have way more support with them, I barely touch them now

Edited February 26, 2016 by Blue_Cookeh

[CHR1S]

Were getting BenQ LCD Screens in, 55" for around the £1200 area. So far, so good.

[Sagima]

We've only had two negative comments regarding the smart displays - 1) Can't freeze the display 2) bit small compared to their old smartboards.

 

There are larger screens available now but I doubt we'll spend any extra and the school hates classrooms having different equipment in them.

[Ben_Stanton]

Thanks all, some good ideas. Looks like we need to suck it up and spend a little more to modernise.

 

Cheers

[dhicks]

There are larger screens available now

 

Just to add: the larger screens (65" and up) are quite heavy - check the load-bearing capacity of your wall before you decide what mount you'll be using, you might need to go for something that bears the weight on the floor.

[Ben_Stanton]

Yep, already thought of that. Nearly all rooms needing an upgrade are standard box partition walls so a floor stand would be needed if we went with a big LCD. But, most of our rooms are quite small so this actually has quite a negative impact and wastes lots of space. The main bulk of teaching is done in a block with split levels and stairs here there and everywhere (which puts a spanner in the works for LCDs on a mobile trolly).

 

I think we'll end up going short-throw interactive projectors

[NotSoFast]

I think we'll just get dry wipe boards. The pen accuracy on those things is amazing and they never seem to need calibrating.

[asc]

We use Mimio. Put a basic drywipe whiteboard in a classroom and Mimio in one corner. Teachers can write on the board but also use it interactively with the pen.

 

Funny you should mention mimio. I looked at it about 5 years ago and it seemed like a nice neat solution. Where did you purchase yours from?

[twin--turbo]

I got a free mimio about 15 years ago, we used it a couple of times but was then forgotten about as the department that had it were limited on space and had no fixed white board.

 

Reasonable idea, am sure they have also improved on it in that time too.

 

I would go with a mix of cheap TV's and Clevers on stands. We found that the TV's were used a lot, and the clevers were used just as displays most of the time.

[snagrat]

You can get a VividTouch 65" for less than £2k now and that included a 3 years Smart Notebook license.

[jmak]

Having looked at all the options above and tried them out, my preferred option is the interactive projectors. The final deciding factor was when Epson announced they're bundling smart Notebook licences with theirs. They often have offers with 5 year warranties and told me that replacement bulbs are now around £50. In theory the ones I looked at don't need filter cleaning either. I'd go for the finger tracking version - works better in a primary for the kids, but you could save a bit by having the pen only version. They come in around the £1200 -£1400 mark including software.

[gaz350b]

You can get a VividTouch 65" for less than £2k now and that included a 3 years Smart Notebook license.

 

Just had a quote for 8 of these under £1600 from Misco although that was just for screen, bracket and soundbar.

[VeryPC_Anthony_L]

Hi @Ben_Stanton

 

At VeryPC we are seeing a massive shift towards the Interactive Flat Panels rather than projectors generally we get the following

 

Old projector - Low budget = new projector swap over

Old projector - SMART board ok medium budget = Short throw projector

Old projector - SMART board dying medium/large budget = interactive projector or Interactive flat panel

SMART board dying - projector ok medium/large budget = interactive projector or Interactive flat panel

Full replacement/New install = Interactive Flat Panel

 

As much as I really like the Flat panels, I do still really like projectors. On a price perspective an Interactive projector set up can be purchased for a very similar price to a Interactive flat panel this though is not on size comparison. Typically a projector set up will be around 80-90" compared with IFP's which are generally 65". If you are wanting the bigger 80"+ size then these do fetch a premium.

 

Depending on what panel you purchase some come with OPS slots, embedded Android, embedded Windows 10,or a combination.

 

If I can be of any help with pricing etc then feel free to send me a PM.

 

Anthony

[BenQ_Support]

Hi All,

 

Just to introduce myself as we are a new sponsor.

 

As a manufacturer of projectors and flat-panels we’ve seen a major shift towards interactive panels in education but IMO both technologies have their place.

 

Projection offers a larger potential screen size (although normally at a lower resolution) and arguably better viewing angles. I’d recommend for screen sizes over 80” or where schools have IWB’s with a few years left.

 

Long-term solution tends to be replace with interactive panels now. Advantages of the panel technology; brightness, colour reproduction, higher resolution, lower maintenance, no calibration.

 

Best thing I can suggest is to get some products in to test in your school and to see what work for you. Feel free to send me a PM if you want any further advice or any pricing for comparison.

 

Adrian