tinca492 Posted March 2, 2016 Posted March 2, 2016 Just installed an Activpanel 70" as a replacement for a 10 year old activboard. Have some questions as information is very difficult to find 1. Panel has a LAN socket but cant find a way to configure it in menus, nor the functionality it provides 2. I am sure that I have seen somewhere that the panel has Embedded Android. how do I access this and is it possible to run Android apps on the panel 3. what is the best way of connecting video from Desktop Computer, vga or hdmi via PC expansion card or usb adaptor We plan to gradually replace all of our Boards with these over the next 24 months and really need to be able to use them to the max thanks for any help
DangPro Posted March 2, 2016 Posted March 2, 2016 Hi, 1) The LAN socket on the ActivPanel are not being used with this version of the panel. Check the spec's in future versions of the panel for LAN support. 2) The android is not accessible. It is only used for internal panel operations. 3) The video connection is dependent on the computers output capabilities. The best connect would be the HDMI because it will carry audio and video on the same cable. HDMI generally has higher resolution than VGA. Hope this helps! 1
tinca492 Posted March 3, 2016 Author Posted March 3, 2016 Thanks for the prompt, but somewhat disappointing news in your response. These omissions significantly reduce any advantage of upgrading. The port tables in the limited manual do describe the rj45 as a "LAN" socket, and the product spec sheets also state "embedded Android" and it is these that prompted my questions. This purchase was made without my usual research time, so it serves me right! I think I will review the market in 6 months to see what is available before buying any more.
jon_nais Posted March 3, 2016 Posted March 3, 2016 The new ActivPanels that are getting released soon have android built in as a slot in PC so it will work the screen and you can put apps etc on to it, so it can be used without a PC being connected to it (albeit in a limited way) but if you are going cloud based for lots of things this could be good. It also has their own version of airplay so you can connect IOS, android and windows devices to the panel wirelessly. It is a big upgrade from the panels they have just now. 1
tinca492 Posted March 3, 2016 Author Posted March 3, 2016 Thanks Jon As we only very recently purchased the panel and it was described as a version 2, I had assumed, wrongly it appears, that it would have Android on-board. Unfortunately I didn't go to Bett this year as we had no plans to introduce Activpanels at the time. This purchase was driven by opportunity as we had a duff board in one room and a duff projector in another so instead of purchasing new projector and board (circa £2k) we decided to swap boards and spend the extra £1k to get the panel. Hopefully new range will be out before new budgets kick in at the end of August (we are an academy)
jon_nais Posted March 3, 2016 Posted March 3, 2016 the new panels will be out before the summer, we have an ageing stock of 150 activboards, some almost 15 years old, but we are starting a renewal cycle this summer and are planning on putting in 30 of the new 75" panels in the summer! Got quotes in already. Just got to persuade the teachers that widescreen is the future and they have to make do with loosing a little bit of height in the image! Some people are never happy!
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