Twenty rooms....

[CapnPugwash]

I know variations of this question get asked/answered all the time but ...

 

I'm in a situation where I might have to kit out twenty rooms for AV - on a budget.

Money isn't the only consideration, the life expectancy and maintenance of the kit is also a factor.

 

I don't think interactive boards are a necessity - we've had lots of them and teachers rarely use them as they are intended.

 

TV's look attractive because... less cables, built in speakers etc. A supplier has told us we need 'special' 24/7 TV's , which I find odd because we have several cheap TVs in school used as displays which are on all day / every day and have been for years....

 

Interested in peoples opinions, especially people who have made similar volume purchases recently

[forkies]

Just my two cents... Interactive projector for £1200 vs interactive TV at more then £2500.

[TomHD]

IBT EL 65+ interactive TV can be had for around £1800 very good piece of kit and there software is great too. British company with British support [emoji317]

[synaesthesia]

Where are you getting them from at that price?

[dhicks]

Interested in peoples opinions, especially people who have made similar volume purchases recently

 

Promethean touch panels have a good combination of quality / price - proper 10-point multi-touch, designed for classroom use, come with warrenty. We've had one screen repaired under warrenty, and there was no problem or argument in getting the problem sorted. AVPartsMaster have 55" for £1,500, 65" for £3,000 (prices include VAT) - the price does seem to increase quite sharply as you increase in size. Depending on what setup you want, they will take an OPS slot PC, so you can have an all-in-one interactive panel and PC.

[smurfomatic]

We're looking at a similar situation. We've been trialling an Epson interactive projector in one class, which as @forkies says is a lot cheaper than an IWB or TV solution. For those rooms who don't use it as an interactive option, they still have a "regular" whiteboard as a projection surface and therefore aren't going to ruin an IWB by writing on it.

[kidpressingbuttons]

You have to buy 24/7 tvs because most manufacturers will void your warranty as they assume the tv is being used 24/7 in a school, so if you use a normal consumer tv you could potentially have no warranty! In my experience the prices are not that different.

[TomHD]

Where are you getting them from at that price?

I'll ask the Business Manager

 

Regarding 24/7 use... Schools are only open from ~8:30 - ~18:00 so how a manufacturer could argue that is not clear!?

[2ilent8cho]

I know Panasonic do a Pro range of TVs which are designed to be used 24/7, places like Tesco use them . But i would expect in a normal house the TV would be on from around 4PM to around 10/11PM every weekday which is close to a school day in hours terms so i don't think you need the heavy duty versions of the TVs.

 

We are moving over the next few years to normal large TVs as only a handful of departments use the IWB interactively so don't need interactive TVs , and those who do need interactivity have much preferred using an iPad Pro + Airplay so those departments like Maths will just get iPad Pros.

[TechMonkey]

Don't forget if you are comparing costs to do a proper TCO. Yes LCD TV initial costs are higher than projectors but what about maintenance (I hate filter cleaning!!), replacement bulbs, life expectancy. Last time I did a quick look the TVs were actually cheaper looking at 5 year use and I expect the TVs to last longer than that so were much cheaper than projectors.

[VeryPC_Anthony_L]

Hi all,

 

One question I have been asked a few times and also seen on the forum is why should you not purchase a normal TV and the main overall reason is warranty.

Your standard home screen will have a warranty that will cover light usage where as a commercial screen will cover you for long periods (8+ hours)

How many times have you walked in a classroom and found the projector left on. A commercial warranty will often be for 2+yrs and will generally be able to offer an onsite swap out.

 

If you going to go with screens then I would suggest ideally going for a 65inch screen. This seems to currently be the most popular along with 70inch. Some schools do go for slightly smaller with 55-58 but this is less common.

 

Once you start looking at screens over 50inch the prices rise quite a bit. Depending on what you are looking for you can often get a 65inch interactive screens for not much more than a non interactive 65inch screen.

 

 

If anyone would like any quotes on any set ups do feel free to PM me.

 

 

Regards

 

 

Anthony

[LeeMartin]

Just to chime in with another perspective, we've just finished replacing our remaining bulbed projectors with Casio LED projectors, after trade-in they were approximately £300 each. We looked at touch/non-touch TV panels, but with 60+ classrooms, there wasn't much chance. Durability wise, we've had LED projectors in some areas for nearly 6 years now and bar a few early failures under warranty from a bad batch, they're still just as bright and reliable now after tens of thousands of hours of use.

 

The only maintenance we have to do on them now is blow out the accumulated dust once a year with a battery-powered leaf-blower! Previously we were doing maybe 150 hours of projector maintenance a year.

 

As far as interactivity, we've previously had a wide deployment of interactive boards, but as 2ilent8cho rightly points out, not many actually had regular use. Now we're going ahead with a deployment of Pro hybrid tablets as staff devices and have installed the projectors with Miracast adapters, with which we're so far impressed (we have video cable backups just in case). I'd say the only downside with the projectors is that they're only XGA rather than HD, but since we're using Miracast, it helps cut down on the amount of required bandwidth so it's kind of a benefit to us at least.

 

For the price of one 80" touchscreen setup I can have 4 projectors, with the same size projected image, and the tablets to go with them.. seems like a no-brainer to me!

[LukeC]

What is the budget?

We have recently installed 10 C Touches for a very reasonable price alot cheaper than i expected.

[CapnPugwash]

Hi,

 

Thanks for all your replies. At the moment it's looking like we will not go for any interactive devices, instead we'll probably go for Casio bulbless projectors (Casio XGA 2700 has been mentioned) & project onto a non reflective board. We've had some Casios for 5 or 6 years and they still project a sharp, clear image.

 

Someone mentioned trade in on old projectors - does anyone have anymore info on that?

[twin--turbo]

We used standard LG 48" Consumer LED's when we did our install.

 

They were on for 12hrs a day 5 days a week, they were still going strong after 4years when I left.

 

Price wise you could loose one or two and replace based on the cost savings.

 

TT