Prometheus activpanel huge refit idea

[johnpd]

Just wondering if anyone here knows why I shouldn’t refit a school with new activpanels and scrap all the 8-15 yr old projectors?

 

I read on Epson site that 60% of students can see the tv panels from all parts of a room, therefore I think I should investigate this. I guess the Ppi on a board from projector might be higher , but other than that I haven’t thought of a reason for this statement.

 

I’ve seen prices as high as £2200 for screen sizes around 60-70. The version of the panel I guess will make a difference too.

 

Thanks

John

[yac2016]

If you have the budget them it's worth it.

 

We have installed plenty of Promethean Panels in Staffordshire.

 

65" should come in around £2250 fully installed with face plates and cabling.

 

70" around £2500 fully installed.

 

Have you had the chance to see them in another school? Also depends on the size of your class rooms.

[Mark182]

You can try leasing them over X years if you have a load to buy like us. If I was you I'd book a demo unit like we did (I can PM you the person I spoke too if you like) We had it for a week and everybody fell in love plus the 30,000 hours of like is a big pull plus the android box is an ace add on. We demoed a 70" Activepanel.

[FN-GM]

Have a look at Iiyama screens. 65" are £1,300 installed with a 7 year warranty.

[yac2016]

You can try leasing them over X years if you have a load to buy like us. If I was you I'd book a demo unit like we did (I can PM you the person I spoke too if you like) We had it for a week and everybody fell in love plus the 30,000 hours of like is a big pull plus the android box is an ace add on. We demoed a 70" Activepanel.

 

Really not liking anyone who tells the end user they will last 30,000 hours, pure sales talk that.

 

There are plenty of alternative screens, all depends on if you are happy to use different software from Activ Inspire.

[Mark182]

Really not liking anyone who tells the end user they will last 30,000 hours, pure sales talk that.

 

There are plenty of alternative screens, all depends on if you are happy to use different software from Activ Inspire.

 

I agree although I've seen some in another school 6 years later and still going strong so I can only go off what I've seen. I know in a school day you are looking around maybe 8 hours a day x 5 days a week x 9 months a year. As with any interactive TV not replacing bulbs is

[mdrabble]

Have a look at Iiyama screens. 65" are £1,300 installed with a 7 year warranty.

 

Which company is that with?

[FN-GM]

Stone computers will do it for that price.

[Andycat]

We were impressed recently with Viewsonic, and the built in Airplay is a pull for us.

[mjk]

I wouldn't go near promethean these days. They are so overpriced. As stated above BenQ, iiyama , samsung are all better value.

[SamanthaD]

Apart from Surface Hubs (don't go there!) all our touchpanels are Iiyama or Samsung. Anything above 65" Iiyama, 65" and below is Samsung. Look at the digital signage range if you don't need touch - less bells and whistles which in my mind is a good thing...

[HTCPCP]

I have previously bought the following brands:

 

Smart - Over priced, and has annoying 'features' like the motion detection thing which can mean your screen stays on all night if you aren't careful

iBoard - Started off really well with their early boards - later ones were nothing but trouble. Stopped buying them 3 years ago

ViewSonic - Great hardware, well built, but their own software wasnt very good

Iiyama - what you expect from them, good quality, reasonable price, well designed and didn't have any grumbles apart from the fact "It doesn't look as nice as those smart boards teachers X&Y have"

 

Trialled but didn't use

Sharp - Well out of budget, but one of our local suppliers had a demo model to show customers, and wanted to show us first (not to try and sell us them!)

Promethian - better than the old projector linked ones, but still behind rivals, and considerably over priced

Clevertouch - The demo model we had didn't work properly - part of the screen was faulty and had dead pixels - Seen them elsewhere without fault, but was disappointed that they would deliver a faulty demo model...

[Clevertouch_Rob]

Clevertouch - The demo model we had didn't work properly - part of the screen was faulty and had dead pixels - Seen them elsewhere without fault, but was disappointed that they would deliver a faulty demo model...

 

HTCPCP - Can i have more info on when this demo was? I'd like to investigate this, as that should NEVER happen. PM me if you can. I realise its too late to do anything now, but none the less i'd like to make sure it doesn't happen again.

[MrWu]

I'm also looking at this for my school, we have Promethean IWB with Epsom projectors and prices for replacement is almost the cost of a touchscreen (although they are bigger in size

 

The teachers use Activeinspire software as well, whats the licencing arrangement if I went for a different brand of touchpanel?

 

and would a drop of screen size from a 84 inch interactive whiteboard vs 70 inch touhcpanel be jarring?

[mjk]

I'm also looking at this for my school, we have Promethean IWB with Epsom projectors and prices for replacement is almost the cost of a touchscreen (although they are bigger in size

 

The teachers use Activeinspire software as well, whats the licencing arrangement if I went for a different brand of touchpanel?

 

and would a drop of screen size from a 84 inch interactive whiteboard vs 70 inch touhcpanel be jarring?

 

You'd be looking at around £500 per license to use the promethean software without one of their boards, or pay the £500-£700 fee for the privilege of using their board.

Of course, they've locked you in nicely to make it difficult to change.

We moved to 65" screens without any problems as 65" is a good price point at the moment and hardly noticable against 70"

[lewisVeryPC]

Hi everyone,

 

Just to let you know, we have an Interactive Technology Suite here at VeryPC if you wanted to come in and use the panels. We also work closely with Promethean so if you wanted we could discuss arranging a demonstration coming to you.

 

In my experience the Classflow software is free to use from Promethean and can incorporate the old flipchart files that may have been created using ActivInspire. Students and teachers can also collaborate using this online tool if you wanted to use tablets or Chromebooks and resources could be pulled from a google drive.

 

There are other panel options and it depends how the users want to lead with the boards, whether they are going to be used as an extension of the user’s laptop (a native OS is not needed) or if they are going to operate on their own (Full Android, Windows OPS or the brand’s OS).

 

Feel free to drop me a message with any ideas you may have.

 

Lewis

[nicholab]

Do people feel that 65in is big enough for a classroom as these seem to be the best price. I thing that a dual strategy may have to be followed for rooms with board have the projector replace and rooms without get a interactive screen. Or are people planning to lease these units?

[mjk]

Do people feel that 65in is big enough for a classroom as these seem to be the best price. I thing that a dual strategy may have to be followed for rooms with board have the projector replace and rooms without get a interactive screen. Or are people planning to lease these units?

Yes We've been putting in 65" in some quite large classrooms without complaint. With a 65" 4k screen coming in under £1400 it is definitely the sweet spot at the moment.

I did look into getting non-interactive displays and to get a decent sized commercial display it is pretty much the same money.

[yac2016]

65" is not great it all depends on what is being displayed.

[SamanthaD]

I'd suggest looking at the old 4:6:8 rule for screen sizes. One solution does not fit all and it totally depends on classroom layout and how you use your teaching wall.

 

That said, as a general rule we use 65" for meeting rooms up to 24 people, 24 - 30 people get a 75" and 30+ get an 86". Higher numbers than 40 we tend to project.

[yac2016]

I'd suggest looking at the old 4:6:8 rule for screen sizes. One solution does not fit all and it totally depends on classroom layout and how you use your teaching wall.

 

That said, as a general rule we use 65" for meeting rooms up to 24 people, 24 - 30 people get a 75" and 30+ get an 86". Higher numbers than 40 we tend to project.

 

Spot almost exactly how we look at it.

[mjk]

I don't think the old 4-6-8 thing works at all for high definition screens.

A 4K LED screen has a far better resolution than a projector and it is much brighter unless you are comparing with high end projectors. Students can see them better than projectors so it is quite reasonable to use a smaller screen size in a classroom than you would if it was a projector.

65" has worked really well in our classrooms of 30 students.

Edited June 8, 2018 by mjk

[nicholab]

I also sugget that the size of room vs class-size vs purse strings comes in. Everyone would love a 70in but a couple of hundred per room can massively reduce the number of rooms that can be replaced per year.

[peej2k]

I would question with us now in a world of Windows Surface, iPad Pro and Chromebooks with styluses, whether you could get away with non-touch devices and let the teaching staff beam the image from their device to the screen.

 

Gotta get past this idea of teaching from the front and skeuomorphism to suit old teaching methods.

[nicholab]

I would question with us now in a world of Windows Surface, iPad Pro and Chromebooks with styluses, whether you could get away with non-touch devices and let the teaching staff beam the image from their device to the screen.

 

Gotta get past this idea of teaching from the front and skeuomorphism to suit old teaching methods.

 

Yes I totally agree and this may work in a secondary school I not sure if it works for the early years.

 

The key point is that the interactive surface is always at the users height.