Touchscreens and Activinspire

[maxrebo]

Im just looking into Touchscreens with a view to installing one in a teaching rooms, we use Promethean Activinspire, I know you can only use this software if you use Promethean Hardware, and if not the license is approx £500.

 

We would probably be looking into Touchscreens that arent Promethean, has anyone come across this? and have you had to buy a separate license to use AI?

[christhetech]

Is the decision not to go for another ActivPanel purely based on cost, or is there another reason for not sticking to Promethean, especially as you intend to use ActivInspire.

 

We had a similar sort of situation here last year, when it was decided that we would be replacing the last batch of old Smartboards and projectors with Interactive Screens. We had already covered a large chunk of the school with Promethean ActivPanels, so I initially assumed that we would just get another bunch of those and have them throughout. Unfortunately, the SLT had other ideas and decided that they wanted to see what else was available first, so I insisted that if they were going to buy something different, that some of the more demanding teaching staff should sit in on a few demos, and surprisingly they agreed. I asked our regular AV supplier to arrange some demos and he duly obliged, bringing in a number of different vendors, including Promethean, to demonstrate their current offerings. I asked the teachers involved to critique each offering, so that I could present a report back to SLT and we could come to a decision, fully expecting the Promethean panels to come out on top.

In the end, the teachers decided that they liked the 4K Genee screens the best, and this along with the fact that they were a couple of hundred pounds each cheaper than the equivalent ActivPanel, led to us ordering and installing these over the summer holiday and the teachers absolutely love them.

 

I do kinda wish that I had stamped my feet a little harder and demanded that we got Promethean though, as it would have made my life a little easier.

 

We were getting rid of the Smartboards, and binning off Smart notebook at the same time, as I don't particularly care for Smart's current licensing model. Since we had no intention of even considering Smart Panels, the cost of licensing alone would have been horrific. The Genee screens come with Spark II and ProjectFlow pre-installed, and any content created using Smart Notebook works absolutely fine with Spark II. ProjectFlow is similar to Promethean's ClassFlow software, although I don't think it's quite as good, but that's just my opinion.

 

Had we been replacing just one screen though, I would have definitely insisted on sticking with Promethean.