Interactive screens with whiteboard inbuilt

[dgsmith]

We are looking to purchase a single 60" interactive touchscreen for use in a conference room. Besides interactive, they have asked that it also has some sort of built in whiteboard facility so that it can be used also for this purpose (rather than having to run software from a laptop/pc).

 

We don't have any of these around school at the moment as we have recently plumped for short-throw projectors in classrooms. What models are recommended and what price range should we be looking at, especially to get one that has a whiteboard facility built-in (a bit like the Epson short-throws, which can be used independent of a connected device)?

[nathan]

We've used Promeathean boards with the built in Android. There's a whiteboard app on them. You can also side load Google Play, haven't tried but wonder if Microsoft Whiteboard has an android app it could be an option.

[Scifigirl]

It depends what you want the whiteboard bit to do---- we use Ben Q boards (65" £1499ish) the have a built in android bit but its basic.

 

There is also the new whiteboard app on O365 if you want that.....

[dhicks]

What models are recommended and what price range should we be looking at, especially to get one that has a whiteboard facility built-in (a bit like the Epson short-throws, which can be used independent of a connected device)?

 

For our Reception classrooms, we've tended to buy boards with OPS slots to fit an OPS slot PC - the device comes on along with the board, so as far as the user is concerned they switch the board on and a standard PC loads up. We've most recently bought the Smart 65" board (around £2,500, if I remember correctly - that's with installation and includes VAT), and I think the OPS slot PCs we bought were around £800 - that was for a device with 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD running Windows, you could get something cheaper and/or running something different, depending on what you wanted to do. We bought ours from VeryPC - they sell both the board and the OPS PC together, so they are warrantied to work together.

[LeMarchand]

We've used Promeathean boards with the built in Android. There's a whiteboard app on them.

 

2 of my schools have these. I see the in-built app being used far more often than I ever saw ActivPrimary in use.

 

65" ones with the wireless OPS-G unit were a tad under £2k ex VAT and fitting/fitting kits. IIRC there were some cheaper brands, but the staff are familiar with the ACTIV stuff.

[dgsmith]

Thanks for the replies - it seems a board designed for education, even though it's not to be used in a classroom, seems like it offers the best features that are desired. I've noticed the BenQ RM5501K 55” (a little smaller than 60") but for under £1200 which seems very good value.

Are these kind of screens relatively straightforward to install for our site staff (rather than paying for an install service)? We did all the short throws internally so I hope it's not going to be too big a challenge.

[northeast_technician]

we use prowise boards and so far have been very happy with these, has pc module option and android software included Edited November 26, 2019 by northeast_technician

[LeMarchand]

Are these kind of screens relatively straightforward to install for our site staff (rather than paying for an install service)? We did all the short throws internally so I hope it's not going to be too big a challenge.

 

As long as your site staff are genuinely competent and will follow the instructions re fixings (I've seem some real bodges) it should be fine. If we had been doing them one at a time I'd probably have used the site staff, but both sites were replacing multiple boards.

[RalphG]

Look at Smartboard MX165 - 65 inch, cheaper than the MX265 model.

Can be used as whiteboard/web/cast without connection to PC

Around 1.5K per unit.

[TechMonkey]

Another vote for Prowise. It has a Whiteboard app built in, and you can add Android Apps if you need. You used to be able to buy white board side panels as well, though never bought them myself and wouldn't guarantee they still are produced. I would also predict that they cost the earth.

[dgsmith]

Thanks for the replies. There is not an inclination to spend an excessive amount on this for the purpose of which it'll be used (and that it doesn't need to withstand classroom demands), so the benq and prowise boards seem to fit the technical and budget requirements (and look good!) so it's a case of trying to decide between them.

[localzuk]

SMART's screens all have this capability - and the functionality integrates with android/iOS apps on phones etc...

[BenQ_Chris]

Hi, happy to answer any questions on the BenQ, the RM5501K you have mentioned includes a wall bracket and in the Android OS there is a whiteboard mode called EZWrite, this includes shape and handwriting modes. If you wanted a more comprehensive whiteboard software we also iffer an FOC license to Oktopus which runs on a PC, thiw will open .Notebook & .iwb files and give you all the tools you'd expect from a whiteboard, the license is free. If I can be of any further help please let me know.