m0nty Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 So, I didn't make it to BETT and (because of pressure of work) my colleague didn't make it either. But since you guys did go, what things made you go "Oooh! Gotta have that" and will actually be in your budget proposals for next year? Cool stuff, hardware or software, whatever, would love to hear about it. -- Simon
Sylv3r Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 I was a little disappointed with BETT yesterday I wouldn't say there was anything that had the 'wow' factor. A lot of the products on sale were on sale last year too. I wonder if the tightening of school purse strings has had an affect on the amount of time and money developers have put in developing new solutions. I am back tomorrow, so I'll be checking again incase I missed anything.
leco Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 Similar thoughts here although I did like the Casio projector, the one on the LG (I think, got confused as to where I was) stand was nicer. Small so very portable, no lamp as per Casio, no probs with dust etc. Not too bad a price either given that there would be no replacement lamps to buy. The teacher I was with bought Classroom Monitor for recording assessments. Easy to use for the teachers and will give SMT lots of nice graphics to wow the Governors. She also had a long talk about Ruckus but I'm not holding my breath on that one as our budget is very, very small next year. Plus we already have a Wifi controller. I have to say that I also liked the walk-on interactive boards. Silly really liked walking in the puddles, call it the child in me:)
NBC_Sys_C-ord Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 Casio projector is the only wow that we found (and the edugeek stand), bett not as good as prev years and freebees ver low
tmcd35 Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 (edited) Well, I was most impressed given this was my first BETT. So much to see, so much to do and so little time to do it in. Finally got to the Casio stand at 5:50pm and wow. At £700 for the base model - a bargin. I for one am going to rework our projector replacement strategy to move to these. I recon a 7 year replacement strategy is more than possible - That's £100 a year for a projector! My colleague hasn't stopped raving about Microsoft's Multipoint Server 2010. Definitely a highlight of the show for me and a product to watch. Also Ergo's power management solution took me by surprise. MSI installs and AD integration. The product seems more powerful and better integrated than I thought it'd be. The price of Lenovo's All-in-One desktop PC was a bit of a shocker. The rep. reconed something around the £350-£400 mark. Nice! The Microsoft Surface PC on Edugeek's stand was also very, very impressive. Not sure how to use it in a school environment - apart from writing an air hockey or table-football game. But still very nice to see in action. I'm sure there were other highlights, but my head is still swimming - only just got home and sat down. Still the most important thing is I nabbed me an Edugeek mug EDIT: (shameless plug) I've posted more detail on my visit to BETT and the highlights for me over at my blog http://tmcd35.wordpress.com/2010/01/16/bett-2010/ Edited January 16, 2010 by tmcd35 1
leco Posted January 15, 2010 Posted January 15, 2010 Casio projector is the only wow that we found (and the edugeek stand), bett not as good as prev years and freebees ver low Yes you really had to work at each stand to get anything at all - well apart from Edugeek that is.
witch Posted January 16, 2010 Posted January 16, 2010 Casio projector was the one thing I saw that I really really want
Domino Posted January 16, 2010 Posted January 16, 2010 (edited) The Microsoft Surface PC on Edugeek's stand was also very, very impressive. Not sure how to use it in a school environment - apart from writing an air hockey or table-football game. But still very nice to see in action. its actually not a surface. Its a product from SMART, that works in a similar way, but obviously more education based Edited January 17, 2010 by john fixed quote
m0nty Posted January 16, 2010 Author Posted January 16, 2010 Thanks for the responses, gives me something to think about for a while. There's wild talk of a budget "squeeze" where I am too so I'm not sure if I'll get too many toys this year. What was so good about the Casio projector, and which model was it? We have the usual pain and frustration with these things -- usually replacing one every couple of months or so. -- Simon
leco Posted January 16, 2010 Posted January 16, 2010 What was so good about the Casio projector, and which model was it? We have the usual pain and frustration with these things -- usually replacing one every couple of months or so. -- Simon Not sure of the model. What I liked, apart from the no lamp, adjustable size of display and auto focus. Means that I don't have to measure or even think of throw distance and existing poles or mounts will accommodate without having to re-install or re-locate.
ChrisyB Posted January 16, 2010 Posted January 16, 2010 My colleague hasn't stopped raving about Microsoft's Multipoint Server 2010. Definitely a highlight of the show for me and a product to watch. Did I mention that I really liked Multipoint Server 2010? I'm assuming here that I'm your colleague. And does your head still hurt? I'm still processing everything we saw. Personal top 3 things from BETT, the Casio XJ series projectors, Microsoft Multipoint Server 2010 and Serco entertaining me with beer and magic.
IanT Posted January 16, 2010 Posted January 16, 2010 I liked the MASSIVE Panasonic touch screens one company had there!! - I was too scared to ask how much it was!
torledo Posted January 16, 2010 Posted January 16, 2010 Well, I was most impressed given this was my first BETT. So much to see, so much to do and so little time to do it in. Finally got to the Casio stand at 5:50pm and wow. At £700 for the base model - a bargin. I for one am going to rework our projector replacement strategy to move to these. I recon a 7 year replacement strategy is more than possible - That's £100 a year for a projector! My colleague hasn't stopped raving about Microsoft's Multipoint Server 2010. Definitely a highlight of the show for me and a product to watch. Also Ergo's power management solution took me by surprise. MSI installs and AD integration. The product seems more powerful and better integrated than I thought it'd be. The price of Lenovo's All-in-One desktop PC was a bit of a shocker. The rep. reconed something around the £350-£400 mark. Nice! The Microsoft Surface PC on Edugeek's stand was also very, very impressive. Not sure how to use it in a school environment - apart from writing an air hockey or table-football game. But still very nice to see in action. I'm sure there were other highlights, but my head is still swimming - only just got home and sat down. Still the most important thing is I nabbed me an Edugeek mug EDIT: (shameless plug) I've posted more detail on my visit to BETT and the highlights for me over at my blog BETT 2010 School Network Manager multipoint by the looks of it appears to be an n-computing type product. Would that be a fair assumption ?
ChrisyB Posted January 16, 2010 Posted January 16, 2010 multipoint by the looks of it appears to be an n-computing type product. Would that be a fair assumption ? It's related to, but not a replacement for. It's a version of Windows Server designed to work with third-party hardware to give a "Microsoft legal" solution to licensing issues while giving additional tools to help with managing the "clients". The hardware Microsoft were demoing was all HP stuff, but you could use it in conjuction with N-computing hardware. I really hope I'm right, my heads still a little fuzzy from BETT yesterday. TMcD can correct me if I'm wrong.
tmcd35 Posted January 16, 2010 Posted January 16, 2010 It looks like Chris was paying attention and not falling a sleep at the back of the class . It's a version of Windows 2008 Server designed to provide a legal software half of a nComputing/SoftXpand solution. Looks like HP maybe first out the gate with hardware to support it and both nComputing and Wyse were mentioned as possible future OEM's. The software itself will be available via your select/open license agreements. I'm very excited by this product
enjay Posted January 18, 2010 Posted January 18, 2010 I was impressed by the Casio projector - didn't notice the LG one though, does anyone have details of it? Also, somehow missed the EduGeek stand, which was careless of me. I thought I'd at least walked past everyone, but I guess not. I wonder who else I missed then?! Freebie haul was rather poor this year - wife and I only got around 20 pens, 3 USB drives, Post-It notes, 1 stressball and 2 slinkies (retro!). Not sure if companies are cutting back or had just run out by Saturday. Obviously, that's not why I go though!
dhicks Posted January 18, 2010 Posted January 18, 2010 It's a version of Windows 2008 Server designed to provide a legal software half of a nComputing/SoftXpand solution. Looks like HP maybe first out the gate with hardware to support it and both nComputing and Wyse were mentioned as possible future OEM's. The current legal solution is to use Server 2003 / 2008 and a TS CAL for each workstation, or get a Windows license for each workstation, MultiPoint Server will hopefully just be a bit cheaper and/or an all-in-one solution more suitible to using with multi-seat hardware. LG were demonstrating a 10-seat NComputing classroom on their stand - those workstations they had set up there were all running off two desktop machines, with NComputing's client integrated into their monitors. -- David Hicks
dhicks Posted January 18, 2010 Posted January 18, 2010 I liked the MASSIVE Panasonic touch screens one company had there!! - I was too scared to ask how much it was! £4,500. -- David Hicks
dhicks Posted January 18, 2010 Posted January 18, 2010 The price of Lenovo's All-in-One desktop PC was a bit of a shocker. The rep. reconed something around the £350-£400 mark. Nice, but about average - there's several ultra-small PCs around that can screw on to the back of a monitor, giving you the same space-saving effect as an all-in-one. The Microsoft Surface PC on Edugeek's stand was also very, very impressive. Just can't justify spending £4,000 or whatever it was on one. £400, maybe. The content I saw demoed (shape puzzles, mazes, etc) can all be done with paper, or maybe by printing stuff on to magnetic-backed paper for that stick-to-the-table effect. £4,000 would buy you a lot of magnetic-backed paper, and enough for whole classes at a time, rather than a table that you can fit 70 fingers worth of people around at one time (figure is accurate - we ran tests :-)) -- David Hicks
tmcd35 Posted January 18, 2010 Posted January 18, 2010 The current legal solution is to use Server 2003 / 2008 and a TS CAL for each workstation, or get a Windows license for each workstation, MultiPoint Server will hopefully just be a bit cheaper and/or an all-in-one solution more suitible to using with multi-seat hardware. Server 2003 + CAL's is the obvious choice at the moment. By Windows licence for each workstation we are talking Full Boxed Product licences not Upgrade/OEM/Volume licence products - read very, very expensive. MultiPoint Server looks like the official solution we have needed to make this type of setup practicle.
enjay Posted January 18, 2010 Posted January 18, 2010 I completely agree with David - MS Surface / Smart Table is a wonderful gimmick, but not worth the money compared to what else you could do with the same money. The various shape-sorting exercises I saw can already be done in Smart Notebook or PowerPoint, the only difference being the multi-touch, and its only a matter of time before the boards go multi-touch. 10/10 for wow factor; 3/10 for value. In their defence, I can see uses for the Surface, just not in the classroom.
tmcd35 Posted January 18, 2010 Posted January 18, 2010 In their defence, I can see uses for the Surface, just not in the classroom. Totally overpriced for use but - I'd like to play Generals on it
dhicks Posted January 18, 2010 Posted January 18, 2010 Totally overpriced for use but - I'd like to play Generals on it What we need to do is get one of those Smart tables, stick on one of those lenses from that 3D-without-the-glasses screen and we'll almost have that 3D holographic chess game thingy they play in Star Wars... -- David Hicks
nut-ed Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 A nice application for the smart table could be to run Asteroids or Space Invaders and install them in pubs... Doh!
Sylv3r Posted January 26, 2010 Posted January 26, 2010 A nice application for the smart table could be to run Asteroids or Space Invaders and install them in pubs... Doh! From what I seen / heard they wouldn't last very long in pubs... not in my locals anyway!
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