PC/Laptop for hall assemblies

[dsk]

Hello all,

 

Was wondering if anyone has anything set up in their halls for staff to use in assemblies etc. At the moment we have an AV booth at the back of the hall which has a lot of complex equipment and whatnot, and usually we are tasked with setting up the assembly etc as only we have access to the booth (previously when we allowed access, things were literally damaged and it took us hours to sort out mess that was made).

 

What i want to do is have a laptop or PC set up at the front of the hall (we have a VGA port, sound etc) and give access to it to reception so that teaching staff can just go for it without needing us.

 

Does anyone have anything like this?

 

Aesthetics is key as the hall is used for events and productions, and ideally something we could lock.

 

Idea, suggestion all welcome - if you have pictures of your set ups, even better!

 

Thanks!

[Steve21]

We've got our main room up above the stage area, but no-one (but techs) allowed in there, Staff have wireless mouse/keyboard for use with "main computer", and a normal VGA/Phono blahblah panel on wall to attach laptop/dvd players etc.

 

Steve

[NikChillin]

We have a pc with wireless mouse etc in the booth on the stage. Access is restricted by a combination lock which staff can access. The pc is on the network so they can access their user area too. Works fine.

[glennda]

We are going to have setup - a cupboard cut into the front of the stage which is going to have everything setup in there - then have the only thing available to touch is the power button, keyboard mouse etc

 

Its hopefully going to look like this with the monitor/keyboard/mouse with long enough leads to be pulled out place on top of stage.

 

[witch]

We just have an area on the wall with all the sockets, power etc - very neat - and a small folding shelf for the teachers to put their laptop on. Works well as invariably what they want is on their own laptop anyway

[dhicks]

Was wondering if anyone has anything set up in their halls for staff to use in assemblies etc.

 

We have a number of Argos kitchen trollies, the wooden ones with a couple of shelves and a drawer under a square worktop about a metre square. They're the cheapest model at about £40 each, plus we also replaced the small castors that they came with for some proper industrial-strength ones. They actually make for a nice versatile equipment stand, and look good enough to be stood out front in assemblies and presentations. We have a desktop PC on one shelf of a trolly with a short-throw projector sat on top (we can't ceiling-mount a projector in our hall) and a long power cord wrapped around a holder on the side - you simply wheel the trolly to where you want it and plug it in to the mains. The drawer should actually fit a Mac Mini or similar - you could build a PC right in to the drawer. I think the Mac Mini would be just the right machine to use, too - have it dual-boot with Mac OS X and Windows and anything any external presentors bring in you should be able to handle.