Our Hall is getting a Revamp. Need some advice

[tailor]

Hey Guys

 

Need some advise from you guys. Our hall ATM is getting a revamp on sound and ideally i'll like to stick a permenant computer in there aswell. Save's the laptop going missing every Monday morning... Has anyone has any experience with this kind of thing? interms of kit and cost?

[dhicks]

Our hall ATM is getting a revamp on sound and ideally i'll like to stick a permenant computer in there aswell.

 

Mac Mini, dual booting Mac OS and Windows 7, that way you should be able to deal with any files external speakers bring in.

[IrritableTech]

@dhicks nice idea of using a mac mini...

 

We went for a custom built lectern (built by our D&T dept) with a miniITX pc (wireless LAN), a built in monitor, a rack mounted CD player, simple mixer, 3.5 mill jack inputs, two radio mics and a lockable draw for the projector remotes. Works really well. The user pulls it out, plugs in two XLRs, a VGA cable and power and it's off.

[computers_r_the_enemy]

Hi Tailor

 

I was in your exact position about 18 months, if your looking for a decent PA system for your hall try the link below its is a good quality 100wats RMS portiable PA system with a 8 hour battery on it play all your music off SD cards to so hours of music to play in the hall for assembly etc

Browse for Products | CPC

 

As for a computer for the hall there are as you no loads to choose from but as we all no in school price leads the way. I use ebuyer uk as you can get dual core 4gb ram 250GB HDD laptops for around £279 exc VAT schools don't pay. From the same retailer you can get optoma projectors for around £180 including a Vision long or short throw projector mount for around £80. The fun starts when you link the laptop to the projector what method of cabling should you use for the audio and video. Well you could just use a long VGA cable and long 3.5 to white and red rca audio cable but this to me seems messy and ok for temp situtations more permanent installs would require a CAT5e Video and audio extender. if you have never used these basically it's two boxes one lives up with your projector and the vga in from the projector goes into the vga out on the extender box a standard utp cat5e cable connects along side and ferrys the picture from the other box located near your laptop location in the hall it basically allows you to mount your projector and laptop where you want and only run one network cable between them instead of loads of cables. There is a final option and that is to install a gizmo made by infocus called liteshow III this is a wireless solution thats sits up with your projector on the mount and beams the picture from the laptop to the projector no wires and any laptop can present in the hall sounds good yeah? BUT WAIT! there is a downside powerpoints word docs will present wirelessly fine because their refresh rate is slow but start playing DVD movies HD steams etc via it and you will start to see a very clear frame drop and audio lag but if you don't plan to use video then its perfect. My advise would be to go the CAt5 route proven performance and no hassle.

 

Hope this helps

Matt

[tailor]

I like your idea's guys. ATM we have a projector celing mounted with a roll up and down projector white board. Really old school trust me. Needs to be bined really.

 

In terms of sound (short term) we have a trolley with 2 speakers,amp, CD player all in one things. Works well for the tim being but long term.

 

Visual - We have a VGA/Network Port just near the stage where we plug in the HALL Laptop which the teachers use for Powerpoint and the odd DVD.

 

So basically I wanted to get rid of the Short term sound which have installed at the moment and replace the hall laptop with something which is build into the stage, Like a Desktop. What do you think?