iRIS Connect - Teacher CPD lesson Ob software

[timbo343]

I was wondering if any schools have got this software in their school at the moment and would be able to share your experiences with it.

 

We are having a demo of it and just want to be prepared thats all.

[mrbios]

Our deputy head went ahead and purchased it without any consultation from us in IT, luckily we have it working though, the auto uploader software is crap though I have told their tech support i want to trial the beta software as soon as it's ready for testing (config files stored in roaming appdata rather than local!) also it doesn't seem to auto upload from network shares if that's what you set the default save location to record to. Oh and I've asked them to put the software in MSI form...

 

Only thing other than the auto uploading software though was that we had to do a bit of jiggery with their tech guys so we could run it on any vlan and have it update the iris site automatically but apart from that setup was fine. The camera itself seems decent enough, and it seems fairly straight forward for the drones (teachers) to cope.

Edited May 29, 2012 by mrbios

[timbo343]

Thanks for the reply, will see how the demo goes. I got told that an hour video takes about an hour to upload to the net and some schools have a dedicated laptop for this purpose where the files are saved to the local drive rather than a network store because storage is an issue here, i think i might be doing the same. We haven't got any vlans here, its one flat network. I also got told that their new camera (on recommended settings) takes about 200mb per hour.

[mrbios]

Just to add, we've gone down the route of buying a wireless AP setup as a client, connected to the camera, as otherwise you need an available network + power socket in every room you want to put the camera in to, don't know why they haven't implemented some sort of internal wireless capability on something costs that much money but hey ho Saves us having to worry about finding a network point for it everywhere it goes.

[howartp]

Just to add, we've gone down the route of buying a wireless AP setup as a client, connected to the camera, as otherwise you need an available network + power socket in every room you want to put the camera in.

We don't have wireless coverage in school, but we're thinking of putting a hardwired switch with the camera kit much like you've done with the WAP, then at least they can just unplug the PC network cable and put it into the switch, and the switch into the wall socket where the PC was.

 

Tim, we had a demo about 3 weeks ago, and our Deputy Head definitely wants to go ahead but she wants to get three quotes so she (read: I) is currently looking for other solutions to quote against. Do you want to see if there's any discount for two NY schools purchasing together, if you are looking to proceed?

 

Peter

[IrritableTech]

Thanks for the info all of you. We're having a demo this afternoon too!

[IrritableTech]

I was fairly impressed by the iris system. Easy to use website for teachers, fairly simple setup of the camera (although we'd probably have to attempt a wireless solution).

 

Hefty price tag though and a subscription service rather than the Classwatch system which we have also looked at.

 

I'm still wondering if we can't come up with an in house system.

[timbo343]

I was just wondering if any one @howartp and @irritable Tech have got the iris connect equipment in the school?

 

I have it at the mo and im finding support aren't great about getting back to you imo.

 

The setup im going for is a laptop (as the software has to be configure on ALL machines you install it on and you have to get the users to fill out the authentication details with the proxy details, etc) the camera and possibly looking at getting a small 5 port, maybe usb powered desktop switch as this way the equipment will require 2 network sockets and as most of our classrooms have 2 sockets in 1 already been taken up with the teachers machine, this the best way. I have a single user on the laptop which has access to C: so the videos can be deleted at a later date. I'm yet to find a way to stop automatic upload after the observation has completed though.

 

I have tested a video with this cam and a 4 min video is about 18mb if that helps anyone.

[howartp]

I was just wondering if any one @howartp and @irritable Tech have got the iris connect equipment in the school?

 

I have it at the mo and im finding support aren't great about getting back to you imo.

 

The setup im going for is a laptop (as the software has to be configure on ALL machines you install it on and you have to get the users to fill out the authentication details with the proxy details, etc) the camera and possibly looking at getting a small 5 port, maybe usb powered desktop switch as this way the equipment will require 2 network sockets and as most of our classrooms have 2 sockets in 1 already been taken up with the teachers machine, this the best way. I have a single user on the laptop which has access to C: so the videos can be deleted at a later date. I'm yet to find a way to stop automatic upload after the observation has completed though.

 

I have tested a video with this cam and a 4 min video is about 18mb if that helps anyone.

 

Hi Tim,

 

We don't have it yet, but our Deputy Head asked me this week to put a reasoned statement together about why this is better than the others (or why they aren't as good) with the full intention of proceeding with it...

 

Can I ask why it is that you need support to get back to you? In other words, is there a problem with the kit/setup that I should be aware of before I allow her to proceed?

 

If you'd rather give me a ring or email, I think you already have my details.

 

Peter

[RowlandoGloom]

Hi mrbios

 

I know this is an old post, but will see how I get on!

 

We are looking at attaching a wireless AP to our iris, as it is a pain as you say having to plug it into a switch, unplug the PC etc.....

 

How are you getting on with the wireless setup?

 

Cheers.

[mrbios]

Hi mrbios

 

I know this is an old post, but will see how I get on!

 

We are looking at attaching a wireless AP to our iris, as it is a pain as you say having to plug it into a switch, unplug the PC etc.....

 

How are you getting on with the wireless setup?

 

Cheers.

 

Hi Paul,

 

It's working a treat, we use it in our science labs and main hall (music teacher doing rehearsals) and not had any issues with it over the wireless Obviously will depend on your wireless capabilities but even in areas where we haven't got decent managed wireless yet when it's going through old nasty D-Link independent APs its still worked wonderfully, and it's very easy to setup once your client AP is configured.

[RowlandoGloom]

Many thanks for the reply.

 

We have managed wireless across the site - so locations won't be a problem.

 

From our previous setup, I have a few old Netgear APs lying around, so will give it a go. I assume you just connected the camera AP in Ad-Hoc mode to the wireless.

 

Cheers.

 

Paul

[Badzeye]

Sorry to resurrect the thread.

 

We just had a demo of this in our school and I was wondering if there had been any improvements to the software especially not being able to upload automatically from a network share.

[howartp]

I was wondering if there had been any improvements to the software especially not being able to upload automatically from a network share.

 

Not to my knowledge.

 

Peter

[josephathon]

Iris have provided an on-site NAS box running it's own app and this stores all the videos and automatically uploads them to the IRIS servers. It's a much better solution than the original which required you to store the videos on your servers and then upload them and there was no auto delete of the videos once uploaded. It seems to be a much better system but ours doesn't get much use so it hasn't been tested to destruction.

[timbo343]

Hmph! I was meant to get this NAS box but as per usual they (iRIS) havr not been in contact and our reseller (who i cannot point blank stand - past issues) hasnt contacted us either. In my view its been used once in the last 4~5 months... i say no more! And we are trailing (when its used) thr ipod version which may i add only lasts for an hour!

[Sylv3r]

@timbo343 It only lasts for an hour or so running via the iPOD battery. We generally plug them into the mains (if the classroom allows - although I admit not every room is catered for this here).

 

We've done 3 observations today in 3 different rooms via the Discovery Kit. 9:00 - 10:00, 10:00 - 11:00 and 11:20 - 12:20 with no issues.

[RowlandoGloom]

Discovery kit works OK. One member of staff had the iPod upside down, so viewing her observation (sorry, "Reflection" as iris call it now) wasn't easy.

 

Paul.

[PotNoodleTech]

Iris have provided an on-site NAS box running it's own app and this stores all the videos and automatically uploads them to the IRIS servers. It's a much better solution than the original which required you to store the videos on your servers and then upload them and there was no auto delete of the videos once uploaded. It seems to be a much better system but ours doesn't get much use so it hasn't been tested to destruction.

 

For free, or..?

[Sylv3r]

For free, or..?

 

Yeah if your an existing customer then it's free.

@RowlandoGloom i've never noticed the upside issue, doesn't the iPod not just rotate as normal depending on the direction the iPOD is in?

[howartp]

Yeah if your an existing customer then it's free.

Not happy that we've not been told about this either.

[RowlandoGloom]

Not happy that we've not been told about this either.

 

Our reception contacted us and said there's a parcel. Magically just appeared - we just assumed somebody had paid for it.

 

Sylv3r - it's when you watch it on a PC - the camera didn't rotate. Dafty, she'll know for next time.

Edited October 14, 2014 by RowlandoGloom

[this_is_gav]

Bump to add our experiences.

 

Discovery kit works OK. One member of staff had the iPod upside down, so viewing her observation (sorry, "Reflection" as iris call it now) wasn't easy.

 

Paul.

 

We've recently purchased the Discovery Kit ourselves, and even on the reflection recorded by the training guy one of the videos was upside down. The iPad/Pod itself rotated correctly (indeed the included mic cable will only reach if the iDevice is orientated one way) yet one half of the processed video is upside down. In fullscreen mode the videos are horribly stretched vertically rather than being letterboxed as they should be. See the attachments below (I've pixelated faces and names).

 

The second recording we tried uploaded from both iPads/Pods (I watched them) yet only one video is shown on the website, yet it's stretched as though both videos are meant to be there (so everyone involved is twice as fat)...

 

Even standard MP4 videos we've uploaded to test the system aren't shown at the correct aspect ratio when fullscreen, stretched to 1920x1200 (16:10) rather than being letterboxed to 1920x1080 (16:9) as they originally were. The reason being that teachers and assessors would rather see the smaller video so they can add comments - I think it should be down to the member of staff in question how they wish to view their lesson rather than have IRIS decent for them... JWPlayer is perfectly capable of playing videos at the correct aspect ratio. One of the test videos showed correctly in Firefox, but only one of them, and of course Firefox is useless in many schools due to the lack of decent enforceable settings through GPOs.

 

This is across different systems (32-bit and 64-bit), with different graphics cards (Intel, AMD and my Nvidia card at home) using IE11, Chrome and Firefox with differing versions of Flash (laptops at work still have Flash 11 deployed to IE and Chrome updates Flash itself).

 

I'm impressed with the front-end of the system, the sharing, comments and so on, but the actual processing or viewing of videos is horribly bugged so far in our experience (we were added straight to the Connect v2 system, so I've no idea if Connect v1 was any better). So far, the only video out of the 7 we've tried which has worked flawlessly is the FLV file they give you to test...

[IrritableTech]

Apple products add a 'this way up' flag (for want of a better term) to video files which they read again to play the video back. The video is actually always recorded the same way up. On apple mobile devices the home button should be on the right when you video to be compatible with all playback devices. (so on an iphone/ipod touch the volume buttons would be towards the floor, and on an ipad the volume buttons are towards the ceiling).

 

Services like Youtube, Vimeo etc. understand the hidden info and rotate the video to compensate. If IRIS haven't accounted for this in the software or iPod clamp, they've made a very silly error.

[this_is_gav]

To be fair only one of our uploads hasn't been autorotated. They claim it's a "rare" bug that's going to be fixed in an upcoming update, so if that's the case then fair enough.

 

After more than 2 weeks and 27 messages back and forth about the various issues with the uploads I've finally been escalated to an QA engineer to investigate the "multitude of issues" we are experiencing. We'll see.