AndrewPowell

Hi Tom, Could we take a look at this? We have some android tablets we need to lock down a bit more. Ta

Does classroombookings sync with MIS for timetables etc? Our main concern atm is IT suites. I've been looking at https://www.schoolbooking.com/ but its not the cheapest

I can't see a reply with a screen/room size. Thats going to make the biggest difference. I'd be looking at a laser projector, and keep the bigger screen size.

we just bought some cheapo lenovo tablets and setup translate on them. means the kids have a device for other bits too. and with google lens, translate works on pictures etc.

As discussed above, there's two options. We've tried both. We created reception a hotspot only account - Useless, but that was due to our staff. Now, we have a form that is submitted, giving us name, email, guest company etc, and then automatically spits them a code from the 100 or so we added to the database. Have to add more codes every so often, and it did involve one of our staff coding it, but he wrote our entire helpdesk! The other option as mentioned above is to just print out 100 codes at a time and give them to reception to use. We wanted a little more detail, as unifi only links the token to mac address - no way to track that down if something happens.

Hi All, We've just purchased new laptops for our secondary. There is 150 in 5 laptop trolleys. We've been discussing security, as our laptops had quite a bit of damage over the years. Has anyone got any thoughts on how to look after them? The laptop trolleys will have designated 'owners' but we have a huge problem with staff not taking accountability. Because there isn't really any consequences, they just don't really seem to care. I know that's an issue, and will bring it up with SLT but has anyone got any thoughts on that? We're thinking of tamper evident labels too, just as a bit of a visible deterrent, and possibly looking at some kind of tracking? So that we could tell if a device was offsite. Any thoughts would be very much welcome.

We've recently been going down this route too, but are lucky enough to have recently new tech installed anyway. We had some hot power & DMX in our rig, so we could install LED's without any infra changes. You've had some really great advice already. One thing I don't think i've seen asked though is - Do you have any Hot power or DMX currently in the rigging? And what dimmers do you have? As mentioned, some dimmers can be set to 'hot power' so that they provide a stable power supply, instead of being dimmable. If your dimmers are new enough and good enough, then this is going to be the best bet. Otherwise, it really depends on what fixtures you are looking at. Depending on how much power they draw, you can likely link a few of them together, and only need a couple of circuits actually putting in. It shouldn't cost a fortune to run some 16a circuits up there. If you need any advice on fixtures, i know you said you'd look at it further down the line, but its worth thinking about now. Let us know the size of your space, what you currently have and what you ideally want, and i can recommend some stuff. I am an event technician professionally and run our school theatre too. I'm pretty experienced, but admittedly, usually on much bigger professional rigs, but happy to help

If you're happy with what you have, then i'd go with the same thing again. Dan @ GAK education is always very competitive on price and is a lovely guy to boot. Gak.co.uk

Whereabouts in the UK are you? I hire equipment, and for local schools, I do alot of deals for wireless mics. Usually i'd suggest hiring would be far the best value for once a year, but i also understand that schools can drop things on you very last minute. I also guess it depends on your definition of 'value'. To me, paying the extra once a year for the better, pro level equipment, is better than owning a dirt cheap set, but thats my opinion. Honestly, I have a dim view of the really cheap sets, but then I also have to remember that your expectations are not the same as mine. My partners primary school has a 6 channel chord one that they love and then they add channels of better stuff from me when it really matters. It functions pretty damn well, and for a primary school is perfect. One thing i will say, is I would stop using the word 'feedback' to describe your issue. It doesn't sound like the issue you're having is feedback.

This is probably the most important question. Before you spend any money, can you describe the actual issue you're having? It might be that we can help fix that. Do you use headsets, or handhelds? The product you've linked, while newer and slightly better, certainly won't see a notable improvement, and imo isn't worth spending the money on.

I'm an audio tech on touring music and theatre, outside of IT. It isn't going to be cheap, but a proper wireless rack will be your way forward here. As mentioned in the previous reply, the antenna connections for any decent system are going to be on the back, but can be brought to the front with a rack panel. I would also suggest, if you go for something decent, you purchase a proper 'paddle' antenna, a splitter, and just have the one. Personally, dependant on budget of course, Sennheiser's EW-D is the best bang for buck atm. Its digital, so does depend how busy your wifi etc is, but in general they're excellent. If you're looking to buy a ready to go rack, Mercury AV is a good place to start, but likely won't be the cheapest you can find. The other option is to enquire with local hire companies, many will be refreshing old G3 stock to G4 or axient. They might be willing to sell a whole rack with all the bits needed. I will say, that feedback is not caused by the Mic's. Feedback is a use issue, and even with the worlds best RF equipment, you'll get feedback. Feedback is caused by the mic picking up its own signal from the PA. That won't change no matter what mic you have. Happy to offer advice on this one, its my wheelhouse

Any update on this from anyone? We have had the exact same thing happen. Around 60 devices have suddenly stopped working. I can't even de-provision them. I've tried through a hotspot, no ball. Tried deprovisioning, no ball. Can't powerwash, can't reset, can't seem to do anything with them Two different brands, Acer and Viglen, versions 76 and 84 respectively. They are doing exactly the same as you described, straight back to login screen after entering password. Really hoping someone has something further to add, would be amazing. Yes we know we need to replace, and its in the pipeline, but the cost requires levels of approval.

Morning all, EXAMs & BTEC's are causing headaches again. We have traditionally had exam accounts for the exam team to use, locked down to use certain apps (word/exampad) and the exam team print the work after. With BTEC 'controlled assessments', this seems to have become a nightmare. Students need to work on files, but can't have access outside certain times. Some of the team have suggested each student having a second 'exam' account, but that is adding a whole huge amount of work every year and just doesn't seem maintainable. So... how are you doing it? I'm looking specifically at BTEC assessments.

Did you ever find a solution to this? I'm having a similar issue, and just posted a new thread to try and get some help. Cheers

Hi All, first post here so be kind. We're having a little difficult at the school I work at, and hoping some of you chaps can help, perhaps a shoutout for @Sylv3r and @Steve21 We instated a new music department a couple of years ago, As part of the build we purchased 25 Windows machines, hooked them up on the network and installed Sibelius and Cubase locally on the machines. They have been running well and the music department were happy. They are now looking to expand, and since the BTEC courses are heading more technology based, they have received a grant for some more tech. We are building a small music studio, alongside some more tech integration in the classrooms. One thing we did recently was, using my gear, recorded a full band, 20 channels and a full song length. I transferred this from my laptop to the network drive where the kids access their music work and the teacher accessed it no issues. As an aside, this was recorded at 96kHz, 24bit. When the teacher or students try to edit the Project, they run into a number of issues, mostly down to speed i believe. I only generally edit locally and the same goes for my protools rig at home, so i'm not sure on the solution to this issue. Because of the new studio, this is going to be a regular thing, and projects recorded in the studio will need to be editable in the music suites. Our current storage is network drives but the biggest issues are the following; Our students don't have local storage access and their profile wipes once they log off. I ideally don't want to have them copying files locally then remembering to upload them when done. Some sort of 'cached' version would be ideal but i can't see if cubase has this option? We have a little money in the studio setup budget should a more suitable option be needed. Not enough for a new server, but we could possibly use a NAS on a local switch or something? I'm not sure what the answer is so i'm hoping you can all help. Thanks Andy