cnc

Yes Adobe CC. Did Adobe not recently remove their cloud storage or start charging separately for it? I may need to revisit this as that sounds like a potential solution.

We have the same requirements but are currently using the desktop versions of the Adobe CC apps on Mac Mini desktops in the classroom. The students are licensed for home use so can download the apps on their devices at home. However, we are currently having huge issues with the way they work with large files. e.g getting 700MB of photos to download from OneDrive so that they can create a contact sheet locally using a variety of photographs and then upload the file back to OneDrive to continue working from home. Does Photoshop for Web utilise the Adobe storage to ensure that they can achieve everything within the web browser and is this included as part of the licensing? (We purchased via Academia too). Is there any loss of functionality...I would need to demo to our Photography and Graphics teachers. Any concerns with relying on the internet for access (although I guess the same can be said for all SaaS apps) ??

Like Pete says, not much difference between the Mac and Windows versions. We use "files on demand" enabled on the sync client but they are too impatient to check when the files have synced back again and often log off before it has finished...then wonder why the files aren't there when they log on at home. They also struggle with resolving sync issues on the client if it throws up an error. They have been using the web browser for direct access access to OneDrive to negate any sync issues on the desktop client...I guess at least they can see the files in the web browser they know they will be available at home. Just wondering if there is a better way or has anybody tried and moved away from OneDrive to other solutions??

Hi, these are dedicated Apple Mac Mini’s (desktops). It is fixed IT and each student sits at the same place every lesson to speed up logins etc.

We are currently facing challenges with managing large files, such as those used in Photoshop, for our Media, Photography, and Graphics courses. This week, we observed two classes where each student was downloading approximately 700MB of photos at the start of the lesson and then re-uploading them at the end. This process is causing significant delays and bandwidth issues. Our Photography and Graphics students, in particular, are spending a considerable amount of time downloading and uploading large files from OneDrive, which is cutting into valuable lesson time. The files are edited locally but need to be uploaded to OneDrive so that students can continue working from home or on other devices. Additionally, we’ve encountered problems with the OneDrive client, particularly with smart sync/files on demand. Some students are logging off before the sync is complete, which means they cannot access their files from home. While reintroducing NAS storage could improve file access speeds, it would mean sacrificing the "Anywhere, Anytime, Any Device" flexibility that cloud storage provides. Providing local USB hard drives to each student has been considered, but the cost and the likelihood of drives being lost or forgotten have been raised as concerns by teachers. Given these challenges, we’re keen to learn how other schools and colleges are handling file storage and management for these types of courses. Any advice or insights you could share would be greatly appreciated.

Hi All, We are just looking at renewing our MFD lease. Always traditionally gone for 3 years (Sharp devices) but looking at Canon devices which are more expensive, but better in terms of reliability. So, looking to spread the lease costs over a longer term. I am comfortable going for 4 years but 5 years seems a big jump from what we are used to. What is the consensus on lease term length? Is 5 years the norm? Do you experience more reliability issues in year 5? Just wondering how often you refresh your MFDs and print room kit? Thanks!

Thanks for all of your replies. These are really helpful.

We have heard back from XtremeMac...and they are saying that issue is with the M2 chip and their hardware and that other manufacturers of keyboards and mice are having issues with M2 macs. They say that they are working with Apple and the suggested solutions have been offered below: "I am sorry to say we don’t have a solution that works for everyone but here are some suggestions Connect the Xtreme product to USB-A ports Connect the Xtreme products into a USB-A hub that is connected to the USB-C port on the Mac Mini We are still working with Apple & hope they can help with a fix"

Sadly, the keyboard and mouse issue has arisen again…it was OK for a full day yesterday. We are now trying to swap out different models of USB-C keyboards to test with. Will keep you posted…

So after a little troubleshooting and testing we have discovered that the issues seemed to be down to the version of macOS - we've upgraded the devices from a mix of 14.4 and 14.4.1, to 14.5, and the issue seems to have gone away. We are still monitoring, but so far so good. Very strange as from testing, other USB-C and USB-A keyboard were fine on this version, it just seemed to be that specific model of XtremeMac peripherals in combination with those versions of macOS Sonoma.

Thanks for your replies. These are the print charges I have inherited, so need a good look at. I agree 100% that charging more for A3 needs to be the first thing that we consider. Not sure why they are the same, I am assuming for simplicity perhaps but logically doesn’t make sense in terms of paper and ink utilisation as you have highlighted. If I can gather some more costs across the sector and compile some the data, I will look at crunching some of the numbers to provide averages and effective benchmarks that seem to be consistent across the sector which may provide a useful starting point. Thanks again!

Hi, I am looking to compile some data to benchmark what educational institutions in our sector do in terms of charging their students for printing? Our print charges haven’t been reviewed for several years and with inflation impacting all areas of the economy, increases in paper costs, electricity, staffing etc, we were wondering if it was time to review, considering we are also due to refresh hardware this summer. Please can I ask: 1. What sector are you? Sixth Form/FE/HE etc. 2. Do you charge students for printing? 3. If yes, how do your students add print credit to their accounts? (Do you use a service that involves transaction fees for online/card payments). 4. Do you provide a discount for using the Print Room or for duplex printing on MFDs? 5. What is the cost per copy that you charge? Our current costs per copy are shown below as example (same for MFDs and Print Room with no distinction between A3 or A4). Current Cost per Copy (MFDs and Print Room) A4 b/w £0.03 A3 b/w £0.03 A4 colour £0.10 A3 colour £0.10

Thanks, that’s disappointing. We have some older XtremeMac mice and keyboards used on an older iMac suite that was installed Summer 2023 (Keyboard: XWH-WIK-83-UK Mouse: XWH-WMO-83). We have swapped over the older models on to the Mac Mini’s this morning and vice versa…newer models onto older iMacs. So, looks like that might not solve the issue and that it is related to all XtremeMac peripherals on Mac Mini’s (we didn’t see any issues with peripherals on iMacs).

Do we know if this is model specific on the peripheral side? The new Xtreme Mac keyboards and mice we are having issues with are: Keyboard: XWH-WIK2-83-UK Mouse: XWH-WMO2-83 Was just wondering is this was ALL XtremeMac peripherals or certain models. We are testing with an older model of XtremeMac (USB-C) mouse and keyboard that we had from the older iMacs this morning. No issues with the older peripherals on the iMacs. Also, testing the new problematic models of peripherals on the iMacs to see if the issue transfers across.

Thanks for your replies everybody, removing the option for PIN auth and just allowing card registrations has solved this. Really liking uniFLOW…it seems to be ticking all of the boxes for us at the moment. Do any of you use it with a Payment Gateway provider to allow your students to add print credit online? Trialling with PayPal at the moment but the transaction costs seem to be much higher than our existing payment gateway, although it does seem easier for students/parents to add credit. Flywire (WPM) weren’t interested in helping…it seems like private and oversees institutions are now their primary focus.

Hi Danny, We refreshed two of our Mac suites over half-term with Mac Mini’s and XtremeMac Wired mice and keyboards by connecting directly in with USB-C and are seeing the same issues as yourself. It was frustrating for us as we are trialling the Mac Mini’s as a new solution replacing All-in-One iMacs and it threw us a bit of a curve ball, especially as we are trying to gain teachers confidence with the new Mac Mini’s. We are trying different things at the moment…testing some with the USB-A adapters and testing some with different keyboards and mice. This has been done only this morning, and we will keep you posted if anything resolves the issues! Fingers crossed we can get this resolved soon!!

Hi All, We are trialling Canon uniFLOW Online with a view to replacing an on-premise version of Papercut. The benefits of moving printing to the cloud are huge pull factor. However, when comparing to PaperCut and onboarding users, uniFLOW assigns each user a 4 digit PIN number which they use to log onto a printer, before they can associate their ID card for quick logon. PaperCut authenticates using their AD username and password, which can then be associated with their ID card for quick logon. With approximately 5,000 students (and 5,000 unique PINs), our concern is student’s randomly typing in numbers to guess another student’s PIN and access their account and print credit/budget without authorisation. The number of digits in the PIN number can be increased, but obviously the longer the PIN the harder for students to remember. Is anybody using uniflow and found this to be an issue or resolved this? It would only be a matter of time before a student access somebody else’s account and produced photocopies using somebody else’s print credit.