mb2k01

We use Stage Electrics - used them in our old school, plus engaged with them to design our custom Theatre and additional performance/music spaces in our new school (non-BSF/PFI). Very technically able, pricing is.... reasonable - but we've found you really do get what you pay for in this area!

Done too!

As above, we've been fixed-point station the majority of the time. We simply took the choice away from Staff - they were to be given a fixed-point machine in their classrooms due to it being more reliable, always available, there for other teachers who may use the room, able to run all software, always connected to the projector/board etc. Staff (on the whole) understood. Those who didn't / wanted a mobile option had to finance a laptop themselves from dept funds, or have a very good reason to request one from central funds.

+1 for HTA option. I've used HTA for similar reasons previously

Yep. Regular and ridiculous definitely two words I'd use! Funny though - I'd not long had a communication from them where they attempted to demonstrate best value / review costs of service etc. A good start would be increasing uptime!

More connection issues with SWGfL today. Access pretty much ground to a halt here, and I have just recevied the text "We are current experiencing an incident which may affect connectivity for some schools within the grid. Service call reference 3650263"

The post I made above was actually based on a video streaming page I made a while ago. Today, as I have had a helpdesk ticket for quite some time to do something very similar, I thought I'd explore a bit further. Here is what I've done (so now you have to options from me!) Step one: Create the webpage. My HTML code is below. You can either save this as HTML and have opened normally, or save as .hta and open in a nice contained webpage application. border="thin" borderStyle="normal" caption="yes" maximizeButton="no" minimizeButton="no" showInTaskbar="no" windowState="normal" innerBorder="yes" navigable="no" scroll="no" scrollFlat="yes" /> Your Radio Station Name from Your School <br /> a {<br /> color: [url=http://www.edugeek.net/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=FFFF00]#FFFF00[/url]<br /> }<br /> a:visited {<br /> color: [url=http://www.edugeek.net/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=FFFF00]#FFFF00[/url]<br /> }<br /> a:active {<br /> color: [url=http://www.edugeek.net/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=FFFF00]#FFFF00[/url]<br /> }<br /> a:hover {<br /> color: [url=http://www.edugeek.net/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=FFFF00]#FFFF00[/url]<br /> }<br /> .auto-style1 {<br /> text-align: center;<br /> }<br /> .auto-style2 {<br /> font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;<br /> font-size: x-small;<br /> }<br /> .auto-style3 {<br /> font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;<br /> font-size: medium;<br /> }<br /> .auto-style5 {<br /> text-align: center;<br /> font-size: xx-small;<br /> font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;<br /> color: [url=http://www.edugeek.net/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=C0C0C0]#C0C0C0[/url]<br /> }<br /> <br /> Sub Window_Onload<br /> strComputer = "."<br /> Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")<br /> Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery("Select * From Win32_DesktopMonitor")<br /> For Each objItem in colItems<br /> intHorizontal = objItem.ScreenWidth<br /> intVertical = objItem.ScreenHeight<br /> Next<br /> intLeft = (intHorizontal - 800) / 2<br /> intTop = (intVertical - 600) / 2<br /> window.resizeTo 600,350<br /> window.moveTo intLeft, intTop<br /> End Sub<br /> radiologo.jpg On air Monday to Friday 1.30pm - 2.15pm (C) 2012 Your School. All rights reserved Step two: Create playlist.asx - here is the code from mine: schoolradio Your School As with the other example, make sure your .html (or .hta if you go that route) are saved in the same place as the .asx file - or ammend the paths in the above code accordingly. Obviously you can also play around with my CSS settings. Our school colours are black and red, so it's quite dark! (There is also a reference to radiologo.jpg which you may either wish to create, or remove) Step 3: The bit I haven't done is find the MMS link for the BBC. For my purposes I used the MMS link for our own school radio system (system supplied by schoolradio.com) If you are able to locate a valid mms link for an existing radio station I would imagine you could just replace the two references above in your asx file. I hope either of my two examples in the thread help! (As your post prompted me to do the work and clear my own helpdesk ticket, I figured I may as well post this too!) Cheers

I've done the following before. I'm sure there will be a cleaner way though. Step 1: Enter this in to your webpage: Step 2: Create a file called playlist.wpl and have it save in the same location as your webpage above (or append the location in the code above as required) Playlist.wpl should have the following: test1

Nice to see they're consistent with responses! I'd give the service desk a ring and ask why you're having to find out from other people instead of them (i.e. lay it on thick - I hate lack of communication!)

Just received the following text message from SWGfL:

It won't help anyone with this issue, but did you know you can get text message alerts from SWGfL? I didn't until I last rang to rant about speed/connectivity issues. I received a text at about 2.20pm today making me aware of the issue - quite a useful service.

"You have a fire? We'd be happy to attend site based on a day-rate basis, but your house must meet the list of pre-requisites I'm about to email across" “….ooooooh, actually, you don’t appear to have a valid support contract with us – you will have to contact your local LA approved provider who will then have to escalate it to us first”

Oops. Well, our starter package (not really a package - just what we bought to implement on day 1!) included HD Camera, Tripod, MovieBox software, Telestream wirecast software, 13" macbook pro, the Chromoflex silver popup screen and floor material, cable set, handheld and boom mic, 23" TV, 4 sets of lights, Installation delivery and configuration + training all for just over 7k. If you wanted the real basics and a DIY job then you could probably just get the camera, LED ring, material and cable set for around £3k

I've got some Reflecmedia Chromoflex kit supplied from a company called PlanetPC - all very good quality kit and scalable/not as costly as you might think. I've been impressed with the company in terms of setup/support too - Reflecmedia Products at Planet PC Hope that helps?

DAY SERVICE: Thank you for calling . If you would like to speak to a member of the office staff please press option 1. To report an absence please press option 2. For IT Services please press option 3. If you know the ext bumber of the person you wish to speak to, push option 4.

A formalised 'Vision for IT' is something that I created a couple of years ago as part of our new school build (non-BSF/PFI etc) The vision should be a centralised document which ties in with wider documents such as the SIP / SEF and other planning or improvements. Use the document to demonstrate how IT can really assist the school in delivering or supporting the change it seeks. On top of the above, build in factors that you know need to change, and highlight milestones needed to get from current > completion. Liaise with all staff, students... perhaps parents, governors, maybe even the community depending on your role and the schools position. The key is making sure the document is a detail-rich resource which will enthuse others reading it + making sure each user type has an imput and sees it's value. I hope that thelps?

We do - I set it up years ago (mainly to secure the vanity url when it was available!) and it slowly attracted 'likes' which forced us to speed up using it. We now use it as a valuable engagement tool. Parents and Students (as well as Alumni) have the opportunity to post questions, comments, images etc. The page itself has 4 admins set up to use it, although I tend to do the vast majority of admin. We have strong profanity settings applied, but still allow people to post unmoderated. It has been 'sold' to Students as an example of how Social Networking can be used positively, and allows them another central point of contact if they need it. One thing to watch might be the new page message facility which has recently come online. Before that, the only communication possible was via the wall - now users have the page timeline to post to, and if the page is set up with the facility then they can now also 'private' message (as with a normal user profile). We chose to keep this disabled, as the whole point was all communication stayed public and fully transparent etc.

Who hasn't!

I use these - found them to often be the cheapest (and quickest to deliver) over the years: suppliesforschools - Authorised Access Only

Since my post yesterday I've been trying to recall whether I ever had an issue. I have a vague memory of having to right click on iTunes and run as administrator (even though I am!) to get something to work once. I'm not convinced it was OS update related though - clutching at straws but could be worth a try! Also, I'm curious - you say you're on the unfiltered proxy, but your first post mentioned you had gone through unfiltering specific websites... Are you sure you're on the staff proxy? (Change your proxy to 213.18.249.18:8080 and then login using http://login.staffproxy, then try again? You'll be using the exact same settings as me then!)

This will probably not help a great deal - but I'm in the SWGfL and have had no problems at all! With that said, I've probably nearly always been logged in to the 'staff proxy' when updating, so have a unfiltered connection etc.

I did this too, although it was a number of years ago now when they were running CAL4. I'd agree largely with irsprint84, but you don't *really* need new DC's. Just create a new OU, block out inheritence and then go from there creating your own little test area. That way you have the luxury of looking back at CSE GPOs too if you want to tweak settings etc, and don't have additional expense. Back when I did it I had to think about replacing (or keeping) Prism Deply for software deployment, and look at alternative OS deployment. I'm not sure if those are their current solutions these days, but you'll probably need to consider how to manage both deployments if you fully move away.

It should do. If you're with CSE, I'm guessing you've looked at their own product too? (I think i'm right in saying they have either written their own now... or they might still be re-badging JugleByte teach)

We're probably in the same boat too (although I have managed to delegate that responsibility down!) I know from setting up in a test enviroment that none of our custom themes (variations of the Aardvark themes from Moodle.org as well as a couple of others) didn't work in v2.x Not a super-huge concern, but it will mean I have to re-design/tweak v2 themes when the time comes. This might not apply to you if you don't use a non-standard theme of feature such as drop down menus via the theme etc.

Also looking to sell off AMI (Sub who supply cashless catering / e-reg / printing integration etc) 300 people recently made redundant too.