dhicks

A quick Google for "tripod vesa mount" brings up this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/TR940-Portable-Mounting-Universal-Monitors/dp/B00D21LF12 That's a tripod (like you'd use for a camera), but with a VESA mount. You could add wheels: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Andoer-Kingjoy-Universal-Folding-Carrying/dp/B01JLMS52M/ref=sr_1_4

RealVNC - they do a home-user version that's free for, if I remember correctly, 3 devices.

"This version runs completely in the browser using Canvas and JavaScript, so it's completely different from the versions in the launcher." - interesting, that means they must have implemented proper client/server separation and have now implemented a new HTML / Javascript client. Good to know!

Interesting - any idea how this is implemented? Have they somehow created a full web-based implementation, or (more likly) is each user session backed by a VM somewhere running the original Minecraft, with screen updates sent to an HTML canvas?

We have similar requirements - aiming to move most work to web-based interfaces, we could do with a way to host various Windows-based applications so that a user can use them from an individual browser tab, preferably complete with GSuite / O365 authentication integration. Before I look at setting up our own infrastucture, I was wondering if there's a service that already does this - sets up an application in a suitible desktop environment on a VM somewhere, then gives the user some kind of web-based view of that application's user interface. Is this the kind of thing that App-V provides? I've had a look at Apache Guacamole, for which I can possibly write a user interface that includes authentication integration, but it'd be handy if there was a service that already had this sorted for an easy monthly fee.

I'm thinking the same thing - I currently have a couple of BigClown devices I'm trying out in-school. I came across them at BETT this year, they are London-based and aiming to be in the UK education market. I have one of their devices monitoring air quality and temperature ouside my office at the moment, with the plan being to make that device into a working wall display with live data for the children to read. Are these currently mechanical metres with a numerical readout? Is something with a camera an option - just have something take a photo and send it off to a server for processing?

We use LogIt, but that's for use with specific logging hardware - you're probably going to want software that works with your existing hardware. What I've done with LogIt, which might work in a similar fashion with DataDisc, is to run the software on dedicated kisok devices (NUCs or a small laptop if you need portability) and have all results synced up to Google Drive. The kiosks can be logged in to via the browser using VNC with a NoVNC gateway, so all a pupil has to do is open a web browser on any device and browse to the particulatr address for the logging device they are using.

There's now a dedicated Pi TV Tuner HAT: https://thepihut.com/blogs/raspberry-pi-tutorials/how-to-stream-digital-tv-with-the-raspberry-pi-tv-hat If the TV has USB port(s) you can power the Raspberry Pi from the TV, so it turns on when the TV turns on. USB ports on TVs are generally a little under-powered, though, so you generally need to use two ports and a USB Y-cable to provide enough power for the Raspberry Pi. You could also use an "Intelliplug" or similar (around £10 from eBay) to turn on a separate USB power supply when the TV is turned on, that might give you a better power supply.

Does BBC News 24 need to play alongside other content (in a corner of the screen, maybe, with other stuff displayed on the rest of the screen), or do you just need a TV showing the news? You can buy a new smart TV for £300 from Amazon.

What are the pupils trying to do - I assume you're aiming to have them draw straight on to the screen as they would with paper? If drawing straight into Photoshop is a requirement then you could try remote access to a Windows desktop from a Chromebook, although I'm guessing you wouldn't get any pressure-sensitivity values sent through from the stylus, just the mouse x,y positions. You can get reasonable Chromebooks with stylus capability for around £300, although the screen / digitizer resolution isn't as high as more expensive devices, and you typically have to buy the stylus as an additional item. I haven't tried the latest iPad / Apple Pencil combination, although I understand it's pretty good, and the Photoshop app works well with Photoshop on a Mac / PC for this kind of functionality. I'm not sure how well that works out in a classroom setup, mind, with multiple users using individual devices, and I'm not sure what an iPad + Apple Pencil comes to these days. Also, in my experience, styluses tend to wander off from devices a bit too easily in a classroom setting, the teacher will need to really be on top of keeping track of what bits of equipment are where. Depending on what style of drawing they are doing, my guess is that the best solution (from both a drawing experience and cost) is to draw black-and-white outlines of images on paper, use a camera to capture those outlines and then have Photoshop / Illustrator / etc trace that outline ready to colour on the computer. I've done similar work for someone doing illustrations for a book, and we've found that the best solution so far - it's easier to draw on paper, top-end solutions are getting close to replicating the experience and details but are probably too expensive for a classroom setup. All you need to take photos is any sort of camera - you could put a cheap Android phone on a stand and have it sync photos to a read-only Google Drive folder or similar for pupils to pick up, or get a flatbed scanner for higher resolution images.

You could just hire a van for a day or two and turn up on site saying "Hello, I'm here to fit the network cabling..."

We've just bought some 24" monitors to refresh our staffroom, around £65+VAT each in the end from VeryPC. Those are standard 1080p resolution - do finance actually want larger screens or do they want higher-resolution screens so they can fit larger spreadsheets on one screen? If so, a QHD or even 4k screen might be an idea - I use a 32" QHD monitor on my own desk (AOC, around £200 from Amazon - very good value) and having the added verticle resolution is great, although at 32" it's as much a desk partition divider as it is a monitor.

We find the flip-style devices where you can bend the keyboard right back to make a tablet to be the most flexible. We use the Asus C100PA, which we've had as 1:1 devices for a couple of years now. Non-ruggerised, and we do get a constant stream of damaged keyboards / screens - not too bad (a couple a week), but we notice the difference when compared to the new ruggereised Acer devices, which I don't think anyone has managed to damage yet. Also, those newer Acer devices have world-facing cameras, which come in very useful. Plan how you're going to store devices. We have charging cabinets in classrooms. I think some of the damage we are getting is from the bucket-style cabinets, with the devices in 5-at-a-time cariier buckets upright in the cabinet. Charging cables dangle down in a clump from the top. If children are left to get their own devices out of these, they tend to all pile towards the cabinet in one go, and as they lift their device out they stand a good chance of banging it against the top of the cabinet. The shelf-style charging cabinets (we have several of each) seem to be better organised - the charging cable for each device is right by each individual device, and there's nothing to bash into as you lift the device out of the cabinet.

We're looking at purchasing around 30 access points, plus we pay VAT, so from the above: (((£180 + £40 + £10) * 30) + £3,100) * 1.2 = £12,000 We've just had a quote in for around £20,000 - I appreciate you're buying in larger quantaties, but that still makes our quote seem a little high.

Would it be worth looking at a TV / display screen with an OPS slot for an OPS PC? I'm not sure how affordable OPS-enabled displays are for home use, but I understand there's a few around now since they've started to be used for digital signage.

Indeed - server-side, GSuite / O365 / etc are probably going to start containing thin-client based applications. I'm wondering if, with Microsoft moving the rendering engine for Edge to use Chrome's rendering engine, everything is going to be one standardised protocol for the client-side, though. I'm also wondering when Adobe are going to announce the ability to run Creative Cloud in a similar manner - it would make so much sense, people are already using Shadow for video editing and finding that works well.

Me neither - however, Shadow's Gaming PC service seems to not have an issue with lag, and this Google service seems to be something quite similar in concept. Environment as in energy usage? I'm inclined to think it will probably use energy more efficiently overall, with the main work being concentrated in server farms which can be powered by renewable energy. If you mean environment as in computing environment, we could see considerable changes in the next few years, too. This service from Google is basically running games as a thin client, and if I understand correctly the resources to run the client-side bit seem to be built in to the Chrome webbrowser itself - not sure if that's as a public standard, or just as a feature Chrome happens to have. Shadow currently uses its own client available for various platforms. What would be interesting would be if Google / Microsoft / whoever were to start offering virtual desktops or individual remote apps running on this kind of technology, all accesible via a standard thin client built in to everyone's browser (or Smart TV, tablet, etc). Edit: cost - Shadow have been targetting the kind of people who pay £1,000 every couple of years to upgrade to the latest snazzy gaming hardware, so anything under around £40 a month for that sort of service is actually cheaper. Price would have to drop further to make it more mainstream, but paying for a monthly subscription and not having to worry about how up-to-date your local hardware is might be a good option for many people.

Many thanks, good to know - we might see about getting one to try out, at £300 each we can't go too far wrong!

@ICTDirect_Dave - We were looking at some of these on your website the other day, with thoughts on replacing some laptops and older devices around the school with HP all-in-ones as general staff / pupil workstations. Seemingly, another school we know has had issues with USB 3 / display port connections with these machines, which caused issues with connections to Smart boards and projectors, and they seemed to have cooling issues / failed fans fairly reguarly. Could that just be a duff batch that particular school had?

If this is a media "suite", is there going to be more than one computer / camera / tripod? If they've specified Mac(s), do they plan to use specific software? Is this for classes of general pupils to use, or is this something for GCSE / A-level students to be trained on? If you have a Windows network and you're buying a suite of Macs, don't forget to include MDM / management of some sort in the budget. Just the one or two machines can be joined to Active Directory and manually managed easily enough, but more than that and it's worth having a decent management solution in place. We priced up JAMF for something like £10,000 for a suite of 22 Macs, which is expensive but cheaper solutions shoudl be available. If this is for older students for training purposes, I'd go for a Blackmagic Design device (from around £1,000), then use DaVinchi Resolve (free) for editing - that's about the cheapest "pro" setup if you're training people. If this is for classes of general pupils then iMovie on the Mac is probably okay, although we use the excellent web-based WeVideo. For a camera, a DSLR will produce nice video, plus you can use it for still images. For a "tripod", if you have a nice camera you'll want something with a fluid head to make pointing the camera nice and smooth. If you just want to hold a (not too heavy) camera steady in one position then an Amazon basics tripod will do okay. I quite like the look of the Padcaster, which turns an iPad into a camera, complete with tripod and lense setup. Green screen: if you have a dedicaed suite then it might be nice to be able to paint a section of the wall for use with chromakey. That also means you can install lights to evenly light the backdrop, which is always the tricky part with chromakey. I'm not sure how much lightfield cameras and similar have come on yet, but I think there's at least one mobile phone on the market that is advertising being able to remove the background from a video in real-time, so the need for chromakey might soon become redundant.

Just to second this post, we've had VeryPC all-in-ones around the school (generally as teacher workstations in classrooms, so not hard screens) for 4 or 5 years now, and I don't think we've had issues with any of them - no complaints from any teachers, and their performance is still perfectly decent.

Thanks, good to know - I was looking at three of the 43" screens for digital signage purposes, it's encouraging to know people who've used them are recommending them.

We're a private prep school, central London. Each child in senior school (years 4 to 8, around 200 pupils in total) has an assigned Chromebook device - years 4,5 and 6 have the Asus C100PA, 7 and 8 have a newer Acer model with a world-facing camera (sorry, can't remember the exact model number right now). Devices are stored overnight in charging cabinets in tutor group classrooms and are collected in the morning by the children. The devices are owned by the school, no devices go home, when a child leaves their device is re-assigned to another pupil.

I find PythonAnywhere very handy as an environment that has everything you'd want already installed and ready to hand, so you don't spend a bunch of time installing (and sorting out conflicts for) a bunch of libraries and the start of each thing you do. That's for Python, I don't know if there's an equivilant for Ruby.

For my own domain, I use Migadu, hosted in Switzerland: https://www.migadu.com/en/index.html The interface is rather basic, but I haven't required anything fancier so far.