bclarke

I’m looking for an IT/AV Technician to join my team. https://www.sjcr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ITAV-Technician_Sept2022.pdf

We are looking for a Performing Arts and AV Technician to join my team. An interesting and varied role to make your own. https://www.sjcr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Performing-Arts-and-AV-Technician_April_2022_4.pdf

We are seeking to appoint a Performing Arts and AV Technician to look after all aspects of AV at St Joseph’s College, Reading. This is a varied role where you will be involved in productions as well as events which involve live-streaming, sound production and lighting. https://www.sjcr.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Performing-Arts-and-AV-Technician-July-2021.pdf

An exciting opportunity to join our team at Downe House as a Senior Web Developer. https://www.downehouse.net/vacancy-info.asp?id=550

https://www.totaljobs.com/job/it-helpdesk-administrator/downe-house-independent-girls-school-job79913682?entryurl=%2fjobs%2fit-helpdesk-administrator%2fin-newbury%3fradius%3d10%2379913682

Was it called Forever?

@caffrey no need to understand any of that if you sign up to a support contract with a good company as they do it all for you. It was a straightforward transition for us all in a a couple of days. We use a business broadband line for the SIP trunk. Calls are really cheap through it. I used to worry about people making long expensive calls abroad but even far flung countries are a few pence per minute to call. Happy to chat to anyone on he phone about 3CX.

3CX here too. Would recommend Tri-LAN IT for support as they are excellent. With the savings made on traditional phone system and lines there is still significant savings to be made even with a support contract. Not worth the time and trouble to maintain it myself with these savings.

Such a pity. Had a very good relationship with my account manager for years. Bought loads through them and they had good contacts with big manufacturers. Always had free next day delivery too which was always useful. Had to log on to my old Insight account today to order something instead, haven’t ordered from them for years as Misco were so good.

3CX here. Cheap to buy and run. Can recommend Tri-Lan IT to install and maintain. Great VoIP solution.

Hi So hoping someone has the same issue as me. We issued the Surface 3 (not pro) Edu bundle to all our teachers and students last year. This has been a massive success in terms of how it is used and how much everyone loves it. The problems I am seeing is with the hardware though and Microsoft don't seem to want to help with this. When we issued these it was to staff first. We put docking stations on all the teacher desks and the plan was to allow students to use docking stations too. When we did this and teachers started to dock their Surfaces we started to see issues where the Surface wouldn't display. It turns out that the pins in the display port on the Surface became bent and crumpled. It didn't and doesn't happen to everyone and sometimes it has happened to the same person more than once with different Surfaces and docking stations. I at first blamed the user of course, perhaps they were forcing the docking station shut without placing the Surface correctly to start with. They insisted they followed my instructions correctly. It still happens, and it happens to students too. So far we have been lucky that MS replaced the Surfaces under warranty, but we didn't buy the extra warranty after the first year as we decided to put a budget aside for breakages rather than pay out for insurance, so this would cover loss and damage to screens etc which we haven't seen much of. The display port issue however is different and we see this regularly. We also see issues with the power supply USB lead becoming damaged after prolonged use. Again, MS have changed our power supplies each time under warranty even though it is only the cable that is the problem. Now they won't. I have been speaking to the Education Business Development Director at Microsoft who has been sympathetic but careful not to accept liability on these two issues and he has gone higher up. He says Microsoft hasn't seen this issue before and they conclude it must be user error and them forcing it shut. I have experimented with this and it simply doesn't happen by forcing it shut. They also say that no one else has this issue, but we seem to be in the minority because they don't know any other business who use the docking stations the way we do! I am at a loss now as to how to resolve this. I guess my point to this post is this. Has anyone else seen the display port crumpled pin issue and can't necessarily explain how it happened or you can? Perhaps you use the docking station and can verify if indeed we are doing something wrong? It would be good to hear from anyone that uses the Surface 3 (not pro) to hear your experience of it. Oh and the final issue I have is one of overheating in the docking station. It is wrapped up so much that it overheats the Surface and slows the processor right down to a crawl until you undock it and let it cool down. The warmer days are worst for this as well as watching video whilst docked. I won't be buying Surfaces again and will be looking at alternatives when we refresh. I don't regret buying the Surface in many ways as they are very good devices, I just wish Microsoft would help us out with this issue. Anything from anyone will be appreciated. Ben

I am using regular TV's with an Intel Compute Stick running Windows 10 Education with a piece of free software called PresentationPoint and PowerPoint. The free software monitors a network share where the PowerPoint sits and updates the screen when the slideshow is updated. The PowerPoint can be designed as a normal slideshow with all the transitions you need. We have one screen in reception which has student notices and a promo clip for drama, the outside one has various messages from marketing and out PTA for parents and visitors. It is then really simple for users to update a PowerPoint with very little training needed.

Could it be that these drives are set to work offline in some way? Could be causing sync problems between devices.

I am using regular TV's with an Intel Compute Stick running Windows 10 Education with a piece of free software called PresentationPoint and PowerPoint. The free software monitors a network share where the PowerPoint sits and updates the screen when the slideshow is updated. Currently running it on two screens. I would prefer a more pro setup but they cost a fortune.

Ricoh here too. Used to be Xerox for many years but changed in January this year. We went through one their dealers, Reflex who are excellent. Machines rarely break down, jam etc and just keep going. Service is outstanding too. We have MiFare card readers on all machines with Equitrac to track usage but students can log in to it using network credentials without cards.

We are moving to One to One in September for all staff and students. We have issued Surface's to staff this term. SLT have issued staff with an agreement to sign to take responsibility of the device. We have insurance and the maximum a staff member will pay is the excess of £50. Most cases we probably won't charge that. Do you have agreements like this in place? Do you have any examples? What do you do if staff refuse to sign it? Also, what do you do if they won't accept the device if they won't sign it? Many thanks

Thoroughly recommend the Vividtouch VTF range. We have the 85" screen with Windows 10 built in. Hopefully installing more in the summer holidays. Excellent screens and really can't fault them at all. Great value screens with pricing that outshines the main players.

We are going fully 1:1 from September with the Surface 3. Rolled out teacher devices over Easter so they have them ahead of the students. Nearly 300 in total and using docking stations for teachers. Had some great discount and also got a free Inset day at Microsoft to kick the launch off where we took all teachers to Microsoft for the day. We are leasing them and have a fantastic company who have loads of leasing options. Having an interesting experience so far. Happy to share if you want to contact me. DM me if interested in a Skype call or phone call.

We have just taken delivery of the Microbit and I am looking forward to trying it out. As a rule, we ban memory sticks here because of the potential for malware, ransomware and virus's. I am being advised by the ICT teacher who has also taken advice from the people training her that we must allow memory sticks to make this work because Windows sees it as an external drive. I am looking at solutions, but I am wondering first, how many of you have blocked memory sticks being used as I am being told that very few schools and organisations block memory sticks (we are going to be a 1:1 school with Surfaces and we have O365 in any case). If I am in the minority then perhaps I am one of those old blokes set in his ways who needs to catchup. In which case I have been doing this too long! The second part is, how and what are you doing as IT people to enable the microbit in the classroom with IT in mind. Incidentally, we are just about to convert a room for engineering which will have isolated PC's. This may be the solution in any case. Many thanks Ben

We have a vacancy for an IT and AV Technician. Please see our website and contact the school for further info. Job Vacancies | Teaching Vacancies Berkshire | Luckley House School Closes 13/04/16

Not just you, I ordered 296 Surface 3's and 46 Docking Stations. Delivery date keeps getting pushed back. I think it has something to do with the Surface Pro 4 pen now being included and possibly their huge 30% price drop. In terms of deploying, create an image using SCCM with most things you need but hold on putting things like Sims on there. Setup some group policies for some regular settings and then I am getting staff to run through a checklist of signing in to most things O365 once they login for the first time. I have run out of time to get that stuff automated if it is even possible at all at the moment. I am resisting the temptation to apply too many GPO's now, for staff anyway. Oh and the OneDrive for Business app that is installed is old and rubbish. It needs a couple of registry edits from Microsoft to make it compatible. They are developing a better version which will be released later in the year.

I am just about to deploy Surface's to all teachers and some support staff this term. We will then be deploying them to all students in September. We went down the iPad route originally and it didn't work out for various reasons. It is part of a wider strategy involving moving to Office 365 and using OneNote extensively. We have some lovely training coming up at the start of term where we are going to Microsoft Showcase Classroom in London to train up all out teachers. Happy to have a phone conversation, just PM me. Ben

There are two Apple chargers available, one for the iPhone and one for the iPad. I don't recall the output of each but the iPad one looks bigger and kicks out more power. I found that teachers were using their iPhone chargers to charge the iPad as they thought it didn't make a difference instead of the iPad one I issued them with. They swore black was blue though that they were using the iPad one until I got them to show me.

It may not be the same issue, but I had reports of this from some users and also from the lab tech who looks after the science class sets. I found with the class set ones as they are stored in a charging box they are put in power button down so you can plug the charging lead in. This put pressure on the power button and made the iPad stay on all the time it was charging. I realised it was only managing to get to 60-70% overnight if that. It seems that it is putting just enough in to almost trickle charge it as the screen is constantly on. With an iPad that doesn't power on, I found that some people were using the iPhone charger or similar which kicks just enough power out to charge really slowly, but again, you can use it at the same time but won't charge at all. It seems if you let it completely discharge it can become problematic to switch on and appears completely dead. Could be a software thing I guess. In this case, make sure you have the proper iPad charger, the big one, leave it plugged in to the iPad for a long time, keep pressing the home button and power button together periodically like a hard reset and press the home button and power button separately. It seems to bring it back to life eventually once enough power gets in there and all seems well. Not sure if that will help.

I have heard this about Microsoft and the warranty. We are getting a lovely discount on these so the warranty was not making any sense to buy, but these are just Surface 3's, not Pro so are cheaper anyway.