Bananas

Cheers i'll have a look at those too Thanks again everyone

Wonder if I can cram one of those into the Hall lighting budget.......

All of our projectors etc are reachable with a small set of steps which we're trained/allowed to use. The hall projector is chest height rear projection mount so that's not too high. We're lucky in that regard that we don't actually have anything in "our side of things" (ie the actual IT stuff) that is up high. I can't honestly think of anything that we need to service that is higher than a little over my head height (stage lighting excepted) which is very fortunate. Previous schools i've worked in we had a ceiling mount projector in the hall and when that needed the lamp replacing we called a contractor in for it, they did fit a high end DLP projector in there that didn't have filters so at least it didn't need those cleaning regularly. Funnily enough I worked in a cinema in my late teens and we had this very cool bit of kit called a Tall-o-scope, base of scaffolding on 4 wheels you pulled the thing upright and put two bolts in to hold it up which gave you a ladder with a platform at the top then you pulled on a rope and the ladder telescoped up and you then climbed up to the top to change the bulbs, this thing used to sway around something rotten when you were up there, used to terrify me. Then we had the big outdoor sign that you needed a ladder to climb up, that then had a balcony round it you could walk on but to change the top part of the sign you had to pull the ladder up behind you and use that, not massive fun. Come to think of it those 2 jobs is probably what gave me my healthy fear of doing such things now LOL!!

Same reason I don't do PAT testing training: 1. because I don't want to 2. because it means I will get crapped on with it forever more 3. I have more than enough to keep me busy (as do most of us) 4. I was a fearless teen back then, since then I have discovered a sensible fear of falling off of high places I could look at the new system on the stage having a lowering system but that wouldn't help with the lighting bar that runs across the roof of the hall, nah that's what contractors were invented for

Have been running the trial, have to say i'm quite impressed with it. Price isn't too bad either. Anyone running this at the moment?

Heat, lamp life - kind of goes with it but gaining access to change the bulbs = H&S nightmare these days (when I did Drama GCSEs we put our own scaffolding together then climbed up it, carrying lights up/down, changing bulbs etc all under minimal supervision, these days as an adult i'm not allowed to even climb the scaffolding let alone do any of the other stuff LOL!!), convenience of moving head. I know what you mean about ongoing costs, servicing etc and i'm not talking about replacing ALL our lights with LED ones just adding a couple in for now and running with the best (ie usable) of our "old" ones I can always hire in more LED movers if I need to for a production as long as we've got the infrastructure etc in place. I imagine a mix of traditional and LEDs would be the best compromise, still that's why I want to get the Pro's in. Thanks for all the advice much appreciated!!

I suppose the gimmick you're potentially paying for with the Benq is the iphone/ipad thing. They must be following the logic put Apple in the specs and double the price hehehehe!!!

Thanks everyone i'll ping an email off to a few of those places. I've emailed Viking and a couple of other locals I knew about but always handy to have some others to try as well. I think it's going to be quite a big job

I got excited then for approx 10 seconds and then I read the second post - Ouch. I guess if you factor in not buying lamps for 20,000 hours usage... Assuming £200 for a lamp and 2000 hours from that lamp then a traditional projector over the same number of hours would cost you (assuming £500 for the projector) total cost £2300 so quite affordable under those terms but the killer being those additional lamps are spread out over many future financial years and of course my made up figures could be totally out of course but just as a paper exercise.....

I use Format Factory where I need to but generally for quick and easyt videos I use Serif Movieplus x5 which accepts every format i've needed to throw at it so far...

Don't suppose anyone can recommend a good theatrical lighting supplier/installer able to cover Norfolk? We need new wiring, desk, dimmers and i'd like to look at motorised LED lights as well. Any advice appreciated, thanks

We bought one of these Lumens DC120 UXGA Visual Presenter - Must run with PC, USB power (DC120) - www.misco.co.uk and Lumens DC-A11 Wireless Base Unit (DC-A11) - www.misco.co.uk Pricey but works really well, you can't sadly hook it up to your existing wireless infrastructure but using the dongle provided it works really really well, the range is excellent and you can put it anywhere in the room. We started off with a fixed dome camera but just found this was a much more flexible solution all round. Comes with some really quite nice (but basic) software for doing recordings, time lapse, image capture and desktop annotation too. PS I notice this is available now too http://www.misco.co.uk/Product/188424/AverMedia-W30-Wireless-Visualiser have no experience of it only plus side I can see is 30fps rather than 20fps with the Lumens one but I prefer the gooseneck style of the Lumens one. Lumens had the only wireless one when I was looking previously which is why we bought that one

aaaaages. If you have more than one device registered you can choose which one to deploy it to as well

Toshiba's 13-Inch Excite: Does the World Need a Tablet This Large? | Gadget Lab | Wired.com Don't know if any of you have seen but Toshiba has announced a 13" Android tablet. Toshiba UK haven't decided whether to bring them over or not yet. What do other people think about a 13" tablet? Obviously not quite as handily portable as a 10" one but tbh I think it's a cracking idea. I had a conversation the other day about this and how I thought that a 13" tablet would be an excellent format. I've had the AT100 and AT200 on trial which were excellent devices and spoken to my contact at Toshiba about this 13" one and i've been told the decision has not yet been made. If anyone has any comments or thoughts on the size please post them up and I will forward them on.

So not a Google certified device and definitely never going to sell at £299 (IMHO) but that's not necessarily a reason to rule it out completely but a consideration if you need Market/Play access it might need a hack and it's certainly a LOT of kit for not much money wish i'd seen this before I bought the Archos 101 G9 grrrrrrr

Galaxy S II Android Development - xda-developers Pick an ICS ROM and follow that ROMs instructions and away you go

Custom ROM your S2, I wouldn't wait for an operator they might say mid April now but then it'll be June then July etc etc etc. There's a beta for the HTC Desire, no idea how good/stable it is...

Mine WAS an O2 phone, unlocked and used on an existing simcard on Vodafone and i've been running ICS for the past week or so. It's a custom ROM and you know what? You wouldn't know any different it works flawlessly and i'm VERY happy with it. After a days usage at school now I still have 40-50% battery when I go home whereas I was having to top up by 3pm to limp over the finish line. Very impressed with ICS will be good to see the fragmentation of Android come to an end now as well.

I think that's because before Honeycomb it was down to the manufacturer to put proxy support in, Samsung did for one, HTC didn't. I noticed it in Honeycomb and it's def now there in ICS. I think another 12 months time once the unification of Android is more complete a lot of these issues will go away which is Androids biggest problem to date the fragmentation.

Many tabs have done that since Honeycomb however there is no guarantee that proxy setting will work with everything installed on that tablet, having said that i've not found anything yet that didn't work....

I see Archos have released ICS for the 101 G9 now, updated mine just now VERY nice

My S2 came from Vodafone and it didn't have any VF crap on it, it certainly doesn't now as it has a custom ICS ROM on it which means now after a full days usage I still have at least 35% battery left...

Has anyone used it with CMIS Facility or are you all on SIMS?

ooooh I like that, how much does Groupcall Emerge cost?

I have the 101 G9 8GB at home cost me a fair whack more than that but it's a very nice tablet. I presume that is a purchase rather than a trial though? I quite like the Toshiba AT100 I have here, i'll be interested to compare with the AT200 when that comes in soon. LOVE the Avantis Learnpad software although am still getting to grips with it but, very simple and keeps the kids OUT of the stuff you don't want them in too!!