hallb15

I'm sure you've all seen the proposed pricing by now. Can anyone tell me what I would actually be getting for my £7 per user, per year?

Thanks for the suggestion. If this was for a CCTV/Security project, I would definitely be looking at the Axis product, however as it is for watching a birdbox which may or may not attract any birds, and which the school obtained for free, I don't think anyone will be investing £200 anytime soon.

The camera comes with a 10m power cable and mains adaptor so if the birdbox is located near enough to a building it can be plugged in. If using batteries, the power connector can be outside the birdbox so that the batteries can be changed without having to disturb the nest inside. As this birdbox was free, this is a low cost project. I'm going to experiment with a cheap USB video convertor. If I can't stream live with it, I can always edit a video of the 'highlights' then use VLC to stream that file to the classroom PCs.

On a similar topic, our school got one of these with Morrisons Let's Grow vouchers and I've been asked to get it live video streaming on the network! CCTV Bird Box Kit - Morrisons So I need a video capture device that will take the composite signal from the camera receiver, and allow me to stream the captured video live to any PC on the network! Not sure if any of the cheap USB capture devices will be up to it - has anyone done anything similar? Of course, the next questions will be "Can we have it on the Life Channel and school website" ...

Does it have to be VB script? I use robocopy to do a similar thing, except I move the files to another location called archive. Once they haven't been missed for 6 months, they get deleted. Use the /minage: switch to specify how old the document to be delete has to be, then use the /r:0 so it doesn't stop if it finds a locked file.

There is a bracket shown under the Accessories title on this page: PARAPROJECT® Cube for iPad - PARAT It looks as though you hook the cube onto the bracket and can use the slide out clip to padlock them together. From the picture it seems to stick out a few centimeters which should be enough to allow space for the power and USB cables-although you'd have to connect them before attaching to the wall.

We have three Konica Minolta Bizhub C451 MFDs, leased from Konica. They are not very reliable. In fact they go through phases where we have an engineer out once a week to fix something. We too are looking at alternatives and have had a demo of a RISO comcolour 7050 which is impressive in the speed department - even on double-sided printing. The printed output is very good although you can tell its an inkjet, not laser, but for everyay usage it is fine.

This probably isn't what you want to hear, but it sounds like you have taken all reasonable steps to solve the issue yourself. Its time to either get them looked at by a professional or replace them. If you do decide to replace them, make sure you go for a projector with decent warranty. I was a big fan of Sanyo but have now started using Epson and have been impressed with the EB-X11 which comes with a 3-year lamp and projector warranty. Epson EB-X11H - Epson You can get them for around £290+VAT if you shop around.

Sorry nephilim, you didn't win this time!

I'll be replacing another Smart UniFi 35 that has finally died this morning!

We had 10 Unifi 35 units in our school. Only 3 remain and one of these has finally died this morning - yes, on the last day of term! I have been replacing them with ceiling mounted or wall mounted short throw units depending on location. If there is a reasonably straightforward way to connect a 'standard' short throw projector and re-use the existing wall mount and boom arm I would love to know.

Yeah! I won some joyous biscuits! Many thanks... although you pulled my name out a day early!

I'm loving the videos. Reminds me of the Safestyle UK man: The Safestyle Window Man TV ad 2012 - YouTube and Barry Scott of Cillit Bang fame! Cillit bang techno remix - YouTube

Unfortunately, the £30 Epson cashback offer expired at the end of October so you won't be able to get them for £255 anymore. Best price I could see from one of our regular suppliers is £289+VAT from avpartsmaster. PC World Business have them at £285+VAT but we don't use PCWorld.

I've been with Giff Gaff for over a year and love it. I get the £5 'hokey cokey' goodybag which gives you 250 texts, 60 mins plus 1 min back for every 1 minute someone calls you. I get calls from school all the time so I'm always clocking up more minutes that I can use each month. Because Giff Gaff to Giff Gaff calls and texts are free, most of my family are also on Giff Gaff now so I never run out of texts or minutes. This really is amazing for £5 a month. I don't use mobile data - wifi is enough for me.

A lot of schools seem to be going with Konica photocopiers that also print, such as the C650 bizhubs. They are usually on a maintenance and support contract which is good because they frequently break down and need an engineer visit. In my current school we have two C650 units and we get a visit from and engineer at least once every 2 weeks. I have a Brother HL-5250DN on my desk for mono prints and only use the Konica when I have to! At home I use a HP laserjet 2600. Slow but reliable and lots of cheap remanufactured toners available.

That would depend on the mount - it may be a universal mount that will fit almost any projector, or it may have been specifically made for the Sanyo. Have a closer look at it and see if the 'arms' that attach to the projector look adjustable or fixed. I couldn't find any details on a Sanyo XE - they usually have a number after the XE, eg. PLC-XE30. For the Epson EB-X11 you can find a diagram of the mounting holes (with measurements) in the manual on page 108 - see link below: http://cdn.cnetcontent.com/fa/f2/faf23e50-0ff0-4658-a158-57104abcfca9.pdf

Definitely go for the Epson EB-X11. They're £289+VAT with a 3 year product and lamp warranty. The cashback promotion for recycling your old projectors has just ended, unfortunately. AVPartsmaster, CBC Computers, Misco all stock them. We have 6 of them now and I will keep getting them as older ones need replacing. They are bright and clear and so far (4 months and counting) seem reliable. Very easy to install and have a clever feature where you can connect a computer to them via USB to send video and audio to the projector - installs on the computer as a display adaptor - useful for temporarily connecting a laptop. They have a reasonable adjustment on the throw distance too making them suitable to replace many older projectors without the need to move the bracket.

We had 30 of these supplied by Smarter Solutions and have had nothing but problems with them. Similar issues to above, both with the product itself and with the poor service received from the supplier and the 'manufacturer' Zoostorm/CMS. 4 weeks to get a motheboard replaced just isn't good enough. As for being tough, well nothing is tough enough when it comes to primary school children. One of ours had the lid closed with a pencil sharpener inside which cracked the screen. No-one is able to supply a replacement touchscreen. Zoostorm aren't interested. The tips of the stylus come off too easily and end up wedged inside the unit. The touchscreen surface is very difficult to clean, as is the textured rubber coating of the case so after a few months use they all look old and scruffy. The touchscreen is not very responsive and this quickly frustrates the children and staff using them - the only program its usable with is the supplied ArtRage. Because they take so long to start up and shut down, children never wait long enough and close them mid shutdown. This just confuses the fizzbook so the next person to use it either can't because the battery has drained or the screen will be rotated 180 degrees. This can only be corrected once you have logged into Windows - not easy to do upside down. MS Office 2010 Starter came pre-installed but this invariably stops working and requires removing and re-installing. But its supplied pre-installed and you can't get an official copy to install from anywhere. Zoostorms advice is to buy the Pro version - not very helpful. The version of Smart Classroom Suite installed on ours was a 'special' 2009, even though they were supplied in 2011. This is so old and just doesn't work with ANYTHING so we aren't using it. The spec of these units just isn't up to the job of running Windows 7 Pro on a domain in a school environment. The battery life was initially OK at 4 to 5 hours contiuous use. After 12 months this was down to 2 hours at best. Conclusion: Get a decent spec laptop with features you need and that work - don't waste money or time on these.