VeryPC_Anthony_L

Hi @webbobfc As you have already seen there is lots of views on interactive touch screens vs projectors. Both as good and it all depends on what you want to achieve. A lot of people still like projectors as you can get a BIG image at a fraction of the cost of an touch screen. But there are benefits of touchscreens as well such as they are often a lot more clearer. There are lots of screen brands which in someways is making a very flooded market place. A really important thing is not to focus on the price and really test and trial a few to see what will work for you and your school. If the teachers like using SMART then you may find it easier to stick with SMART. At VeryPC we offer a range of screens and look to match the customers needs with what is available that matches their needs and requirements alongside what would fit with their budget Feel free to get in touch should you wish too Anthony

Hi all, From our conversations with SMART and their distributors we have been told the following - SMART Learning Suite is currently only available for SMART Products. - If you are running SMART 11.4 and wish to upgrade you need to supply the serials of your SMARTboards. - If you are running software newer than 11.4 you need to supply your current license key to upgrade. There is talk about having a software price for those who wish to use SLS with a new 3rd party device but this has currently not been released. From what I can tell and understand if you already have a 3rd party device and a software licence you will be able to upgrade your software under the extended scheme. The main issue if for 'new' licences rather than upgrades. As many of you are aware there have been a lot of changes with the SMART software and the licensing model as well as changes to the distribution set up. As things start to settle down things will become much easier to understand. If anyone has an questions do feel free to get in touch and I will be more than happy to help. Anthony

Hi @CAWJames and Edugeekers, The license you refer to is a reduced price license that can be purchased on certain devices of a certain spec. Most of these are fairly low spec. Here are a few specs that you can purchase. Desktop/AIO Entry CPU – Pentium N3700 MAX disk - 120GB SSD/ 500GB SSHDD MAX ram – 4GB Laptop 14” Entry CPU- Pentium 3460 or N3700 Max disk 120GB SSD / 500GB SSHDD I hope that helps Anthony

Hi @ReBoot not seen the BVS screens and so cannot comment on them, what I can say though is this, there are more and more screens and screen brands cropping up all the time. Personally I would be vary of some of these new brands as they could easily disappear the next day. If you are wanting to get interactive screens I would highly suggest sticking with know brands such as, SMART, BenQ, Promethean, Vividtouch, Clevertouch, iiyama. These brands have been around for a long time and although they are often more expensive this is generally due to the fact that they offer a god warranty, are fully tested and compliant, offer good support etc.

Hi @GRitchie Not sure where you have got with your camera purchase but as mentioned by @dhicks the Panasonics are well worth a look such as the V770. If you want to use an external mic the Panasonic has a connector but no hot shoe to mount a mic. One opetion you could look at is the Canon HF G25, this has a hot shoe and mic input. From memory I believe the GF25 is more or less the same as the XA10. Hope that helps

Thank you @hallb15 for the mention Hi @theo_logical School sports halls/gyms are fun places to install an AV system. They are various various cages that can be purchased to protect equipment or depending on the height you could have it on a motorised system . Without knowing more about what you want it is hard to just give a price. One of the biggest issues with audio is sports halls is the reverb time which affects the intelligibility of the spoken word. The main area where people start going wrong is by installing 2 big speakers and having them loud. In rooms where you have a bad reverb time it is better to install more speakers spread throughout the room at lower levels. Generally The lighting in sports halls is rather bright so putting in a class room style projector wont be much use as it will be VERY dull. More than happy to help, feel free to PM/email me. Anthony

Hello all I am also going to slightly hijack this thread but suggesting you stay with Smoothwall. What Smoothwall does and the protection it gives is really good and actually is worth its money. With so much content being added on the internet daily, Smoothwall provides a much more real time solution in that it scans and looks at each page and its content, context and structure. If you are going to compare Smoothwall then it needs to be on a like for like. Anthony

If you are running programs like Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, Premier Pro, Fireworks, Illustrator etc then a dedicated graphics card will certainly help more than just using the built in graphics. In built graphics are upto a certain point but when you start pushing a computer without a graphics card then it will be more sluggish. We have recently been testing a new set up which is based on out Flex machine but that has a high quality graphics card in and all I can say is that it is AWESOME. If you are wanting to do media stuff then its the perfect machine. Anthony

Hi @Tesla , and the rest of the edugeek forum, Saying you have a 'Hefty' chuck of money can be dangerous on here..... , although at the same time, it can be quite useful. If you are using SMART notebook then I would highly suggest looking at the SMART range. some things to be be aware of is the hype around 4K screens. unless you have a real need to 4k then stick to 1080p screens as you will find these find. SMART are currently going through a bit of a change in the UK and prices have dropped quite a bit from where they were in previous years. Saying that there are some other really good screens out there on the market from Promethean, BenQ, Vividtouch, etc. The most popular sizes we currently sale and install is the 65" although 70" is becoming very popular as well. Before you purchase any screen, do get a demo of each one. Yes in many ways a screen is a screen but the touch element is the side where many screens start showing how good they are. It is worth noting that SMART are currently adjusting what their notebook software can be used on. For quite a few years Notebook has been available to be used on any panel although this is changing to a model where if you wish to use a 3rd party panel then this will be looked at on a case by case basis. All SMART screens come with SMART Learning suite pre bundled. If you would like any help then please feel free to PM me. Anthony

Hi all, thank you for the mention @fiza @Mel_16 there are lots of interactive panels on the market. The most common size that we (VeryPC) supply is 65 inch screens as this is the size that fits most schools budgets. There are a lot of manufactures who make 80+inch screens but do note that they are not cheap. A rough price on screens is the following 65 inch - £1500 - £2200 70inch - £2000-£3000 80inch+ - £4200+ If you are considering a LARGE screen that do check what your walls are as these are very heavy. At VeryPC we can supply a wide range of screens in all the sizes above and more so do feel free to get in touch. Before you choose a size, brand and model do try and get some demo units in and have the teachers test and trial them say over a week. Anthony

Hi all, One question I have been asked a few times and also seen on the forum is why should you not purchase a normal TV and the main overall reason is warranty. Your standard home screen will have a warranty that will cover light usage where as a commercial screen will cover you for long periods (8+ hours) How many times have you walked in a classroom and found the projector left on. A commercial warranty will often be for 2+yrs and will generally be able to offer an onsite swap out. If you going to go with screens then I would suggest ideally going for a 65inch screen. This seems to currently be the most popular along with 70inch. Some schools do go for slightly smaller with 55-58 but this is less common. Once you start looking at screens over 50inch the prices rise quite a bit. Depending on what you are looking for you can often get a 65inch interactive screens for not much more than a non interactive 65inch screen. If anyone would like any quotes on any set ups do feel free to PM me. Regards Anthony

Hi @Chrisbf1 are you able to give any more info on what you are wanting installed? Thanks Anthony

My wife and I are currently looking at getting our first home and I am looking at the properties thinking so what would be the best way to wire this.... At least I know i am not alone with what I am wanting to do .... BTW @CAWJames I also have the unifi flying saucers....

Hi @webbobfc As @Jonathan_K mentioned when you create a machine in Hyper V you are able to add multiple hard drives. Even if your current C: and D: is a partition, Disk2vhd will create it as 2 files which will allow you much more easily to shrink or grow the space that the VM needs. It is also worth noting that the current Server 2008 license is in theory attached to the physical box and not to the VM. Anthony

Here is a good place to start. What SIP Phones can I use with 3CX Phone System? Anthony

Hi all, It seems I might be a bit late to the party as there has already been alot of talk on here. At VeryPC we use and supply 3CX, which is a great system and can do quite a lot. Like many of you I really like the 'FREE' routes but unless you fully have the time to support this and have time to experiment and play these can be more of a nightmare. Although saying that generally the community forums that 'support' these are often very knowledgeable. There is often a tendency to think that just because you have an IP system you need to have Sip lines, which although would reduce your hardware costs is not true as you can get cards and gateway equipment to link in to say ISDN lines. If you want an out of the box system the systems like Avaya is a good option although often with these systems you are limited to what handsets can be used where as on 3CX / Free type system your have a lot more scope on what handsets you can use. Feel free to PM me it you need any help or advise.

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The biggest i have used in a School environment is a GLD80 and the students loved it. I took my Avo Tiger touch 2 that I owned at the time in quiet a bit and they LOVED it.

SMAART is good although expensive, Tuning capture is what I have been using more recently and preforms really well. I know quite a a few people who use and is really good. You might be able to guess that I am not just IT as well...... Oh how I would love to be able to sale a Digico console or even a Midas Pro console to a school............

Hands up, I did mention the Dan Dugan, but more from what it offer which is auto mixing of mics etc, but will never expect a school to buy one as they are VERY expensive. Room tuning can be helpful if you had a distributed PA along with time alignment. It might sound overkill but if you have a distrubuted pa system them would always suggest getting a speaker management unit to level it and set time delay. @mikeprice Having read what you want I feel the Art MX622 would suit your needs (ART Pro Audio). If you are doing a bigger show then a proper sound mixer would be advisable but for day to day use the ART would work well and is VERY simple to use and reasonably priced.

Although not overly surprising results this pole has been useful. It seems HP are by far the market leader. It would be interesting to get a clearer picture of who is using fixed format switches vs modular. If you are using a modular switch is that because you need a weird config or just in case something goes wrong....

I have tested both Airparrot and Airserver. Both are really good and work well but personally found Air parrot to be a nicer solution. My question would be is do you want 2 way collaboration as if so you would ideally need something like Screenbeam 950 type device. Anthony

What are the Allied Telesys like? Have you got many of the Huawei switches yet? What is your experience like with them so far?

HI Edugeekers.... It's poll time again.... There always seems to be a large amount of questions on the forum about what switches people use and what they should buy. A bit similar to other posts and polls, I am asking what switches you are using there will also be an option for modular and fixed format so please choose both make and the type of switch. I look forward to seeing your responses which might help others on the forum. Anthony

Oh yeah a Dan Dugan is overkill but the op sounds like he wants the mics to mute. Another way to do this would be to use a Gate/compressor on the mic channels. This would mean that when there was no signal / low signal the mic would be muted as such.