SamanthaD

Depends on the brand. CF are less common these days, SD is more popular but some brands use xd cards, or 4k video cameras use CFast cards nowadays.

Another thought - leave the audio coming of the HDMI, use an HDMI audio de-embedder to extract the audio to go wherever you need it then set the projector volume to 0. Works if the projector's on or off.

At the extreme end of things - everything we do here is pretty much self service. Projector - on a security mount (projector can only be removed with a key) Screens - electrically operated PC's - in a locked / secure lectern Remotes - RS232 panels (no remotes needed) Laptops - HDMI / VGA flyleads for connection to their own laptop. In essence anyone can go to one of our systems, find the control panel and press ON, screen lowers, projector turns on, volume is set and the installed PC appears. Microphones are available at a preset level (one on the lectern and usually a tie-pin radio mic, these occasionally go missing but usually because someone's walked off and not realised it's on!) but otherwise everything else is in a secure, locked lectern. Works for us in an inner city campus with over 250 rooms.

Leave the 3.5mm audio lead. It's up to user to supply the adaptor required to interface their phone with the system, not the other way round!

HDMI won't reach 20m unless you're using cable equalisers. Don't suppose your budget would stretch to AVoIP? That would do the job very nicely....

I'd suggest switching scalers that also mange audio and EDID etc are a bit different to the scalers found on gpu's. £12k is way over the mark - I can get a room fitted out with a decent lectern, scaler, amp, speakers, control panel (programmed), blu-ray, D/A, PSU's etc and display for around £10k. Someone is doing some silly mark-ups! @mhaddock - Totally agree. We've just been merged into IT Support and the powers that be are just starting to realise AV is a completely different discipline. Where we go from here is to be seen!

Can you clarify what you mean by lectern? We use 24" iiyamas as standard, but they're on a monitor arm. Do you mean a pulpit style lectern or more of a University type bench style?

The biggest issue with using DP or HDMI to VGA is resolution - users start setting the resolution to suit the local monitor (1080p) and the XGA projector can't cope. Solved many issues just by reverting the res to 1366x768!

£12k for a panel is ridiculous, even if programming is included. Which panel are you looking at? Maybe if you had multiple touchscreens, processor, switcher, programming it might start being north of £5k, but for a MLC Plus 200 with PSU and programming I'm looking at hundreds, not thousands. PM me if you want a chat - I'm at Uni of Bristol.

I'd maybe have a look at interactive displays, even if you don't use the feature. I think at that size nowadays the cost is around the same, or rumoured that interactives may even be cheaper due to demand....

We use the Dell WD15 docks with no problems disconnecting / reconnecting under Win10. 5 x USB, Power, audio, headset, ethernet, VGA, HDMI and miniDP. I think the ports are disabled when the laptop is disconnected as my USB desk fan turns off???

I use the warm white / cool white quite a lot depending on what I'm doing (especially in the kitchen), actual colours less so unless it's a special occasion.

Ask yourself if you really need full colour - I have 16 Hue's in my house and only 2 are the full colour ones. Most are variable white - only 3 are plain white ones. Keep your eyes on the auction sites - you can occasionally get a good deal on proper Hue's (got 4 x GU10's for £31 last year!).

Also worth noting projector lamps contain mercury.... ?????

Thanks for the responses. Warming to see a few here have heard of AVIXA (I'm CTS myself so well aware of them!). Just wondered out loud because I've seen a lot of previous posts regarding using consumer kit in schools, doing things on the cheap etc which we avoid like the plague, and started to wonder if we were the fools here as we're starting to write up our standards documentation that sets all this in stone.

Less of a question - more a review. TL DR - Great bit of kit, only uses Miracast so doesn't work with iOS and lacks Enterprise grade connectivity, but cheap and well worth a look. We've been looking at wireless casting options for a while and have pushed out a solution to test which we're not overly happy with. However we saw these little beauties and thought we've give them a test. At around £60 a pop they're not exactly pricey so we bought a few and installed them in a couple of meeting rooms. Installation took minutes as it's just an HDMI and a USB lead, with a short USB extension if you need it. Designed for screens but no reason it couldn't fit on a suitable projector either (if no USB just get a cheap USB socket adaptor). Casting via Windows 10 is a doddle, Win+K and your machine will find the adaptor. Connect and it's treated as another screen connected to your system, so you can Extend, Duplicate etc to your hearts content! You can also duplicate certain screens, so if you're using a twin screen system you can easily have a preview monitor on the desk and send that monitor's image to the screen. The only real issue is with updates. This does not connect to the network (it used WiFi Direct to connect) so the only way to update firmware etc is via an app on your laptop when you're connected, so if one needs updating it will be a case of go to the room and do it rather than an enterprise type solution. This, along with the lack of support for iOS (it uses Miracast which iOS doesn't support), are the main reasons for us not pushing this out across campus. But for a small school where popping along to all the classrooms and doing this would only take half a day, or having one in the loan projector bag so you can wireless cast to the projector without trailing cables across the sports hall, I'd fully recommend it.

The original Surface hub had twin cameras that would change according to who was speaking, not aware of a full PTZ solution though. I'd question having it in the centre of the table though - if two people were talking opposite each other the camera would be constantly swinging 180 degrees, the viewer would get seasick!

We're lucky in that we just say to them straight away "Are you on our purchasing consortium? No - then go to SUPC and register there, someone will be in touch." Job done! Mind you we're also locked into contracts with our suppliers so there's no chance of a new company getting a look in nowadays with us!

LED video walls are coming along in terms of resolution and price, but I wouldn't say it would be cost effective for a 120" display. Sharp PN-V602A looks good (never used it so be don't take it as a recommendation), but would be a good like for like replacement.

VMeter: USB MIDI Touch Strip Controller & Display

Hi there, Something I'm genuinely interested in is how you all select your AV kit. I'm not talking about brands, thinking more screen size, display types, speaker selection etc? From my perspective there are guidelines out there for all of this, and we are currently writing up a set of policies to make it a lot clearer for the end user, but am wondering how much of this is actually used in the real world? Opinions / thoughts welcomed.

How long's your HDMI cable run?

Not rolling as such - perhaps suggest a columnboard setup? Price will be so ridiculously high that it should stop the silly requests like these....

To be fair I'm amazed no-one has said anything about this yet.... EDIT.... I'll get my coat.....

Also means that your supply of Gaffa doesn't get "borrowed" for every other job under the sun. I always kept my supply under lock and key!