SamanthaD

Awesome, I've seen a lot of people not realising they're using their microphones illegally so just wanted to raise the issue. (During the summer festival season I still get a lot of bands wanting to use 700 MHz kit they bought years ago - they get rather annoyed when I refuse to connect it to my PA!)

We use Iiyamas extensively as our interactive display choice. Great panels, long lasting, no real troubles apart from a tiny batch that decided to boot to the root menu instead of the normal firmware once or twice. As we don't give our users remote controls we had to go and reboot the displays, but then they've been fine since. Also sometimes using the USB hub can be flaky with 4k cameras, but that's to be expected I guess!

You realise that receiver is in the frequency range of Channel 46- 49, and requires a very specific type of license to use in the UK? (We use 28, 29 and 31 and have to pay annual fees to Ofcom for the privilege!) Mic'ing nativities. Best results? Don't bother. Boundary mics will amplify everything (mostly footsteps unless you use a really high set high pass, or about a foot's worth of sponge material to isolate it from the stage). Shotguns pointing in from the side can be effective, but produce hotspots on the stage and teachers will want the sound in the centre of the stage louder than the sides, as that's where the actors speaking are likely to be. Flown can work, but again is more of a general lift than the ideal of making the quiet ones as loud as the loud ones. For songs - consider pre-recording it then let them sing along. For speech - hope the teachers have given the important parts to the louder ones! One tip if you do it anyway - if you have a stereo mixing desk consider inverse panning, ie mic Stage Left is panned to come out Stage Right speaker, and vice versa. Gives you a bit more gain before feedback by increasing the distance from microphone to the speaker, and if the actor is SL then the audience closer to them can hear direct, whereas the speaker SR covers the audience that side.

If you need multi-platform compatibility then the cheaper options like Microsoft Wireless Display adapter or AppleTV are out. Kramer VIA, Wolfvision Cynap, Mersive Solstice, Extron Sharelink, Wyrestorm Synergy and Airserver Connect are all options we're looking at, but have yet to find one that ticks ALL our boxes!

RS232 control panels are the way forward. Why give staff access to the functions they don't need?

If at all possible SDI based solutions will give you less headaches than HDMI over long distances, as they need less conversions. SDI capture cards are available. PTZ's are great if camera positions are predictable as you can program presets and recall as needed. If there's a lot of movement then manually operated cameras are the way to go. OBS is easy if you have a powerful enough machine and someone confident to use it. If it's going to be unattended then a streaming device like the BlackMagic WebPresenter or ATEM Mini would be worthwhile.

Just upgraded my old Macbook SSD to 2TB for £128. https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003J5JB12/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

GVAV have an office in Hounslow - sure they could help you out with whatever you need.

https://www.top-tec.co.uk/product-category/it-security-enclosures/pc-security/

Could you get a USB-C hub with DP and HDMI out - connect HDMI to monitor 1, DP to monitor 2. If the PC's off and the hub connected the monitors should auto-switch to the hub video?

What he said ^ (I still do this for a living!) - I'd probably add the £120 ones are likely to be fixed frequencies so you can't change them to play well with other systems - I usually run Sennheiser radio mics on festivals and if I see someone with a budget Shure guitar pack it's then a load of fun making sure the frequencies aren't going to intermodulate with each other. One BIG thing to realise - analogue radio mic manufacture is dying out. The future is digital, and the bigger manufacturers (Shure, Sennheiser etc) are soon going to be ceasing production of analogue models. It's already nigh on impossible to get hold of some components, and it's only going to get worse. If you find some bargain deals then that's maybe why, but with that spares for the older models are going to be becoming just as scarce.

Apparently not available on Teams - I've asked for this (as available on Zoom) from an EDI perspective (pro noun adding, neuro diversity awareness etc). Microsoft feature request link

https://cpc.farnell.com/kramer/vm-2hxl/distribution-amplifier-hdmi-1/dp/AV16541 Yes expensive - but we have over 100 of these splitting the HDMI between local monitors and our lecture recording system. Rock solid, only ones we'd trust - hence the only one I'd recommend.

Sorry, late to the thread as always! One of these would sort you out - Behringer DI120 - sorts both of your problems in that it has ground isolation and can mix stereo to mono by using the link mode. Connect it to your projector by using 2 x phono > 1/4" jack leads, then 1 x XLR back to your wall plate. If you have phantom power on your desk then power it through that (be sure to mute the channel or turn the amps off before connecting / disconnecting though to avoid the pops!) or power it via 9v battery.

https://ursastraps.com/ All sorts of weird and wonderful mounting options for beltpacks, tapes for capsules etc.

Hi. My recommendation is to forget the projector spec for now. Work out your screen size first - here's the maths part. You need to know the furthest distance the screen will be viewed from, the height you want the bottom of the image to be, and ideally the normal font size used in PowerPoints etc. You then need to work out the font size as a percentage of the screen size (24pt = 32 pixels. 32/10.8 (1% of 1080) = 2.96% so 3%). Once you know this chuck it into the basic decision making calculator on the AVIXA website - https://www.avixa.org/standards/discas-calculators/discas/bdm - also know your normal eye level and display ratio (1200mm is standard for seated on chairs - will be lower if your students sit on the floor, 1.77 display ratio for 16:9 screens). Make sure you use the same units throughout! Based on this will give you how big your screen needs to be, plus how close anyone viewing the screen should be. This last one can be changed by adjusting the screen height if needed. Once you know that, look at your projector throw if you have a fixed position for your projector so you can work out your lens requirements. Only then should you be thinking about lumens output! (There's maths for that too - but the documents that cover it are charged for so can't link to them here). Food for thought, but this is how we design University lecture spaces. Hope it helps.

We always used to use Simply Lamps - now trading as Simply AVS. Great if you're after genuine or aftermarket lamps, will search the 4 corners of the earth to get what you need then probably find they had one in the back of the store cupboard all along and then get it to you as quick as you need it (even to the point they've sent us the lamps before they had the PO, mind you we did do a lot of business with them with we had lamped projectors!).

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stuart-livesey-9452813_does-anyone-want-to-buy-a-second-hand-queue-activity-6977569702986268672-rGF2?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop Sounds like a simple solution for a very complex problem - "How do we tell people where the end of the queue is? Get someone to stand at the back - tell us where they are and we'll tell the world". Genius!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_digital_interface Various types - the distance it can travel depends on the resolution. 3G SDI is good for 1080p around 100m, 12G SDI is 4k and you can get around 40m. Yes you can transmit audio on SDI, but again really your projector shouldn't be handling audio!

All distribution amplifiers (or splitters if you must) should be HDCP compliant. If the chain is correct and complete you should be able to play whatever you want and it'll work, and only try and circumnavigate the HDCP signal if you have a genuine reason to. (There's not many reasons why you need to!) Back to OP's thinking. Long lightning cables etc that you mention is probably flawed - I'm thinking voltage drop on a cable of any real length is going to be an issue, as is digital video cable length. As others have said, wireless casting would be the best option here which gives you an option for external use. Feed that into a DA and then to your screens. Anything over 5m cable run use active copper cables - we used to use Van Damme but they're end of life so are looking at the Lindy offerings for runs of up to 15m. Put your casting box and DA behind the centre screen to keep the cable runs as short as possible. Plenty of iPad charging security enclosures out there if you're wall mounting it. Probably too late to be thinking of any sort of control solution other than remote controls - as anyone with multiple screens / projectors will tell you the fun of trying to turn on all 3, only getting 2 to turn on then when turning the last one on you turn the middle one off is infuriating. To quote my broken record - RS232 control would be a real benefit here.

Sorry I'm coming to the conversation late! Some general rules of thumb. Audio systems are only as strong as the weakest link in the chain. Better to buy a full system of mid level components - an expensive mic will always sound rubbish through cheap speakers. This includes your cabling! Amplifier power should exceed your speaker rating (usually double). Same as a car - you should have more enough power to drive at the speed limit without over-exertion, we call is headroom in audio terms. Driving your system at max all the time will increase the risk of distortion and overall wear. I'm not going to name shame manufacturers here - but there are good options and less reputable ones. Do some homework on recent trends - I really rate some manufacturers who 10 years ago I wouldn't even consider. So that all said - some direct points. Bluetooth connectivity shouldn't be an integrated part of the amp. It really should be in the mixer stage, especially if you want to add microphones to it (talent show - pupil comes up with backing track on phone they need to control on stage and sing along with it). There's some good bluetooth dongles that terminate in an XLR - a band I worked with recently used one of these and I was quite impressed with it. Laptops low volume issues - probably need a DI box. You can get specialised laptop ones with a 3.5mm cable already connected or the classic Behringer DI120 is pretty good. Budget is the key driver here as always. I can spec you a £500 system or a £50K system. Until you know that anything else is pure conjecture!

I've played with Posterbooking and initial impressions are pretty good if you don't need many screens (it's free up to 10 - but then you might just create a new account....) We also use OneLAN - again this may not be a recommendation.

Have you considered SDI? Blackmagic microconverters are fairly cheap and cabling is a lot less fussy compared to a CatX solution, plus it's thinner...

Was your Cat 6 shielded? For our installs using CatX cable we have to use solid core Cat6a STP with a minimum AWG of 24. The quality of the connectors matter too! Basically think about data rates, even 1080p at 60Hz is around 4.5 Gbps uncompressed.

An old venue I used to go to had a rail and pulley assembly set up with the cables already installed - so when they were needed the cable loom was pulled out from the wall and the pulleys slid across the rail to the centre of the room. Nothing on the floor. Would something like that work?