Chris_Cook

Our older screens are Xibo, but the newer ones are google slides running from a raspberry pi. Much easier to just give access to staff to google slides, and then they can worry about it. Much less training and logins too.

Epson projectors might be worth a look. The EB-u05 can be had for a similar price and does 1920x1200. The lamp life is still quite good, and personally, I prefer the image quality on the Epsons to the Casios. Whilst we've not had the model you mention here, we have had a few issues with the Casios.

I've also got a pockethernet and its a really handy bit of kit. Shame it doesn't come with a toner probe included (just the tone generator), and it would be good if you could cancel a test once started, but other than that, a really great tool for the price. Anyone supporting a network should have a tool like this.

What are the issues with the current system? At one school we are IP with Milestone XProtect. Once you get beyond about 40 or 50 cameras, its quite expensive to add more camera licences but its quite a nice solution. For your 12 cameras, its probably not that expensive. Hikvision do some nice hi-res ip cameras for around £100. At another school, we use some old DVRs that were already installed, and then used the free milestone software to connect these into one console/system. We had to throw quite a lot of storage at it though, so not totally free. You could do something similar with the Hikvision software. I think you can add 8 DVRs to milestone before you have to start paying, and each one can be up to 64 channels/cameras. The only tricky bit is finding the rtsp url for the streams. One old DVR we couldn't get working, so we replaced it with a cheap Hikvision unit. The DVRs are basically being used as encoders There are options to run IP or HD analogue down existing coax, but if you need new cable I'd go with cat5e. If you still run analogue cameras, you can just use converters/baluns. I'd start with a plan, work out what cameras you've got, what problems there are with each, where you want to add cameras. Make sure you have enough capacity in the new system for future additions.

Would anyone be able to let me know what model readers you are using on your net2 controllers? We have some new paxton mifare readers(353-467), but they seem to give the card id in the correct format, rather than the reversed one above. All our other paxton/HID iclass readers give the reversed format, and I'm trying to find a good solution. I've tried all the card and reader format options, but no joy.

I've not used one, but the Algo 8180 looks like it might do what you want.

I don't think you lose much by making it virtual. It depends how you implement it though. Assuming in both cases you have it on a raid array I can't see any real difference in the risk of corruption. There may be some performance cost if its not locally attached, but its perfectly workable. On the other hand, you get some big gains. Backup + replication can be better with the likes of Veeam etc. You can also re-attach the vhdx to another virtual server if your original server develops a problem. That's much harder to do with a physical server + array. Once its virtual, you don't have to worry about matching raid controllers and disks etc. You can even stick the vhds on a new host and boot it. If you have the ability to do live migrations, then you can also do some hardware maintenance and upgrades with less downtime. Adding space to a drive is much easier as you can extend the vhds whilst the server is still running.

One school has lots of smart all in one boards. These are getting replaced with Cello 65inch non touch TVs where possible. This school has solid walls, but really high or weak ceilings so a traditional projector doesn't work in a lot of rooms. And ultra short throw projectors are stupid money. Touch isn't used that much by most departments. Our other school has good ceilings, but walls that are difficult to mount a heavy tv on. Most rooms have a ceiling-mounted projector already, so they get an Epson x27 or the current equivalent. Half the rooms have old promeathan boards which just about work for touch, but a lot of them arn't used. We'd like to do more TVs but cost and size is often a concern. Also, the TVs are much more fragile than an IWB. We tried the casio route, but while they were good to start with, the epsons were cheaper, brighter and last longer.

Some of our cleaners wipe the PCs down with a rag occasionally. I tend to do stuff when it comes in for repair, or if its really unpleasant. I use Nilco glass cleaner and a cheap microfiber cloth or blue roll. I don't know what the cleaners use.

The vision techconnect ones work quite well, but are still quite expensive. You could get a lot of epson remotes for that price. Maybe enough to give everyone there own remote. We've gone for these in the past: https://www.unicompparts.com/remote-controls-c428/epson-m1/eb-x27-t6962

You could also look at 100v line speakers. These are just daisy chained with an amp at one end. Although I would also investigate the unifi option to see if its loud enough. Maybe see if you can get a demo unit. Have you got the cat5 in place to where you need the speakers?

If I remember, there is a reset button on the back of these projectors, near the inputs. This might do it. Otherwise you need a remote in mode 2. Hold menu and image buttons for 10 seconds to change the remote, then change the projector in the menus. Can you borrow one? In theory, you can control them via the mini-din serial port, and access the menu that way, but its probably not worth the hassle on such an old projector.

I'm not sure without looking it up, it was about 6 months ago. It would be best to get a new quote from them directly, as it may vary depending on the size of the system etc. It was a lot less than what we were paying on our old system though.

3cx again (with Yealink handsets). Our deployment last year went very smoothly. We went with Spitfire for trunks, support and initial config. We did the physical install of the phones, and provided a phone list for them to upload into the system. They were accommodating to our needs, and were able to give useful advice too. Its something you can do in-house, but as as school we wanted a level of support in case of future issues. Adding additional extensions now is just a mater of plugging the phone into the network, and assigning a name and number on the 3cx web interface.

Same issue at 2 schools here.

The baofeng radios are great, but the last lot I got wouldn't program with chirp. This seemed to be a common problem on the chirp website. Its been a couple of months since I tried though. I believe the default channels are illegal to use in the UK, so you need to make sure you program them before use.

In the past we have billed the department. Many remotes suddenly appeared the following day when they realised that they would lose £30 from their budget. They often get put somewhere safe, like in a draw. Or balanced on top of a cupboard for a caretaker to find several years later when it hits them on the head whilst moving said cupboard... We've also used the previous version of these in the past: https://www.avpartsmaster.co.uk/p-64692-vision-tc3-ctl-universal-control.aspx but they are now too expensive to be worth it in most rooms. Great for larger AV installs in meeting rooms and halls though.

Liveregister has been very good for us.

Interesting. I had a similar issue this afternoon with a Casio XJ-M. I've tried swapping the remote with another projector, and both remotes work in the other room, but neither work in this room. Did a reset in the menu, and also tried removing the power at the back. Neither worked for me. As above the buttons work on the projector itself. Will have another play tomorrow. Or I'll just give them a stick to poke it with...

I've also recently got a pockethernet, but not really used it much yet. It uses your mobile phone as the display (via bluetooth). It can show an IP address from dhcp, as well as lldp info and bit error rate. Also has a few other features.

I use a mitre block with a hacksaw, and then a stanley knife to clean up any rough edges. This gives a much squarer joint and makes a big difference. Joiners and/or bathroom sealant can also help tidy things up afterwards.

We have a dedicated voice circuit from Spitfire.co.uk which I think is SDSL or something along those lines. Our 3cx server is a standard onsite virtual machine. I can't remember how we do the failover off the top of my head. But we have had calls routed via LGFL before this line was up and running.

We have it working on site here, although only as a backup. You will need to get a list of ports and addresses to unblock from your sip trunk provider, and then submit them to the Atomwide/LGFL helpdesk.

We use Yealink phones and 3cx, with a mix of HP and Unifi Switches. There are a couple of ways to do it, and LLDP-MED should work well, especially if all your switches are from one vendor. On our system we do it differently - the ports are untagged in the office admin VLAN, and have the voip vlan tagged. Once the phone boots and contacts the DHCP server, we have a dhcp policy that applies option 132 (vlan id), and 66 (boot server host name). It then uses the voip vlan for the phone, and keeps the PC port on the office admin vlan. We have lots of small switches dotted all over our site, so the DHCP option was a bit more straight forward for us. With fewer and more standardised switches, we might have looked at the LLDP way. I believe for both options, you will need to create a vlan and tag it between all your switches. You will also want it routed appropriately. For LLDP-MED, on your switches you will then need to tell it which is your voice vlan. The exact details are probably dependent on your switch and phone vendor.

You'll want a good audit of your current system. At least the number of phones and other devices attached to it. Make sure Lifts, alarms, faxes etc are all accounted for. You also want to look at your cabling and switches. You'll probably want enough POE ports for each phone. Ideally you'll want a dedicated cable/datapoint for each phone as well, or at least make sure you have a handset with gigabit ports on it if you daisy chain them with a PC. As part of your audit, you'll want to look at issues with the current handset deployment, whether you want additional ones, fewer ones, or more or less features on each handset. Organisational procedures need looking at too. Work out what happens when people call in from outside. What does you answer phone/ IVR do currently. Make sure this is documented, discussed and planned with the relevant staff. Saves some arguments later, even if you are going to make changes. Ideally you should have a separate VLAN for your phones, so that will need planning and implementing. You should also make sure your happy with your current network in terms of configuring it and how reliable it is. Your switch-over day(s) need some consideration. Make sure your office/reception staff know how to do transfers etc. Your number porting needs booking in advance. I'd recommend allowing yourself plenty of time to make sure everything is setup as you want before you switch over.