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School classroom equipment

Pep_SDPep_SD Posts: 106
in AMX General Discussion
Hello all,

I'm up for a bid at a school to equip about 10 classrooms and I'm looking for some guidance.
Each classroom will have a projector, a computer and a document camera.

1. Any supplier I can get hooked up with for the projectors and the doc camera?

2. Besides ELMO, any other doc camera that you guys found working well and providing RS-232 control?

3. Any recommendation for the projector? Currently the school have some EIKI projectors.

3. I would like to propose the RMS as an option, so that the IT staff that is not on site could monitor all equipment in the school and also other schools from the same district later on (they are all on the same IP network); what kind of architecture would be adequate? my 1st thought is one NI-700 per classroom communicating with another master at the IT facility where the RMS server would be...

Thank you.

Paul-Eric

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    ericmedleyericmedley Posts: 4,177
    It's been a while since I was in an educational facility but I remember we had good luck with Samsung Doc cams. We used a varitety of projectors. We had good luck with Sanyo, Sony, In Focus. Epson's gave us some problems, but by now they might have resolved those issues. It was memory leak having to do with RS-232 communications.

    RMS seems like a good solution. At the time I was at the University of Nebraska, we rolled our own system. RMS didn't exist at the time and when it did come along, our system was pretty well developed.
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    mncchartiermncchartier Posts: 68
    You can look at Wolfvision for the document cameras they do rs232 or IP for control, and you can get them as desktop of ceiling.
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    AuserAuser Posts: 506
    ericmedley wrote: »
    Epson's gave us some problems, but by now they might have resolved those issues.

    I wouldn't count on it. Avoid like the plague if you want my advice.
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    Thomas HayesThomas Hayes Posts: 1,164
    I use wolfvision doc cams in my classrooms. We use NEC projectors in our classrooms (we have a contract with NEC) I am in the middle of setting up RMS for our whole campus, with that said I've decided on NI-3100 as my standard controller. I had many NI-700's but found that I ran out of com ports as new devices were requested. Better to offer the client the possibility for upgrade than have to sell them a new controller in a year.
    I noticed that you didn't mention how you were switching sources. Is there a DVD/VHS, laptop, aux video source, CC unit, audio re-inforcement, electric screen,....just some items that we now install in our standard room.
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    PyroGuyPyroGuy Posts: 121
    Not sure how easy it is to get hooked up as a dealer to access the product, but SHARP projectors have been fairly solid in my experience (not as good several years ago as far as price/performance/features) but we just put several into a conference facility at a hotel and they have been solid. IP control has been solid - we are not using it right now but lamp hours, etc are all available. They also have a pretty good 'green' outlook which may ring good eco-bells at at a school level.

    I found wolfvision to be very good quality but lots of $$$ which around here is a killer for anything school related.

    I agree with Thomas - 700s are great, but the limited I/O capability could be a challenge down the road - offer it and an upgrade option - that way THEY make the decision and are the heros for looking forward!

    Good luck.
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    Pep_SDPep_SD Posts: 106
    Thank you all for your answers. As usual, extremely helpful!

    Paul-Eric
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