Category Archives: Hardware

Sep 26

Great Amplified Classroom Speakers: Epson ELPSP02

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One Epson ELPSP02 On A Classroom Wall

Amplified speakers for classroom use are tough to come by. We have gone through many models. If you get desktop speakers, you need to then get wall mounts. So, you can go cheap, but adding the cost of decent wall mounts and the time involved to install them spikes the price. There unfortunately are very few options out there under $200 that have decent wall mounting kits that come with them and that are really set for use in a classroom setting.

I was able to find the Epson ELPSP02 Active Speakers. They are a pair of speakers that were designed to be wall mounted and ready to go for teachers. They cost around $150 or so from CDWG or another distributor.

The treble and bass adjustments are also a nice touch. It also comes with a mounting bracket for the power adapter which is great for cabling organization. We have a few pairs of these in now, but will be using this as the new standard for classrooms. They are also white in color and the cases are durable, so I feel they will hold-up to the rough environment of the high school classroom.

Couple of points to note: RCA to 3.5 audio connector cables are NOT included, so you need to get those separately. Also, the cable that connects the powered speaker to the non-powered is not standard speaker wire, so you cannot have these more than about 12 feet apart from each other. But, there is plenty of length to put them above or around a standard dry-erase whiteboard.

All and all in our testing, we are finding they are holding-up well and provide decent sound for the rooms. The mounting brackets come with the units, so that is just a huge time-saver on getting third-party mounts from Peerless or something and then having to rig something crazy.

The Epson site product page actually doesn’t even do a decent job of giving you information or pictures of what they really look like so I have added some additional images here. For me, seeing the way the connections are located is super-important. These speakers are designed to hang on the wall so the cabling that comes with it works well with the wall mounted setup.

Sep 02

Adding Film To Minimize Glare On Large LCDs

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We installed a 50″ LCD with built-in speakers in a very tricky and bright classroom to try and allow easy projection capabilities for the teacher and eliminate the always problematic use of normal projector systems. Three of the walls of the shop are fully windowed and the room is bright no matter what the weather. There are workstation islands through the space, so having everyone have to move to a part of the studio to see a presentation or demonstration was never ideal. This is a classroom envronment, so we really need to have everyone in the room be able to connect with what is happening on the screen no matter where they are in the room.

Pictures of the Glass Studio space.

As you can see, lots of windows that can make it tough to project anything. After hanging the LCD we noticed, that the glossy screen (common on most large LCDs) still created an issue because it picked-up on the glare through the windows when it was sunny or overcast. The mirroring effect of the windows and space outside the studio was impossible to ignore. Relocating the display was not an option. So, I tried to find something standard that would provide anti-glare. But, there is really nothing ready-made on the market that I found to buy through my channels that could work with something as large as a 50″ display to cut the glare and not possible damage it in the process.

Enter Photodon.

Photodon (http://www.photodon.com) is one of the few/only to have film that will work to address the issue on large LCDs or TVs. I called them and Mary Ellen was super-helpful. I went back to get an exact measurement of the surface area of the screen and gave her the dimensions. They cut it to the specs I gave them for the Samsung LCD we recently put in there. When we got the film in, it fit perfectly. But – If you think putting a protective screen on a phone or iPad is tough, try doing it to a 50″ LCD! We took our time and stayed relatively patient throughout to get a great result with minimal blemishes on the contact of the screen to the film.

Before and After Shots Of The LCD

The result has made the LCD absolutely visible throughout the space of the studio with windows and all. The film was reasonably priced and well-worth the investment to really make the LCD functional in that space now. Very happy customer. If you are dealing with glare issues on your large LCD, TV or digital signage I suggest you give these guys a shot.

Apr 19

Using Dock Cleats As Cable Managers In Classrooms

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Powder-Coated Dock Edge Classic™ Cleats

When it comes to computer cabling in classroom environments, no matter what you do for the long runs, you usually a mess on your hands those final few feet to the faculty equipment.

No matter what you do in your school classrooms to handle cabling for faculty, there is that final length of cable for audio and video to projectors, interactive boards and audio that usually is a total cluster. Then, add-in the multiple uses and people in the rooms doing a variety of different types of presentations in different locations in the room and you compound the issue.  In our case, we had long cables running from the projector and speakers and the length connecting to faculty laptops has always been a nightmare to deal with. They sits on the ground and constantly get kicked around, removed, lost and/or damaged. It also just looks bad when you come in and see a pile of cables you need to rely on for a teaching session.

In addition to adding cable management from the projectors and speakers in the room through putting then behind the walls (if you can) or going with cable tracking to conceal and secure cables, you still need some slack to allow teachers to setup in the space in different locations. Because you want to leave some slack, but it can stay unorganized. All strict cable management systems from the usual vendors are really geared to hold the cabling in a fixed position. This doesn’t work for that final few feet from the wall you want for the teacher to be flexible with depending on their material and hardware use.

I found nothing great out there in the cabling vertical market intended to handle this sort of scenario. But, there are many solutions out there for dealing with situations LIKE this on boats with rope, which is why I looked to solutions with rope management and found that dock cleats could be a perfect solution. Different materials and environments, but very similar form and function. After a talk with L-W Visual Arts teacher, Robert Sanborn, who happens to be extremely knowledgeable of boat hardware and interiors, I found out that I should head down to West Marine and see what they have that could work for VGA and other rope-like cabling we deal with in schools.

DockEdge Classic™ Cleat in White Finish

West Marine had many different types of dock cleats but the Dock Edge Classic Cleat models seemed to be the best one to use in my opinion because it was lightweight, sturdy and seemed like our walls could handle it without too much trouble. Going through the check-out, the cashier asked if I had a boat (which we do not.) After briefly explaining I would be using this in a classroom, he smiled pretending to understand and was happy to sell whatever to me for whatever reason. Sidenote: If you have never had the chance to go in and look around store that carry boat supplies, I highly recommend it. There is a lot of really cool equipment and tools for boats but have so many other applications as well.

After We are getting a bunch in and will be installing in every classroom as we can in addition to normalizing the cabling runs with boxes and tracking. The have white and powder-coated models. We will get a mix of both depending what we can continue to acquire from vendors. I prefer 8 1/2 inch model (PN#2508W-F) as it provides enough spacing for decent extra length from the wall to take into the room for a table or desk use presentation.

Besides working quite well to tether the last few feet of a VGA, audio and USB cable, the cleat provides relief on the cable run itself to the rest of the run when it is pulled from the desk or table with the equipment. It stops the pull to the rest of the cabling in the track or behind the wall while still providing organization.

Lastly, it is also pretty fun to say you are getting a piece of equipment for your classrooms of your school from Bass Pro Shops (as they sell this model as well!) But, there are many places on the web you can order them from if you don’t have a local boat shop in your area. Depending on which sizes you get, the pricing ranges from $10-$30 or so.

Boating Dock Cleat in Lick-Wilmerding's Room C

Feb 16

Hack a Box To Protect Outdoor Power Supplies

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Turtle case LTO-5

When installing network equipment outside, it is not always possible to have the electrical cabling and components on the interior and safe from the elements. This was the case recently for me when I installed some outdoor Ruckus Wireless access points. The buildings I am putting them on don’t have a lot of access to power inside in a way that wouldn’t look bad or be problematic from a water leak issue. So, I decided to go with using the outlets on the roof. But, because these sorts of devices feed with power-over-ethernet (PoE) I really needed to get a power injector and supply up there in a safe location.

You can buy outdoor boxes/enclosures for this sort of thing, but they are pretty pricey and you have to go to vendors you might not have internal accounts with or it is just a pain to deal with. This was the situation for me. So, my initial path was to try and build something myself or ask a student to construct something to handle the dimensions of the power supply and cables I needed to cover in my school’s shops but that would take time and I was eager to get these units up and going ASAP.

Enter the Turtle cases. I bought a few of these a while back to handle LTO media transfer back and forth on off-site backup tape rotation. Specifically, the LTO -5 blue ones. These boxes are pretty reasonable priced $35-$40. But, we have easily surpassed the amount of tapes these guys can handle now and they sat in a pile of tech stuff that was gathering dust. Turtle cases are great. They are a little bulky but that is to protect the media inside. I surmised these would be perfect to use as an enclosure for power adapters and power injectors.

I was lucky enough to have a co-worker (and Technical Arts Department Head) drill a hole in one side of the box below the ridge and attach a piece of thick rubber with a couple of cross-cuts to provide the cable access for inside (Thanks Andrew K!!) You can get much fancier here on gaskets and outlets, etc. but this should cover it for what we are doing.

Here are some pictures of the finished product.

Nov 09

Xserve: How Apple Could Have Saved It

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Simple – A Xserve billboard ad in the same vein as the iPod and iPhone mold.

Apple, you are free to incorporate this into your marketing plans if you decide now, after seeing the potential in this ad campaign, to resurrect the Xserve.

My Xserve Billboard Rendering for Apple - Jonathan Mergy

That is the sysadmin jumping for joy because he so excited having an Xserve. This could have changed everything. I fear now that my work is too late to save the end-of-lifed Xserve. I can see it now, kids will want to setup 19″ racks in their closets to listen to beats, serve DNS and Open Directory.

Oh well, what could have been (hehe)