Audio Visual Term Busting Breakdown From Proactive AV

Audio Visual Term Busting!

We understand when it comes to looking at audio visual equipment things can appear more complicated than they actually are simply because people are using Audio Visual terms. That’s why we have put together this handy definition break down to help make it easier for you to decide which interactive touchscreen is the best fit for your school.

LED:

All LED screens are both LED and LCD. LCD stands for Liquid Crystal Display and this is the thing you look at when you look at a screen. What provides light to the pictures in the LCD is the LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) behind it. Some screes are back-light or sidelight LED which means they have LEDs around the edges, or rows of LEDs spaced behind the LCD panel. This often means they are not as bright, meaning they can produce darker areas for movies and have higher contrasts between lights and darks. This can be good for your standard home TV but is not the best possible solution for classrooms where text heavy documents are on display. Full LED means that there is a full array of LEDs filling the screen behind the LCD panel meaning the colours are brighter.

Points of Touch:

Points of touch simply means how many fingers or styluses can be touching the screen at once. So, if a screen has 20 points of touch then 20 people can write simultaneously on the screen. Good quality touch panels with have a minimum of 10 touch points. Whilst having the ability for 10 people to write at the same time is not necessary, the number of touch points is normally a good way to gauge how accurate and sophisticated the touch on a screen is.

Audio:

Audio is important in classrooms with more and more media being used in lessons. All screens we provide have ample sized and quality speakers built-in to the screen itself. Promethean, BenQ and SMART have recently changed their panels to have front-facing speakers to provide an even better auditory experience in the classroom.

Android:

Android doesn’t need to be a scary word! Android is the name of the worlds most popular operating system. Now more popular then Microsoft Windows, Android is found on devices such as; Samsung, Nexus, HTC, Kindle and many more. What this means to you is that your interactive touchscreen can be used as a giant tablet without a PC or laptop attached! When you’re not using your new screen as a touchscreen monitor for your computer, you can still use it to access the internet or just simply use the whiteboard tool! We’re certain it will soon become your favourite new teaching tool!

RAM:

RAM or Random-Access Memory is memory that is used for processing tasks. When people talk about storage on the screen they are referring to ROM. ROM should be thought of as how much you can save on the screen. RAM is about how much you can run on the screen. RAM helps with processing and the more RAM a device has, the better it will be at processing tasks at speed. RAM is often therefore thought of as key to making a machine run fast. So, the more RAM a machine has, the faster it will be.

OS:

When we see the acronym OS, it refers to the Operating System of a device. The in-built Android like every device has an Operating System. Android OS starts at number 1 and increase sequentially every time a new version is released. Whilst how new the Android version is does not determine its power or capability, it does determine its access to apps. Most apps only support a few versions of OS. This is how on our computers some software works on Windows 10, 8 and 7; but won’t work on Windows XP because it is too old. The newer the Android OS the more apps will be available for manufacturers to use on it and the more it will be able to be updated in the coming terms and years.

Management Software:

Management software is exactly what it says on the tin. Most screens as shows now have management software built in. This allows schools IT to manage screens remotely. Everything from installing apps, running updates, installing network certificates or even remote control of the screens in some instances. Management software means that if you have multiple screens you can manage them centrally. Instead of managing each screen onsite 1-by-1 you can do something once online and apply to all which saves time, especially for those who have limited IT support by the hour!

Warranty:

The warranty of the screen is something that Proactive AV would manage on your behalf. How long the manufacturers warranty is on a product is normally a good indicator of how much faith they have in their own product. Most electrical goods in the UK come with 1 year warranty as standard. All the screens we supply come with a 5 year warranty. This is a real statement of their reliability and should provide customers with real piece of mind for the foreseeable future.

Touch Type:

The touch type refers to how the screens know when we are touching them. All the screens we supply use infrared laser beams or sensors and when we break these beams using a stylus or our fingers they recognise the touch. Infrared has increased in its accuracy in the last 18 months and can now read smaller and smaller touch points allowing styluses to shrink to the size of normal pens and to allow things like palm erase. Most infrared uses a mix of horizontal and vertical beams invisible to the naked eye to read the touch. High precision touch is created when these are accompanied by diagonal beams as well to create highly sensitive and accurate touch. Whilst most touch beams sit just in front of the screen, in glass touch sits just behind the screen. In glass means that the infrared is reflected off the screen itself internally and can easily read touch with amazing accuracy by sensing anything that obstructs the light. Infrared touch is perfect for most users but on occasion higher level maths teachers will require the pinpoint accuracy of high-precision or in-glass touch to do their work.