I also agree description of Orin is on the nose. He chased me down too. Last year my principal got a 90 day "trial" for a Promethean from Orin's company and of course it is still here.
I do not like this technique, to say the least. The board also had troubles with the screen downsizing after the teacher blanked the screen. After a semester and a half their techs narrowed it down to a VGA splitter they had used on the initial install. After that was pointed out, it took me all of 5 minutes to get a $5 splitter out of my cabinet and replaced their splitter. When I research tech products and I install them, things generally work better. When your principal gets a "thrill up his leg" and takes a 90 day trial without the technology director in the loop, problems occur. I think we have 6 Starboard's from Hitachi and purchased through Troxell, (Sean West, is my contact). They have come down several times to do in house trainings and I'm very happy with their products and personal support. Sean, and Troxell will be at the IETC conference. Scott ________________________________ From: tech-geeks-boun...@tech-geeks.org [tech-geeks-boun...@tech-geeks.org] On Behalf Of Michael T. Bendorf [bendo...@a-ccentral.us] Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2010 9:44 AM To: Tech-Geeks Mailing List Subject: Re: [tech-geeks] FYI Rant - In case anyone is considering purchaseing a UF-65 model smartboard - Your description of Orin is spot on. --Michael T. Bendorf-- Technology Administrator A-C Central C.U.S.D. #262 Google Voice: 217.408.0043 "I'm trying to teach myself to ask the same questions that you do during your lectures so that I do not need you any more." A good teacher is like a candle - it consumes itself to light the way for others. "The computer revolution hasn't started yet. Don't be misled by the enormous flow of money into bad defacto standards for unsophisticated buyers using poor adaptations of incomplete ideas." - Alan Kay On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 8:52 AM, Mike Oliveri <mike.oliv...@student.rb60.com<mailto:mike.oliv...@student.rb60.com>> wrote: I've received very little love from Smart vendors, even a local one I use for servicing other equipment. We currently have a Polyvision board, but the teachers haven't really been happy with it. Also, their rep for their Easiteach software was supposed to come down and show us the ropes, but had to cancel and then never made a new appointment. Haven't heard from her since. A Promethean vendor from Bloomington has been contacting me. His name is Orin Roth, company is Haddock Education Technologies. www.gohaddock.com<http://www.gohaddock.com> o...@gohaddock.com<mailto:o...@gohaddock.com>, 309-533-1735 He comes off a bit pushy IMHO (he even chased me down across two buildings to introduce himself), but he seems eager to please and he worked with our new principal when he was interim principal in Ottawa last year. The principal had good things to say about the company and the boards. Ottawa has several of them installed, and I seem to remember good things being said about Promethean boards here on TG. Mike Oliveri Tech Director Roanoke-Benson CUSD #60 On Oct 14, 2010, at 8:38 AM, Bruce Brewer wrote: I would re-consider. Reasons- The cabling harness on longer comes with an integrated VGA cable form the control box to the projector – You have to supply your own VGA cable. The VGA loopback port is disabled – therefore no allowing a return signal to the monitor – They except the customer to provide a VGA splitter. The cabling harness was defective – the very one they de-designed with out the VGA run. Plus, they actually wanted me to spend my time and money to re-package and return the defective cable to them in Canada When attempting to resolve these issues, tech support was rude and uniformed on the model changes. Up until now, I have not had much negative experience with Smarttech. Now, I am looking for another interactive white board vendor. | Subscription info at http://www.tech-geeks.org | | Subscription info at http://www.tech-geeks.org |
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