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The IR touch screen is a very well established, well proven, and reliable technology. Invented in 1971, the first "touch sensor" was developed by Dr Sam Hurst (founder of Elographics) in 1983 Hewlett-Packard's HP-150 was one of the first commercially available IR touchscreen PCs with a grid of infrared beams across the front of a monitor which detected finger movements.
Other touch technologies have been developed since including resistive and capacitive used in many hand held devices and the much later optical imaging technology.
Dr. Andrew Hsu, an expert on touch screen technologies, states in his research paper that “IR (infrared) screens are among the most durable surfaces and can handle hostile environments, making them well suited for military applications ... we can see that infrared touch screen technologies, while being the most durable surfaces, are also quite possibly the most versatile”. Touch screens are used in aircraft, military equipment, machine controls, automobiles, appliances, cellphones, gaming consoles and in large format screens in school classrooms
IR touch technology has also been established for a long time in the classroom in another form where it is used for some makes of interactive whiteboard where it easily withstands the daily wear and tear of eager pupils.
At EdisAV we chose IR technology for our Touchscreen Multi for the classroom to take advantage of the versatile, well proven technology and established durability to hostile environments coupled with the indomitable LCD display featured in millions of TVs around the world
There are some serious misunderstandings that reach me about the quality of sound systems in the classroom.
Unlike Hi-Fi systems where listeners are used to, and some obviously enjoy, booming bass sounds and higher pitched screaming guitars or the full range of an orchestra, the need to make the voice of a teacher intelligible to a classroom of young pupils requires very different sound qualities.
The human voice generates most of it's power between 100 Hz and 2 kHz, this is a tiny proportion of the full Hi-Fi range but unless consonants can be heard in this frequency range, speech becomes almost unintelligible. In Sound System Engineering by Davis and Patronis they state that “It can be seen why the telephone with it's limited response works so well as do small radios with well-designed 4”- 8” loudspeakers covering the range of 125Hz-5000Hz”
Comparing music on a Hi-Fi set-up with that played into a properly engineered classroom audio system, the classroom system will sound flat and the big mistake is to assume that the quality of the system is not good. This could not be further from the truth.
Speech intelligibility calculations and tests show that the articulation loss of consonants in speech (%ALCONS ) which is normally measured at 2kHz should not exceed 10% to 15%. The most important factor of the audio system for classrooms, is to have the correct frequency spectrum shape at 2 kHz. Many available sound systems ignore this in their design and would need some equalisation to correct these defects at 2 kHz.
So the simple answer is that a normal music amplifier system is unlikely to perform well for intelligibility in the classroom despite an untrained listener thinking that the boomy sounding base relates to a higher quality system
Our classroom audio systems are designed specifically for maximum speech intelligibility at 2 kHz in terms of frequency response, articulation loss and sound pressure levels and perform exceptional well at improving listening and as a result improved learning outcomes. Don't be fooled by those who offer to sell you under powered and poorly designed systems with booming bass !
David Edis-Bates C.Eng MIET
CEO EdisAV
China’s vast export sector has been battered on several fronts recently according to the Los Angeles Times. Demand from foreign customers has slowed. The Renminbi is strengthening, making Chinese goods more expensive. Hourly wages are rising with additional pressure resulting from headlines about poor working conditions at Foxconn, the massive assembler of Apple tablets and phones.
Despite this, China has strengthened its position in the global supply chain. Already the world’s largest exporter, China’s share of global exports expanded during the recent global downturn, increasing to 10.7 per cent last year from about 9 per cent in 2008. When times are hard lower cost goods have a greater edge.
Economists say the slowdown may continue depending on how the European debt crisis develops, and the results of the central government’s two-year campaign to deflate the nation’s property bubble.
“China is offsetting the head winds because it keeps capturing more market share,” said Louis Kuijs, an economist at the Fung Global Institute in Hong Kong. “Yes, labour is becoming more expensive over time, but it’s still much cheaper than the U.S. or Europe. The ratio of price to quality is still far more favourable for production in China.”
Prices for Chinese exports have risen 21 per cent since 2005, but less than the 32 per cent increase on goods from India and 33 per cent rise on exports from Mexico in the same period.
China’s growing rate of imports, has been rising faster than exports since the 2008 financial crisis because of the country’s explosive construction demand.
Some good news for cash strapped SMEs
The Chancellor will tomorrow confirm that Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, Santander UK, and Royal Bank of Scotland have signed up to the government's National Loan Guarantee Scheme (NLGS), which will provide cheaper lending to businesses with a turnover of up to ￡50m.
Small and medium-sized businesses will from tomorrow morning be offered loans at 1 percentage point below these banks' standard lending rates, with about ￡5bn of government-guaranteed borrowing being made available in the first tranche.
Barclays and RBS are expected to be the biggest users of the scheme to issue ￡1.5bn each of government-backed bonds to provide the cheap loans to small businesses. Lloyds is likely to provide about ￡1bn of loans and Santander less than ￡500m.
Edis now provides an outsourcing service for school websites and virtual learning environments. We provide Moodle VLE with web hosting which is integrated into school websites. See more details of Moodle VLE here
Don't forget that you can get targeted enquiries by joining our supplier wall. This offer is open to sellers of our products and also Audio Visual Installers who may or not be selling our products right now . Contact us here to have your Logo and weblink added.
Demonstation kit of our Touch Screens, lifts and stands including a flight case with lift are now in the UK. Get in touch with Tony Mercer on +44 77956 35882 to arrange viewings etc The demonstration unit is in a flight case with a lift that only takes a few seconds to raise the screen and plug in a laptop - then it's Plug and Go - very easy to setup. Ideal kit to take to demonstrate to schools and other customers. Please contact Tony Mercer here for more information or to arrange a demonstration etc
Remote Control with Volume control and On/Off switch for EA015 Wall Mounted Active Speakers, Edis Cube and Edis Cube+ active speakers
This "Snap-in" remote control fits into the Fast-install faceplate. Simply cut off the wired remote control supplied with the active speakers and reterminate the wires in the module. Details here