New Interactive Boards

[Sparky]

Hi all !
Just looking for a little feedback…. The majority of the school has now been upgraded to all singing 75” interactive boards and we have a few to finish things off.
The powers that be has asked me to shop around instead of using our normal well trusted go to guys.
Fair enough, but has anyone had any dealings with a company called NS Optimum???
These are a nation wide outfit that but iv not heard any good reviews about and they sound like a cowboy company.
Any one here heard, or even used them?
Thanks in advance

[steveg]

Never used them, but have historically heard a lot of bad things, nothing from recent times though so may have changed.

[untyull]

OH DEAR. Appointment made to install 2 boards in new mobile classrooms. NO SHOW 2 classes looking at big boxes on first day back after summer break. No call returns or E-MAIL replies. They waltzed up un announced 3 weeks later with the attitude that they were doing us a favor. Goodbye was the reply from HT. They tried to bill us for their travel and time. No explanation, apology or anything. NO SHOW NO PAY.

[Sparky]

Hummmm… not exactly the best reputation then! Sounds like my fears are justified.
Apparently they love a upsell, Go in cheap so you think your getting a fantastic deal then when they come to install give you 101 reasons why it can’t be done without a few extras !

[steveg]

If you're after a quote from another company to compare then I'd recommend VeryPC - although we do all our screen installs in-house they have supplied them all for us for the last few we have ordered and are always very helpful, they do installs as well.

[ianjinks2000]

We have used NS Optimum for a number of years and always found them helpful.

[Sparky]

We have used NS Optimum for a number of years and always found them helpful.

Always interesting to know, but iv done more digging locally on this firm and all I will say is this company will never set foot through our school gates!!
Good luck if all works out for you tho

[Rockstar]

Now when you say interactive boards, do you mean TV's? I thought the boards were old hat now (unless they have somehow improved them). We used to have interactive boards but now have interactive TV'S instead. No projector to worry about. Super picture that can be seen. Whereas the old projectors would slowly die and the picture could hardly be seen unless you turned all the lights off!

[Sparky]

Now when you say interactive boards, do you mean TV's? I thought the boards were old hat now (unless they have somehow improved them). We used to have interactive boards but now have interactive TV'S instead. No projector to worry about. Super picture that can be seen. Whereas the old projectors would slowly die and the picture could hardly be seen unless you turned all the lights off!

Yeah that's it, essentially 75" touch screen TV's , no projectors needed.

[Sparky]

You really do need a company that knows what its doing, yes, it is just screwing a flat screen to a wall, but connecting it to the network etc needs careful attention, sometimes new junction boxes, cable runs need to be put in and it also needs to be setup/software installed.

We used our IT Crowd company to do these jobs during breaks.

I agree. There are not many things I don’t get involved in but I.T is one of them. I’ll happily run in new data points and even patch them in but that’s it, nothing to do with software or set ups. That’s what the IT bods are paid for
Iv gone back to our original company, Proactive audio visual. Never had a problem with these guys, fair priced, tidy and know what they are doing