--- Forwarded Message from Duncan Charters <[log in to unmask]> --- >Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:15:58 -0400 >From: Duncan Charters <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: #9124 Language Lab Options >To: [log in to unmask] >cc: Duncan Charters <[log in to unmask]> We are in the process of selecting a new language lab system, and we are at a "cross-road" of deciding between accepting bids for hardware(only) solutions versus software(only) solutions. The question we would like to pose this question "How did your college/university decide to obtain one solution type over the other?" Second, is it possible to let me know which system you are using? Thanks Jason Vance Language Learning Center Supervisor Thomas Nelson Community College (757) 825- 2819 When deciding on a new lab system 4 years ago, as part of some fairly extensive research we visited a hardware-based (hybrid) lab at a major university. The technical staff there said they would definitely purchase a software solution the next time they upgraded as they would not have proprietary hardware handshaking issues to deal with. As we are a small college without specialized in-house lab technical support, they strongly recommended we go to a software-based lab for this reason. There was some question at that time about comparative stability and video and audio quality of a software only system. That was our major concern, but we chose the software solution on the basis that the extra expense of a 1Gb network (rather than 100Mb) would mitigate those issues. That was unusual then, common today. After careful checking which included multiple calls to users of all the then current software systems, we went with the ReLANpro system from Renet, supplied by ASC-Direct, and it did work out as well as expected, with fast and stable video and audio transfer. When we switched from analog to USB headsets, that improved the audio quality even more. We are running on standard Dell Optiplex computers and are very satisfied with the results. At our next upgrade in a year, we will check on whether we could run Macs under Windows XP through Bootcamp (Vista is causing probems with labs as with many other systems, as is well known). It should be possible to run software systems on Macs, but we would want to know the experience of other users first. Our IT people and administration were very PC-oriented for a long time, but then we had the anomaly of all the technical support staff choosing to use Macs for their PC service work. So wisdom prevailed on the basis of providing flexibility for faculty, graphics and other applications including some of ours (video editing for student projects, etc.), as well as greater reliability of Apple hardware, and now we can choose whatever system makes the best sense to each program and to individual faculty. Duncan Charters, Principia College *********************************************** LLTI is a service of IALLT, the International Association for Language Learning (http://iallt.org/), and The Consortium for Language Teaching and Learning (http://www.languageconsortium.org/). Join IALLT at http://iallt.org. Otmar Foelsche, LLTI-Editor ([log in to unmask]) ***********************************************