Replacing OLD style TV and Trolley for Meeting House use...Suggestions?

[jbianchi]

Hi,

I'm putting together some recommendations for physical facilities (at the request of my Stake President), for replacing the Stake Centers old TV (CRT) and Trolley (if needed). The issue being modern connections, HDMI, USB, DVI, don't interface at all with the current TV and we are forever having to borrow equipment from home or use a projector, latop and portable speakers combination to show simple media snippets, which is admin intensive.

Finding a replacement LCD or plasma TV should be no problem.

However replacing the trolley/cart to support an LCD or plasma, is entering a new space for us. Has anyone out there completed this upgrade successfully. Anyone know if the Church is rolling out a standard trolley to replace the big old four wheelers you drag out of the library?

Here's an example of trolley that I think could make a nice replacement, see link below.
http://www.dreamav.co.uk/vogels_plasmaboy_trolley.html

Looking for some alternatives, your thoughts?

[mhackwell]

Our facilities group provided us with an LCD set and installed it on a standard trolley.

[Aczlan]

Our facilities group provided us with an LCD set and installed it on a standard trolley.

The only flatscreen I have seen in a building was bolted to the stop of a standard cart... No need to spend extra to replace a cart that works.

Aaron Z

[JamesAnderson]

I think we have one new digital TV setup, probably the size of a 23" computer monitor, and in a HP group meeting hooked up a laptop to that and ran two videos on that, with little problem.

Did a Sunday School FH class and we still had the older 13" TV with DVD player, it's probably one from before digital was mandatory to be part of all new TVs (that was 2006 I think), so we're probably only using it for situations where we have the DVD needed.

Many of those could be around a while, a TV with heavy use in a home lasts an average of nine years, but one that sees almost no use or only about 30 minutes of use a week is going to last a lot longer. While taking service calls for a large company, I got a call for someone's 1975 25" TV, it had worked up until that morning when a lightning strike finally fried it (she had an MA, the call was just to have the tech come out to declare it dead). That was in 2000, so some of those old models will last somewhat longer.

[Aczlan]

Many of those could be around a while, a TV with heavy use in a home lasts an average of nine years, but one that sees almost no use or only about 30 minutes of use a week is going to last a lot longer.

The ones we have are doing great (purchased in 2002 or so), other than the ones where the jacks have been ripped out (someone didn't disconnect the catv cable before rolling the cart back the the library and ripped out).

Aaron Z

[jbianchi]

Our facilities group provided us with an LCD set and installed it on a standard trolley.

I wonder what kind of mount they used to bolt it to the Trolley? Is it secure?

[Aczlan]

I wonder what kind of mount they used to bolt it to the Trolley? Is it secure?

In our stake they drilled 4 holes through the base of the TV and bolted it to the cart. The base will probbaly break before the bolts will come loose.

Aaron Z

[mechamb]

I recently purchased replacement 24" LG LED Flatscreen TVs that can play videos from a USB flash drive for our Library. We have 3 carts that had the old TV/VCR CRT TVs on them. What I did was just lay the Flatscreens flat on the carts face down with all the wires still plugged in as needed and posted signs on the back of the TV and the front of the cart that asked member to place the TVs flat on the carts before moving. No bolting or breaking of the base from the TV that way. Works Great. I even got 3 more flatscreens for more classes that were demanding use of the TVs so I purchased 3 large reusable shopping bags for $1 each and the instructors just pull them out of the bag and place them on the classroom tables to play the videos.

[johnshaw]

What a shame that we are letting the FM group get out from under these costs... stakes using budget money and kids and families getting the raw end of the deal. How many fundraisers taking away time from families would be avoided.. etc...

There is no need to research anything. The current cart the church is delivering when you receive a new 32in TV is similar to the one shown here http://www.displays2go.com/Product.aspx?ID=19585 minus the laptop extension. I also attached a picture.

It mounts solidly to the top of the cart and the tubes can hide cable runs - They are very nice if your FMG doesn't assemble them like mine did and hid the cable run holes with the crossbar- I had to re-do EVERY TV they delivered, it was just so sad, they just about did something worth praising them for, but just couldn't endure to the end.

We just receive 12 new ones for our stake (I started the process in January 2012 so we were well prepared for this year)

[gregwanderson]

What a shame that we are letting the FM group get out from under these costs... stakes using budget money and kids and families getting the raw end of the deal. How many fundraisers taking away time from families would be avoided.. etc...

It is rather frustrating down on the ward level to be completely out-of-the-loop on these matters. We read in forums like this that we have to put in a request a year in advance so that the FM group can budget for something like a new TV. Meanwhile, we have LDS.org youth videos already "expiring" each month. (And we didn't even know, a year ago, that the new curriculum would have videos like this.) In our stake, we were told at the end of 2012 that the stake would buy us a new TV and then, by early February, we heard otherwise. (...But only because we asked rather than continuing to patiently wait for the TV to arrive. If we hadn't asked, we'd still be waiting.) So the Bishops just decided to do it.

We read/hear rumors that the FM group has bigger problems to worry about (like a sudden increase in the full-time missionary population) but these are only rumors. If true, we can only speculate about when funds will become available again for the things we used to get from the FM group. On the ward level, we get tired of waiting (...while still remaining out of the loop).