New (Standard) Monitors for All Desks in Focus Hub

nelsonic commented 7 years ago

Why?

Running a QuietSpace^TM for Creative Professionals means having monitors available for people. Keeping those monitors consistent is essential for guaranteeing quality. Also, having a "hodge-podge" of different monitors looks untidy/inconsistent/unprofessional.

What?

Great monitors for focussed creative activites (coding, designing, video editing, etc.)

How?

We are going to sell all our existing desk-based monitors. Then replace them with an identical "fleet" of monitors on all tables which are "included" in the price of desk rental.

Requirements / Acceptance Criteria:

We need to do some research into what monitors we can order (in bulk) but in order of importance these are the requirements:

VESA Mountable so we can put them on stands https://github.com/dwyl/quietspace/issues/4
High Resolution (do we need QHD or 4K or is "Full HD" 1920x1080 "enough"?) ❓
Minimum Size: 27 Inch (same as the iMac or Apple Thunderbolt Monitor)
"Premium Look & Feel" (we are running an amazing co-working space, not a "budget" one...)
Slim Bezel (thinner the better)
(Reasonably) Low Power (especially standby mode)

Quantity

We need 8 Per Table downstairs. (3 tables => 24!) And 6 Per Table upstairs ... (3 tables => 18!)

42 monitors ... ok, this is starting to sound "expensive" we might need to consider "financing" options... 🤔

Potential Options:

AOC 27 inch 1 ms Q2778VQE https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00U2ZZX5A/ Fulfils most of the criteria (except slim bezel)

If we need 4k resolution (e.g: because it's a "selling point" for the co-working space) we could get these: http://www.ebuyer.com/707243-samsung-ue590d-28-ultra-hd-freesync-monitor-lu28e590ds-en Samsung UE590D 28

Asked @otajor where FatLama got their Dell monitors. They got theirs from an eBay seller for "cheaper than retail". eBay could be an option... But I'm inclined to spend more and get new ones... thoughts? #discuss

Old issue/discussion: https://github.com/dwyl/hq/issues/102 (closed / transferred to here)

sohilpandya commented 7 years ago

Thanks for the awesome issue @nelsonic, puts my mind in a better place to think about the awesome future.

I do ❤️ the idea, but here are my concerns:

Having too many monitors will make QS look a bit packed. Especially if we have 20+ monitors
We don't want the space to look/feel like an office, we still want it to look/feel spacious. Just my opinions on it.

What are your thoughts on fewer monitors? I feel that it'll:

make it look more spacious
less cable clutter/cable management to deal with
sometimes less is more. 😊

nelsonic commented 7 years ago

@sohilpandya I'm a fan of having the place feel spacious. 👍 But equally I (personally) like using an external monitor both for ergonomics and productivity. I agree that we don't want it to "look like an office" (at least not a "traditional" one...) Could we "setup" one table downstairs with good (and all the same) monitors and see how many get used? Cables will all be super tidy as they will be "fed" through the Gas Lift Stand: https://github.com/dwyl/quietspace/issues/4#issuecomment-278529643

sohilpandya commented 7 years ago

We can certainly try this on one of the desks downstairs and see how we feel about it. Worth ordering a couple of the stands and then testing the setup out?

We can test with the current set of monitors that we have.

nelsonic commented 7 years ago

@sohilpandya I don't think that many of our current monitors have VESA mounting holes ... (which is an annoying oversight...) but we could test using the two illama ProLite 27" we got last year (currently being used on the standing desks).

I contacted AOC to inquire about getting a "Bulk Discount" for ordering multiples of the Q2778VQE (27" QHD) Monitors (see above) and they got back to me with a price of £199:

AOC Monitor Discount

This is reasonable considering the monitors have the same size and resolution as our Apple Thunderbolt Display (which are overpriced but lovely to use!)

I have also contacted at Samsung "Business" to see if we can get a discount on the Samsung UE590D (28" 4K) Monitors. samsung contact

But meanwhile we could order a couple of them from Amazon at £321 + shipping.

@sohilpandya what are your thoughts on ordering the Monitors from Amazon "Warehouse Deals": https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/B00WUACE4S ??

Next Action

Get @iteles + @markwilliamfirth to write up the "Business Plan" for QS and how having great monitors on the "Hot Desks" is a "Selling Point" for people renting desks ...

My reasoning for going with the Samsung Monitors is that "Four Kay Samsung Monitor" (_with accurate colors and sounds much better when we are promoting the space to prospective co-workers than "QHD AOC" a "meetoo" brand, nobody has heard of ..._)

@sohilpandya these 32" QHD (ultra-thin!) monitors are beautiful (and have no branding on them!): https://www.amazon.co.uk/JN-IPS3200WQHD-Monitor-IPS-LED-inch/dp/B01N3PGZXW but there aren't any "reviews" on AMZN...!! 😢 (is it worth taking a "risk" and ordering one to review for Social Panda channel...?) There are a couple of reviews for products from the same company: https://www.amazon.co.uk/JN-T280UHD-Monitor-3840x2160-Speakers-panels/dp/B01AURYUI0 The negative review is from a dude that appears to be trying to "over clock" the monitor by inputting too much res... (read the review comments) Worth taking a punt? we can review it and return it within the AMZN returns period if it doesn't work out... we can do a side-by-side comparison with the Samsung 28" 4K ... thoughts?

sohilpandya commented 7 years ago

@nelsonic I don't think we need to buy any monitors at this point in time, you are absolutely right in that we need a Business Plan before we go on a spending spree.

Although I do like this "un-branded" monitor, Social Panda has a lot on its plate and will have a ton of amazing things coming out in the next few weeks 🎉. The monitor can wait until we have a solid Business Plan.

For the future I would definitely recommend that we get LCD screens with ultra thin bezels (preferably 4K)

Note to self:

4k vs UHD
- Does it hinder content creation?

nelsonic commented 7 years ago

ordered ONE of the JN-IPS3200WQHD which is unpronounceable but looks really good to me. 😍 going to use it for a week and if we don't like it will send it back! (fulfilled by AMZN so easy to return) Also ordered the Stand https://github.com/dwyl/quietspace/issues/4#issuecomment-278529643 so we can mount it on the desk.

nelsonic commented 7 years ago

Sadly the JapanNext monitor is "Ghosting" with both DisplayPort and VGA ... So I'm contacting the manufacturer... 😢

sohilpandya commented 7 years ago

@nelsonic that is terrible. 😢 Will be interesting to know how the conversation with the company goes and how quickly they are able to replace the faulty model.

ghost commented 6 years ago

@nelsonic do you know what happened with the JapanNext monitor?

nelsonic commented 4 years ago

In case anyone is reading this wondering, the JapanNext monitor was returned to the seller.

dwyl / focus-hub