Slashdot Mirror
Searching for Quailty A/V Carts?
Tyrson asks: "I work at a university and we are looking to purchase new A/V carts. At the moment we have the plain and simple shelves-on-wheels and the nicer multimedia display carts. The simple carts are sturdy yet insecure and lack useful features. The display carts are secure and useful yet built from weaker materials that only last a few semesters. We are looking for A/V carts with useful features preferably built from metal or plastics. After googling it and making some phone calls I had found several good carts that were sadly upwards of $1,200 apiece. I don't expect them to be cheap, but $1,200 was a little to steep. Does Slashdot have some suggestions for us?"
Not sure exactly what you are looking for, but try this category at Long's AV. Also search for 'cart' to see more. $100 to $600.
I guess they've changed their name to metro, but they have modular commercial shelf systems capable of carrying 800 lbs. per shelf. To turn them into a cart just requires modular parts like big beefy wheels. I put together my entertainment center from their parts and had my fat ass relatives sit on them to test the weight claim. I'm very happy with them and I can always turn them into something else. They're chromed steel so I don't have worries of scratching them or corrosion. I did put solid wood panels on the shelves for looks and a more stable surface for my electronics but you might prefer the ventilation.
If you disagree then it must be overrated, redundant or trolling.
Anthro Corporation has some of the best components to make A/V and general computer carts around. You can make a pretty pricey cart, but you can also get by with a reasonably priced cart. The best part is that you can configure the cart exactly the way that you need it. The carts are extremely sturdy and well built.
Look out for their sales. The April sale was 35% off on phone orders
Anthro makes some excellent products that could probably be configured to meet your needs. I use an Anthro fit System Standard unit as my primary desk, and I absolutely love it. I think their utility cart would probably suit you well. They also do quantity discounts based on the dollar value of your order.
Good luck.
We've used the lectern/podium units from SMARTdesks. They cost $1000+, but were lockable and had lots of nice features and custom options (we had custom cut-outs for VCR's in the front doors).
My main beef with them is that, though sturdier than some, they did still tend to break down (broken hinges, etc.) over time.
One annoyance that we've had to deal with is that in order for these to be relatively movable in a classroom, we have to tether them to a wall panel with a sizable cable bundle (power, vga, VCR a/v, ethernet, etc.). Of course, now we would go with wi-fi instead of wired ethernet, but still can't get around the other cables. I sure would like to find a better way...