With the IFPD screened as the new king of the classroom, what is left in the education market for projection technology? AV News contends that the answer lays in a reconsideration of what it was that made projection a useful technology in the first place.
Report-after-report from the AV market analysts reveal that the competition for share of interactive education technology market has pretty much been resolved in favour of the Interactive Flat Panel Display (IFPD) – at least in the schools sector. There are examples, of course, where the Interactive Whiteboard (IWB) replacement programme hasn’t synced with the capital budget cycle, leaving individual schools short of the necessary funds to invest in panel technology.
Here, a projector swap-out is a cost-effective option for a school, prolonging the life of the IWB and even reducing the Total Cost of Ownership. Lower lamp costs and the availability of DLP models that are now positioned as direct replacements for legacy 3LCD models. BenQ, ViewSonic and others offer DLP models which offer similar ratios to their 3LCD equivalents.
Hence, Epson staged a demonstration at ISE 2015 in which the 3LCD champions pitted their EB-1985WU projector against a comparative DLP projector from Optoma, the point bring that choice of projector technology is about more than convenience. Epson claims advantages in brightness, colour accuracy and the volume of colour that can be achieved with 3LCD. A recent test by AV News on ViewSonic’s LightStream showed the differences to be largely subjective.
In combating the advantages of IFPD technology for the classroom applications, the interactive Ultra Short Throw (UST) has been positioned by vendors as the obvious alternative to the IFPD or the traditional IWB. Adoption of these in education sector has been frustratingly slow for vendors offering products in the category, with users viewing them as a step backwards in their technology adoption.
Nonetheless, innovation by popular education brands makes the UST projector and increasingly attractive and cost-effective option where the circumstances of the installation permit. Hitachi Digital Media Group introduced a new range of UST devices earlier this year. The new models from Hitachi features include multi-pen capability and PC-less drawing, with the option of finger-touch interactivity.
The optional FT-01 finger touch unit allows for drawing with either up to four fingers or a pen. Interactive models in the range include a built-in camera, which provides fully-interactive capability when used with up to four-touches at any one time. Installation has been made easier with PC driver software automatically downloaded via a USB cable. This avoids the inconvenience of manual searches. The new models also allow users with touch-enabled Windows 8 systems to operate the PC directly from their interactive screens.
Holistic approach
Other vendors have taken a more holistic approach to classroom collaboration. As changes in teaching methodology dictate that collaboration is as important as presentation, vendors are responding to the flatscreen challenge with solutions that place short or even standard throw projectors at the heart of the solution. Epson, for example, has built content sharing features into its new range of education projectors.
The new range (the EB-S27, EB-X27, EB-W29, EB-98H, EB-945H, EB-955WH and EB-965H) feature multi-PC projection software, which allows content from up to four devices (including PCs, tablets and smartphones) to be displayed simultaneously. A moderator function allows the host, usually the teacher or the lecturer, to take control of displayed content from the devices. The new A/V mute function allows the host to pause a presentation, and it also conserves power by dimming the lamp by 70%.
The new range can connect to the latest digital devices or legacy analogue products, meaning older hardware doesn’t necessarily need to be replaced. Connecting to smart devices has been made easier with the iProjection QR code connectivity – users simply scan a projected QR code using their smart devices to connect and start working. Smartphone content can also be projected onto a larger screen with MHL support/ High-quality digital video and audio content can be projected via an HDMI input. The new models also ship with a wired LAN connection and feature optional Wi-Fi connectivity.
The Hitachi CP-TW3003 interactive UST is sold with the Starboard education software that also runs on the company’s IFPD solution, making it possible for a customer to use a common interface across a range of display types.
Companion devices
As an alternative to using the projector itself as the collaboration hub, Vivitek has designed a companion device to bring collaborative functions to its display devices. Called NovoConnect, the new V1.5 upgraded edition allows for distributed display and control between PC, Mac and tablet and smartphones devices to create a fully interactive presentation and collaboration environment.
Wireless communication enable content sharing across multiple devices and the unit is compatible with Windows, Mac OS, Chromebook, iOS and Android operating systems. New features include attendance management, enhanced whiteboard interactivity and ‘polling’ option for instant participant feedback during lessons and presentations. The NovoConnect can be extended with a Quick Launcher USB dongle to eliminate the need to install NovoConnect software beforehand.
A new Classroom Tools option for V1.5 extends the management capability of NovoConnect to allow teachers and facilitators to track attendance, lock student tablets and swiftly terminate sessions when desired. Added to this, there is now a new white board tools for hand-drawing, text input, image import and improved file management. The unique ‘polling’ option gives student participation a boost by allowing them to participate in multiple choice quizzes and cast votes individually during lessons. The NovoConnect lists at €299 ex VAT. The Quick Launcher USB modules have a list price of €25 ex VAT.
Beyond the classroom
Moving beyond the classroom, to the larger lecture theatre or auditorium, projection has a much stronger list of benefits. Despite the considerable recent reductions in the cost per square inch of LCD panels, for those needing a large seamless display fill a wall in an auditorium built to house a large student body there really is no competition at a similar order of costs.
To further improve the argument in favour of projection, recent introductions have used accessible forms of edge-blending to produce even bigger, wider images with the brightness and resolution to really engage viewers. In the past, edge blending would have been considered as a task for an AV specialist and far the end-user’s domain. Now the functionality is built into an increasing number of installation projectors and even some portables.
AV News had the opportunity to look at Canon’s WUX5000 over the Bank Holiday period and found it to be an outstandingly good solution for generating a 5,000 lumen, 1920×1200 resolution image from a range of just a few feet from the screen. With a typical street price of just £3,000 inc VAT, when deployed in pairs in a master and slave configuration, this solution offers the user with a large lecture theater a cost-effective means of projecting a high quality, super-wide (up to 600 inches per unit) edge-blended image – and without the distracting bezels of video wall.
The interesting thing about this solution is that it is both quick and easy to set up, and while the twin projector pairing is clearly intended to be installed, portable usage is not out of the question. Set-up is made easier with the powered horizontal and vertical lens shift Canon says it is possible to shift the image to an accuracy of just 0.5 pixels. Installation is both accurate and straightforward with the useful corner adjustment feature. Outside of the lecture theatre the projector’s 360-degree projection capabilities can be employed for static displays, bench demonstrations and a host of other applications.
Opportunities
While Canon’s scores well on quality and ease-of-use, other vendors are supporting the trend towards of creating cost-effective large images with built-in edge-blending. Vivitek’s DU9000 combines 11,000 ANSI lumens with edge-blending and dual lamp technology. Again, a variety of user replaceable, optional lenses are available and HDBaseT connectivity allows digital image and control signals to be sent up to 100m over a single network cable, making installations cost efficient and easy.
If you are worried that edge blending might be beyond your customer’s ability or in-house technical resources, show them Epson’s excellent YouTube video: ‘How to Set Up Edge Blending using Epson’s Pro G and Pro Z projectors’ (follow the QR code below). This proves that edge-blending, with the latest generation of projectors, is not difficult and can quite feasibly be set-up as required for a lecture or presentation.
Whether the ability to create an affordable, seamless, super wide image for lecture theatres or cost-effective collaboration solutions for the classroom are of interest to a customer, the idea that education is all about IFPDs is some of an exaggeration. Perhaps no longer the volume market they were in the UK throughout the IWB boom, there is still demand for projectors in education, and potentially one with considerable potential to add value.
- Specification: Canon XEED WUX5000
- Brightness: 5,000 Lumens
- Contrast: 1,000:1
- Resolution: 1920×1200
- Aspect Ratio: 16:10 (WUXGA)
- Digital Inputs: HDMI 1.3
- Dimensions(cm): H15 x W38 x D43
- Weight: 8.5 KG
- Lamp Life(Eco): 3,000 hours
- Display Technology: 2 cm LCoS (3)
- Optional Lenses: Canon RS-IL01ST Standard Lens
- Canon RS-IL02LZ Long Throw Zoom Lens
- Canon RS-IL03WF Ultra Wide Angle Fixed Lens
- Lens Shift: Horizontal and vertical
- Noise (standard/eco): 40.0 dB 36.0 dB
- Speakers: 5.0 W Mono
- Digital Zoom: Yes
- Digital Keystone: Horizontal and vertical
- Corner adjustment
