The next time you see projection video in an entertainment venue, think of it as also mentoring a student in elementary or high school. That’s because the projection has been discovering potentially vast new fields to till in the education sector. The penetration of digital, widescreen, HD and other advanced projection technology into education environments are difficult to measure precisely but anecdotal evidence suggests it has become a huge trend. The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) estimated that at its annual convention in San Antonio the 40 projection systems manufacturers that exhibited there last July had doubled in a little over five years. John Glad, product manager at Hitachi’s business group, says that projection in the education market now accounts for 70 percent of the group’s revenues, up from about 30 percent a decade ago, with most of the growth coming in the last five years. At an average of $800 to $1,000 for a 2,200- to 3,000-lumens projector, and some school districts putting bids out for as many as 500 units, the numbers are significant. Glad says that schools often synergize their buying power into collectives in search of high-volume pricing, and the growth in the education projection market has significantly increased the number of companies making products for that sector, which adds to the downward pressure on pricing.
Phoenix-based Troxell Communications, the largest privately held audio-visual distributor in the U.S., specializes in educational installations and has seen the level of projection in school environments increase steadily in the last decade, accelerating in the last couple of years. “The classroom is like every other kind of environment — it’s becoming interactive out of necessity, and projection systems are critical to that,” observes Dave Johnson, Troxell’s eastern regional zone manager. “Once school administrators see that you can engage an entire class of 40 students looking at a projected slide of a plant cell on a 50-inch screen instead of having to line up to look through a microscope one by one for 10 seconds, there’s no turning back.”
Projection systems are less expensive than a decade ago. They are also brighter, easier to operate and more reliable, thanks to refinements and economies of scale derived from commercial applications like corporate and product presentations. Nonetheless, they’re still relatively costly for school districts that depend to a significant extent on property taxes, which have been spiraling in the wake of residential foreclosures and other credit-crunch fallout. It’s costing a single county in Georgia about $13 million to install networked projection into every one of its classrooms, Johnson estimates. “One thing that we’re seeing is that the projectors, which used to tend to be on carts that could be moved from one classroom to another, are now being permanently mounted in classrooms,” he says. “It’s another way you can tell the trend is becoming entrenched, so the money has to be there one way or another.”
Networking capability is increasingly being requested by school districts, both because the projection systems are increasingly becoming extensions of server-based learning content systems rather than closed systems within a single classroom and because a LAN’s ability to monitor usage and bulb life offers administrators a way to add value through cost-effectiveness. Manufacturers are also touting the cost-effectiveness of placing bulbs and screen filters in easily accessible locations on the projector to minimize maintenance time.
But while the decision to implement advanced projection in schools is a financial one at its core, the trend is also being driven by a strong cultural force: when there’s a 52-inch high-definition plasma screen in the home, the standard-issue 27-inch CRT still found in most classrooms looks dowdy by comparison. It’s the same dynamic that has driven projection, along with better audio and automated lighting, in the house-of-worship market. “Once you experience these kinds of systems in entertainment venues, it creates a demand for them in other markets,” says Scott Walker, CEO at Waveguide Consulting, an Atlanta systems designer that works often with university clients. “It’s not unusual in the last couple of years to go to a trade show like InfoComm and see educators and entertainment venue owners looking at the exact same projection systems.”
Though the metal halide-illuminated projection technology currently in use will likely stay dominant for years, one alternative technology that is starting to be a factor is interactive whiteboards: the typically 77- to 82-inch surface is actually an active tablet-type interface for a computer that routes the image to an ultra-short-throw projector mounted above the whiteboard. This configuration eliminates shadows found in conventional projection.
The education market promises to be huge market for projection in coming years. How the credit crunch will impact capital budgets for school districts remains to be seen, and that impact will be considerable in some regions like Nevada and Florida, which are already deferring maintenance, let alone buying 1280 X 900-resolution screens. But once the economy is over that hump, it will be looking at a significantly changed infrastructure in education, and one with plenty of opportunities.
