Projectors part deux

Yesterday Linda Kwan was nice enough to give me and my VP a tour of her wireless projector at UHill Secondary.  I’ve had some trepidation on our upcoming wireless system and was really interested in seeing a wireless projector in action.

Linda was able to demonstrate just how well the Epson wireless software interacts with the Brightlink projector, and it was great to see the system working.  The LAN connected quickly without any hitches.  We also tried connecting to the Apple TV via a Macbook Air, which also worked flawlessly.  Finally we tried connecting to the Apple TV via Air Parrot (for windows computers), but this had problems.  Later in the day Linda was able to get Air Parrot working by rebooting after a software update.

Meetings like this are incredibly important and beneficial because it allows people to see first hand what is going on, and give everyone a much clearer picture of the issues involved.  So one thing that we learned, which wasn’t apparent earlier, was that we don’t really need the Apple TV for day-to-day tasks.   The built in wireless functionality of the Epson projector handles the projection just fine.  I think the main utility for Apple TV is perhaps to access iTunes content.  Finding this out was a relief because I now know that my ability to use the wireless projector does not depend on the Air Parrot software.

The other reason why I wanted to visit a UHill classroom was to see how the brightness of the Brightlink projector performs in strong ambient lighting.  In Linda’s room the projector brightness was fine.  However, the short throw projector was being projected onto the whiteboard and I felt that the screen size was a bit small.  For students sitting near the back of the room, text could be difficult to read.  Text isn’t necessarily the biggest hurdle though, since software such as OneNote can zoom into portions of the screen.  However, if using html5 or java simulations it is possible that smaller details on the image will be very difficult to see.

For our science classrooms next year we will have our older medium sized screens installed.  The Brightlink projector can zoom out to the full size of the screen.  This will make the image less bright though.  Ideally I still think that we would be better served with large screens and brighter projectors.  If I want to project something onto a screen, then that’s what I want the equipment to excel at.  Bigger and brighter projection will always be preferred.  Students really don’t want to have to squint to see what is on the front screen.  Considering that the non-interactive but brighter projectors are less expensive, I think it makes sense to go that route.  At UHill we also visited a science teacher’s room which had a massive screen installed.  Aesthetically it didn’t look very good but it would be difficult to argue against its functionality.  When projecting there is a huge image showing and when not projecting the screen can retract up and leave the whiteboard exposed.

No matter what equipment we get next year, I can clearly see that it will work and will be an improvement on what we have now.  That’s a nice comfort to have prior to moving into our new school in September.