Solutions for Education

Ten years ago few people had heard of an interactive whiteboard. Now there is hardly a school in this country which doesn't use this technology.  Project your PC onto the board's surface and take control of your software or surf the web from the front of the class.  Your whiteboard notes can even be saved to PC. We specialise in products from Smarttech, pioneers of this technology and inventors of SMART Board.

View Thriplow Primary School case study

The projector is located in front of the SMART Board.  This is the most affordable route to this technology.  There are however a couple of points worth noting when looking at front-projection: placing any objects in the path of light of the projector will of course result in a shadow on the surface of the board so the teacher needs to stand slightly to one side to operate the system effectively.

Also looking directly into the projector's beam should be avoided due to the brightness of the light which could possibly be harmful to eyesight over the long term, - it is therefore recommended that users step out of the beam before turning to face the class.  Rear-projection systems overcome these problems as the projector is located behind the screen.  A combination of front-projection + interactive slate/pen display is another solution.

The projector is located behind a special rear-projection version of the SMART Board.  This system is available in mobile or fixed (in-wall) form.  There are no shadows, no distracting projector beam and these systems are less affected by high levels of ambient light (sunlight, lighting etc) in the classroom.

Powered by SMART Board software, the slate lets you teach from anywhere and allows students to interact with digital information from their seats.  It also supports simultaneous interaction so multiple users of slates and a SMART Board interactive whiteboard user can write notes at the same time.

The Smart Sympodium Interactive Pen Display gives all the functions of a SMART Board in compact LCD screen form either placed on the desktop or permanently built into a desk/lectern.  By connecting the ID250 to your computer and a projector you can display your desktop on a screen to groups large and small.  Touching the pen tool to the ID250's screen lets you launch and control applications, open files and write with digital ink over any applications. Everything you do appears simultaneously on the projection screen.

Software products designed specifically for SMART board users in education.

These are ready-made lesson activities correlated to the National Curriculum. Designed to be from 5 to 15 minutes in length, the lesson activities are bite-sized and fully adaptable, offering you an easy way to integrate technology into your lessons. Download free SMART Notebook lesson activities now

From a compact desktop system to bespoke microphone/speaker installation with rack-mounted mixer unit we provide the full range of audioconferencing systems from market leaders Polycom and ClearOne Systems

SMART Ideas software brings the power of visual learning to your classroom. Students can better analyze and understand complex ideas by building multilevel interactive maps in this fun, colorful software. Multilevel maps take students through concepts one level at a time for greater clarity, and easily convert into a multipage website for everyone to share. Download a free trial version , and help students discover how exciting ideas can be.

For the classroom a basic pull-down screen may well be sufficient but for the school hall it may wise to invest in something a little better.  An electrically operated screen reduces the wear and tear associated with continually pulling down a manual screen. The larger the screen surface, the more prone the fabric will be to curls and wrinkles which will affect the projected image. The solution is a screen with a permanently tensioned surface achieved by attaching wires to the vertical edges. These so-called tab-tensioned screens remain perfectly flat throughout their lifetime improving the quality of the image you are projecting.

Other screens we offer include portable, rigid and rail-mounted screens.

We strongly recommend installing security measures at the same time as installing projectors. Thes range from a simple cabled security lock to a lockable steel encosures which also protect projectors from accidental damage and unauthorised use.

Now you can share any object or document in the classroom with the whole class - from a book illustration to a flower petal. Just connect the Visualiser to your PC, place the object to be viewed under it and the image is projected onto your PC display and your projector display.  You can even capture this image to your PC. If you are a SMART Board user you can capture it into your SMART Notebook software allowing you to annotate over it and incorporate it into future lesson activities.

As costs come down and size goes up, the appeal of plasma and LCD displays increases to educational users. These big flat displays are space-saving, easy to instal and can be viewed from a wide wide angle. These are also ideal as reception foyer information displays for your students, staff and visitors – we instal a range of Dynamic Digital Signage  packages making it easy for you to design and update your own display content both in the visitor area and around the school.

A visual display system such as a projector or plasma needs audio to become a full audio-visual system.

We provide add-on audio systems for projection systems, interactive whiteboards and flat panel displays to provide the full experience when playing audio from DVDs, VCRs and software.  Speakers can be mounted out of sight in the ceiling or on the walls.

If you don't have the space for a standard hi-fi type amplifier to power the speakers in your classroom we now offer an extremely compact wall-mounted digital amplifier no larger in size than an electrical socket.

Through distance education, a teacher can expose students to people, places, and experiences without the traditional restrictions of time limitations or geographical boundaries.

Combined with an interactive whiteboard and data sharing it is possible to conference utilising shared PC data and live whiteboard notes.

The affordability and accessability of videoconferencing over IP (the internet) is further contributing to this growth. We'll design and instal the right system for your needs.