Posts I should have made straight after ISTE but was too tired #1: Interactive Projectors.

OK a little late but I have been moving house (the day after the conference) and settling in. Here goes, the promised rundown of interactive projectors.

The sudden leap in interactive projector technology has been really impressive and is an amazing opportunity for schools if they are not bothered about some of the shinier aspects of the IWB technology. You won't get touch sensitive, but you will get some pretty exciting stuff for a lot less cost. These are ideal for schools that don't have existing projectors (for the compromise options when schools have projectors but don't want to put in IWB's I will write on those soon.)

The best example: The Epson Brightlink was the first of these I saw and probably the best example of what they do. It costs a little more than a standard ultra-short throw projector, but only by a couple of hundred. This allows you to turn an existing whiteboard into an interactive device without major fitting. Using a stylus it allows interactive features and seemed nice a crisp. Good value and a good range of things it could do. If you don't want touch screen and shiny tricks, this does the job nicely.

The one with the fun features: Optoma took their ideas one step further by giving it something like the Hitachi "smartpen" options. Their projector will convert handwriting to text, etc. Only a few of the features of most new IWB's, but enough to make their projector stand out a little. Sadly the stylus felt a little flimsy, but generally a nice product.

Neat trick, no shiny: BenQ had a nice trick, rigging a bunch of their projectors to make a 12" wide screen, this looked great but was obviously very pricey. On closer examination their actual individual boxes were not very exciting.

The biggest letdown: Dell's entry to this market has been hailed in many circles as a game-changer. But what I found when playing with it was a lack of crisp graphics, a seriously flimsy feeling stylus and a lack of precision when pointing. Their only real claim to fame was the range you could use the stylus at, but I didn't feel this was greatly important.

Hitachi's entry was solid, if unexciting compared to their boards. It had many of the tricks the boards manage, but not the wow factor. Again the stylus felt fragile and the precision was a little poor.

The one we all wanted but are unlikely to get: Boxlight's projector was phenomenal. Seriously nice. The crispest precision I have seen and the strongest projector. Their stylus was solid and lovely; their features many and awesome. Sadly the price tag was almost twice their competition. I entered a raffle for one hopefully, but I figure this is the only way I will ever get my hands on one.