Back to School: 25 Popular Educational Solutions for This School Year

Samsung’s DM82E-BR is a ready-to-use, all-in-one E-Board display solution. The 82-inch display includes a pre-assembled touch overlay. The embedded System-on-Chip (SoC) media player and E-Board software makes it portable, flexible and easy to set up. With a full range of connectivity options, including Wi-Fi for seamless connection to mobile devices, users can meet their institution’s specific presentation needs.

Available in both a 60-inch Class and 70-inch Class model, the premium-grade line AQUOS BOARD interactive display systems are designed for 24/7 use. The displays’ wireless capability not only transmits the video signal, but it also wirelessly transmits the audio signal and even the touch signal. It also helps to create a more secure environment by broadcasting its own wireless hotspot to avoid accessing the network. They seamlessly work with major mobile platforms: including iOS, Android, Windows and OS X, to insure cross platform independence. And, Chrome browser support is coming later this year.

Users can simply plug in the included wireless token to quickly begin presenting without having to pre-install any software. A two by two Split-Screen mode lets up to four people wirelessly transmit their mobile screens to the AQUOS BOARD interactive display at the same time. Users can capture ideas using the Direct Drawing function and the new Overlay tool, which allows AQUOS BOARD interactive display users to create notes or annotate over wirelessly transmitted documents, webpages, or even videos.

InFocus says its 85-inch Mondopad Ultra enters the market as the largest interactive touchscreen and videoconferencing system available. That and 80-inch Mondopad Ultra employ 4K screen resolution.

“When it comes to collaboration, we know that visual details matter—especially for medical, construction, education or first-responder applications,” says InFocus CEO Mark Housley in a press release. Mondopad Ultra, which InFocus calls a new line of premium multi-touch collaboration displays, offers all-in-one videoconferencing, interactive whiteboarding and data sharing.

In addition to 4K resolution, Mondopad Ultra has a standard Windows 10 Pro OS integrated on a premium computer. Offering a sixth-generation Intel Core i7-6700T processor and Q170 chipset with Intel vPro technology and 256 GB solid state hard drive, the Mondopad Ultra is seamlessly and securely integrated into existing enterprise infrastructure.

These in-ceiling speakers feature a low-profile composite back can for use in plenum rated ceiling environments and boast the industry’s first UL 2043 listed composite speaker enclosure. The SoundField XD Series in-ceiling speakers also meet stringent UL requirements for smoke and heat release in plenum air spaces.

With a composite construction and redesigned mounting kits, the SF 3C LP and SF 3CT LP are delivered in small, light packaging, resulting in lower overall storage and shipping costs. The SF 3C LP and SF 3CT LP speakers are sold in pairs and include a 5-year parts and labor warranty.

“With innovative materials, modular construction, and a long list of other unique features, these new SoundField XD speakers provide significant savings and superior performance,” says Casey Hall, VP of sales and marketing for Extron.

After much anticipation, the Microsoft Surface Hub is finally shipping. The Surface Hub allows users to create and brainstorm ideas with others on a digital canvas, making it an ideal solution for corporate and higher ed settings.

The Surface Hub comes equipped with Microsoft OneNote, Office, Airserver ( Essentially acting as an Apple TV for mac and iOS compatibility.), Adobe Creative Suite, Skype, Chrome and Google Docs.

Listen Technologies is now shipping its new D Series Digital Signal Processing (DSP) network-controllable drivers with Dante (Digital Audio Network Through Ethernet) option for its ListenLoop system.

The new D Series drivers consist of 10 and 14 Amp dual output drivers with a Dante network option. At a maximum of 14 amps per loop output, “the D14-2 driver is the most powerful product currently available,” according to Listen Technologies.

The Matrox LCS lecture-capture system helps those in education and corporate settings share important presentations with those who can’t be there for the live broadcast.

Epson’s 25,000-lumens 3 LCD projector comes with a 4K-ready lens and can be used in school auditoriums, gyms and cafeterias, as well as concert halls and rental and staging applications.

Barix is releasing the Annuncicom PS1 paging and intercom station, which allows the user to make announcements, get pages and interrupt background music when necessary. In addition to K-12 and higher education applications, it can also be used in retail settings.

Key Digital’s scalable Enterprise AV system allows up to 1024 HD over IP inputs and unlimited outputs, with a bandwidth of 15MB per second per channel and 4 to 5-frame latency. The system, which can work with any switch, is shipping this month and works on college campuses and in corporate settings. Key Digital is launching a control app to pair with it soon too.

Panasonic showed its Light ID transmission for the first time in the U.S. at InfoComm 2016. This technology helps the display put out a light frequency to a mobile device or another display that can tailor content to that second device. It’s similar to beacon technology, but without the actual beacon.

Biamp introduced TesiraLUX, an encoder/decoder pair that introduces low-latency 4K networked video distribution to its Tesira platform. The siblings, as they’re called, transport both audio and video signals over a single network using AVB (audio video bridging). The TesiraLUX product line will initially include an AVB video encoder (TesiraLUX IDH-1) and an AVB video decoder (TesiraLUX OH-1). The encoder features one HDMI port, one DisplayPort port, and two mic/line-level analog inputs. The decoder includes one HDMI port and two line-level analog outputs. TesiraLUX supports the latest advancements in video formats, including 4096x2160 at 60-Hz, high dynamic range (HDR) and the Rec. 2020 color space. It can accept video at up to 16-bit color depth with 4:4:4 chroma subsampling, as well as supports 8 channels of embedded PCM audio, which can be broken out to be routed and processed independently.

The Epson BrightLink Pro turns any flat surface into an interactive display. The projector-based technology, which is available now, features USB connectivity and camera connections that makes it ideal for use in corporate and higher education settings as well as in corporate training environments.

The company says that its competitively priced 70-inch 1080p touchpanel displays are increasingly popular in the education market, and not too long ago ViewSonic augmented its 10-point touch display with new touch features that allow users to connect to Google’s array of services that include Google Drive, as well as other options such as a slot-in PC port, and its ViewBoard presentation/education software suite.

There has been a lot of enthusiasm around ceiling-mounted microphones lately and Audio-Technica introduced two Dante-enabled ceiling-mounted mics – the ATND931 Dante six-inch gooseneck microphone and ATND933 Dante hanging microphone at InfoComm 2016. They standard with the new ATND8734 Microphone Ceiling Mount Power Module with Dante Network Output, which Audio-Technica says offers a simple and cost-effective solution for integrating these new microphones with a Dante network without the need for a separate, standalone audio interface.

The company added that the ATND931 and ATND933 join the ATND8677 Microphone Desk Stand and ATND971 Network Boundary Microphone as the world’s first wired microphone products to transmit both audio and control data using the Dante network protocol. A simple Ethernet connection allows these microphones (powered by network PoE) to communicate across an existing network of Dante-enabled devices.

With distance learning and various forms of content creation demands, universities’ need for light broadcast capabilities is on the rise. Enter Roland’s XS-Series of Multi-Format AV Matrix Swithcers. Roland positions them as flexible all-in-one solutions for applications that require seamless switching, input and output scaling, image cropping and screen processing. Featuring up to 23 different operation and switching modes, the XS Series provides switching of eight HDMI/HD component RGB/composite/S-video and audio inputs to up to 4 HDMI or HDBaseT output destinations with built-in scalers – enabling split-picture, resizing, flipping and rotating, spanning and switching across multiple screens, making them ideal scaler solutions for LED wall processors. Support for RS-232C, network and iPad, PC and Mac control allows users various options for operation and programming.

New to Sony’s PTZ camera line at InfoComm 2016 was its SRG-360SHE, a 30x robotic model which offers power over Ethernet (PoE+) and triple simultaneous video and audio streaming (embedded audio in IP, HDMI and 3G-SDI). The simultaneous output of 1080/60p baseband video through the three streaming outputs makes it ideal for webcasting and viewing while simultaneously recording live events – so an outstanding solution for classrooms and lecture halls.

A key part of Media Vision’s Assistive Listening System is the MV-ALS-PRFM Portable Receiver. The MV-ALS-PRFM offers 57 programmable channels and its OLED screen displays the channel name, settings lock status, volume, signal strength and battery life.

Students can benefit from clear and enhanced audio when using Media Vision’s Assistive Listening System in lecture halls and auditoriums.

In some higher education applications where projectors are running for long periods of time five or six days a week, well, lamp replacement can become costly and it’s time to start looking at potentially better return on investment with laser projection. The thing about laser projection is that it becomes a good ROI decision for customers more quickly as the prices go down, and Digital Projection is trying to make those decisions easier for more customers by unveiling two new budget-oriented E-Vision laser projectors (adding to the E-Vision Laser 8500) at InfoComm 2016—the E-Vision Laser 6500 and 7500.

“These projectors do exactly what a laser projector should do,” says VP of marketing Michael Bridwell.

The E-Vision Laser 6500 delivers 6,500 lumens, image contrast of 5,000:1 and advanced capabilities such as DICOM simulation mode. The E-Vision Laser 7500 delivers 7,500 lumens, geometry correction and edge blending, Lens Memory presets, and advanced capabilities such as DICOM simulation mode.

The E-Vision Laser 6500 is already shipping in North America, and the E-Vision Laser 7500 ships Q3, 2016.

wePresent showcased its entire product line of wireless presentation products at this year’s show. Aimed at helping integrators deliver the solutions end users in the education market are looking for, wePresent demonstrated its WiPG-1600 wireless presentation model at its InfoComm booth.

Known as a purely audio company, ClearOne is moving into the video space with its new Spontania collaboration cloud software. By implementing Spontania into a user’s data center, up to thousands of users can collaborate in real-time and share video, voice and data on any device. Ideal for distance education, students can collaborate and communicate with other remote classmates and educators through video, voice and content sharing using Spontania.

Spontania is also interoperable with existing IT and communication environments including PSTN/IPBX, directory authentication and scheduling tools.

Answering customers’ demands for signage integrated as part of its IPTV video distribution system, Exterity’s ArtioSign, an integrated digital signage set-top box solution, was showcased at InfoComm 2016. When integrated with Exterity’s IP video solutions, ArtioSign enables live TV and video to be incorporated into digital signage screens.

“There’s been an increasing demand from our customers to provide signage integrated as part of the IPTV video distribution system so we’ve added ArtioSign to our portfolio, which allows us to take one of our receiver devices and allows it to be essentially flipped between pure IPTV video distribution and signage mode where the stream real estate can be used for a variety of purposes over and above just the delivery of video,” says Colin Farquhar, CEO of Exterity.

ArtioSign can be used in lobbies and common areas on school campuses, as well as in cafeterias, classrooms, libraries and staff rooms to display welcome messages, mass notifications, clubs and activity schedules and more.

There were plenty of video management solutions showcased at InfoComm this year, and Sonic Foundry’s Mediasite offers even more than just simple video control. The Mediasite Video Platform allows users to create, publish, search and manage all video.

Mediasite’s schedule-based capture lets instructors and speakers teach and present as they’re most comfortable. Furthermore, its personal and mobile capture feature allows users to record, upload and share screencasts, lectures, demos or flipped classes with a simple-to-use software app.

The LR-4200-072 receiver is one of Listen Technologies’ new personal listening products and was showcased at this year’ InfoComm show.

With Listen’s unique DSP SQTM noise reduction technology, users experience 20 dB less noise and hiss than any other listening device. Students who have difficulty hearing can wear the DSP RF Receiver around their necks, with a belt clip, or concealed in a pocket.

During events where loud noise may be an issue such as during an auditorium performance or in a cafeteria, students can enjoy an improved listening experience with the DSP RF receiver.

BTX Technologies was excited to introduce its BookIT room scheduling solution at this year’s InfoComm show. With BookIT, educators and staff members can book a classroom or meeting room on the network from a BookIT touch panel located outside of a room, using a mobile device or using a computer.

BookIT’s intuitive interface requires little to no user training and is directly integrated with MS Exchange, Office 365 and Google Apps for Work, so no additional server is needed. BookIT is simple to implement, cost effective and creates a more efficient meeting space.

All meetings scheduled from a mobile device, computer or at the sign show up on the various devices. This is true integration with BookIT and a user’s email solution.

System Includes: 7” POE touch panel device, simple wall mounting system (brackets included), BookIT Room Scheduling Software, power adapter (when users don’t want to use POE) and a quick start guide.