Why your next classroom projector won’t look anything like your old model

According to Futuresource, over 2 million projectors were sold into classrooms in the last decade.  But if you are looking for a classroom projector now – the best models may look quite different from the one you are replacing.   In the last few years, major education brands such as Hitatchi, Casio, Mitsubishi, Sanyo, Dell, and Maxell have stopped making education projector – potentially leaving schools in a bind for future support. BenQ is the #1 brand of education projector using DLP technology and there are three things to consider for your next classroom projector:

• Why Classroom lamp based projectors will be replaced with lasers or interactive displays
• Why you should never - ever - clean a projector filter again 
• How to be absolutely positively sure your new projector will never turn yellow or fade 
  
  
  

 Anyone replacing a classroom projector should select a laser projector or an interactive display if at all possible.  Why?  The need for replacement lamps increase the lifetime cost.  Furthermore, as lasers replace lamps – the cost of these lamps will most likely rise – or in a worst case – become unavailable.  Lamps also lose brightness faster than lasers, and contain toxic mercury. Today over 75% of 5000 lumen projectors use lasers – not lamps - so for everyday use – lasers are the only way to go if you are going to use a projector.

In many districts – IT managers spend their summer cleaning projector filters.  This is an important part of making a traditional LCD powered projector last longer.  The good news is that the best classroom projector laser models, such as the BenQ LW720 – not only don’t have filters- they are completely sealed and certified as dustproof using the IP5X test.   Some laser projectors, such as the Maxell AW30001 still have traditional filters that need to be cleaned.   But a dirty filter causes the projector to overheat – and dust inside a laser projector can be a disaster. So by choosing a sealed laser engine – you eliminate both the lamp and the filter from the projector.

Many schools have struggled with classroom projectors turning yellow over time. Commercial cinema chains such as Cinemark rely on their projectors every day to show a perfect image every time they show a movie.  The two technologies uses for this were DLP technology from Texas Instruments, and liquid crystal on silicon technology.   This year, Sony discontinued their digital cinema projectors using this technology because these projectors were losing their color over time.  Today DLP is the only commercial digital cinema projector technology that has proven never to yellow over time.  This same chip technology is used in classroom laser projectors from BenQ – and comes with TI’s 100,000 hour warranty against yellowing.

If you are ready to replace your old and worn out lamp-based projectors with laser projectors, we can help. As the world’s #1 brand of education projectors using DLP technology, we invite you to call us directly to discuss your needs or drop us a note to see how we can help you pick out the right projector for your classroom, meeting rooms, or large venue gathering spaces.