The advances in the Internet; Video & Audio, and computer software have made it possible to address the growing need of Interactive presentation with preconfigured, easy to use array of hardware and software solutions.
Troxell (
www.etroxell.com) brought several vendors of these together at their 3rd Annual Education Day in Honolulu (9/14/2012) at the Hawaii Community college.
I interacted and spoke with some of the vendors and reviewed the demos. I would say the gamut of devices available was very impressive. I gleaned talking to them that quite a lot of them were sold to schools and I wonder how come our education system is not all that we can brag about. One of them made a very interesting comment. He said, 'some of them have the required devices, but they are not sure how to use them as quite a lot of them are not computer savvy'. Well if the school is going to drop dollars in purchasing they should at least train some people to use them'.
When I was growing up, we just had black board and chalk (it was actually called chalk-piece which the teachers once in a while used as a projectile to alert an inattentive student). Years later the 'Magic lantern' made its debut. Then came the slide projectors.
Even in recent years some of this technology has not made its way to the meeting rooms in technology presentations; you still hear the audio system making more noise than delivering signal with the hapless speaker seeking some desperate help. I am sure the audio-video systems in many of the hotels that provide venue for the various events need a complete overhaul.
I interacted with some of the vendors and enjoyed the demos:
FrontRow (
goFrontrow.com)-Giving every student a front row seat.
The demo of a public address system such as those used in seminars and technical talks was quite impressive. The main speaker microphone and optionally four from the audience can all call up the same system and the whole audio interaction captured and saved for archival purposes. Sound reproduction was excellent and above the general din.
NEC (
necdisplays.com)-Large screen LCD Displays, Desktop LCD Monitors and Multimedia Projectors
ELMO (
www.elmousa.com): Document Camera [a digital magic lantern] (wireless slate/tablet). I was pleasantly surprised that they are still in business. I knew some people at ELMO in Nagoya eons ago.
OWI -Incorporated (Private schools and Charter schools may get a free class room media system-call them, info@owi-inc.com or 310-515-1900)
SP Controls, Inc. (
www.doceri.com or
www.spcontrols.com)-Professional iPad interactive whiteboard and screen cast recorder
Optoma (
www.optomaUSA.com)-Environment friendly (LED) projectors were on display-I may even buy a TL50W that you can carry in your coat packet. For a small device it was quite good.
Samsung (
www.samsungPresenterusa.com)-High Resolution Digital Presenter
Lumens Integration Inc.(www.myLadibug.com), HD document camera (cute looking) with lot of interactive software.
Hitachi- LCD projectors
Smart Technologies (
www.smarttech.com)-Interctive white board, Integrated porjectors etc.
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