Projectors

The KeyScan KS810-P Imaging Keyboard ($99) contains a color sheet-fed scanner for scanning documents without having to leave your desk. The PC-compatible keyboard can scan health insurance cards, IDs, and driver licenses along with documents in various paper sizes.

As new technologies are developed, many tried-and-true staples of academia have fallen. So it is with the carousel slide projector.

Long a staple of art history classes, slide projectors are becoming obsolete, and while many professors and instructors have plenty of media, they don't have a way to replace the projector itself.

For the University of Denver's multimedia department this presented an opportunity not only to solve an immediate problem but to create something that would go beyond the traditional uses of media objects.

Summer is not a quiet time for the audiovisual market. Vendors have unveiled their latest offerings that incorporate growing trends and meet needs ranging from digital signage to lecture recording to equipment management. Here is a sample of AV products announced at this year's EduComm and InfoComm conferences, held in Las Vegas in June.

InFocus has released five new entry-level-priced projectors in the IN2100 and IN3100 series that provide high brightness and rich features.

VUKUNET web platform by NEC Display Solutions of America can turn a digital signage display into a source for vendor advertising—and revenue for an institution—in public spaces with much foot traffic. Campus officials can register their institution's network and include demographics about the location and how much ad time is available, and then use the web platform for approving offers from agencies for ad placements. The web platform enables ad content to be uploaded and displayed as needed on the network.

A short distance from EduComm, THE expo floor at InfoComm offered plenty of ways to spend stimulus dollars.

Twenty years ago, projectors had three "guns," weighed between 80-120 pounds, were the size of a coffee table, and took a crew of technicians a couple of days to install and converge. They were dim, expensive, and finicky machines, but the one advantage they had over today's bright, ultra-portable, and inexpensive projectors was that you could come into the classroom or lecture theater and pretty much count on still finding them, on the ceiling, where they were yesterday. Theft wasn't an issue.

The Epson PowerLite G5000 multimedia projector is designed for easy installation and use with many applications and content-based devices.

The E-Z Cinema Floor Pull-Up Projection Screen by Elite Screens may seem cumbersome at first due to its large size, but this portable screen weighs around 20 pounds.