IEC Updates

Spring 2008 Multimedia Projector Shoot-out

Spring AV/Computer Co-op bids notifications were sent out to over 120 vendors across the United States. One product that many vendors bid on is a multimedia projector.

On March 3^rd, a group of 25+ people made up of the AV/Computer Co-op Committee, Iowa Public Television, interested customers, bidding vendors, and manufacturer’s representatives reviewed 61 Multimedia Projectors. These projectors were selected from all that were bid because they had met bid specifications and had features and price that IEC customers would be interested in.

Our goal for the Shoot-out was to find the best projector for IEC customers, keeping in mind that we considered overall specifications, ease-of-use, price (including lamp price), total value, as well as manufacturer / vendor reputation and support.

For the “Shoot-Out”, the AV Co-op provides the “Set-up” ie…computers, video and audio hardware, cables and connectors, screens, and software to compare six projectors at once.

Commercially made Extron Shoot-out Software was used to show computer images, test screens and video samples in all resolutions as well as High Definition video. Iowa Public Television provided a representative who brought equipment that sent HD video signals through the shoot-out system. A DVD player and an HD DVD player were on hand to use as well. We had access to cable TV and Media Com provided a digital tuner. All of these signals were routed to the six projectors for the purpose of evaluation and comparison.

The AV Co-op committee has identified several categories of projectors that IEC customers might be interested in purchasing.

They included:

1. Classroom SVGA

2. Classroom XGA

3. Classroom Close-Focus

4. Lab / Board Room

5. Large Room

6. Widescreen (WXGA)

7. Portable, 4 lbs or less and 3 lbs or less

8. Network Managed

9. Wireless

Several multimedia projectors were bid in multiple categories. We took that into consideration when narrowing down the field of projectors to award the best value from a vendor / manufacturer who provides great service and support.

There currently are two basic light engines for multimedia projectors, LCD and DLP. There are other emerging systems but we primarily looked at LCD and DLP units. One of the new improvements in DLP projectors is called “Brilliant Color”. This feature has drastically improved the DLP projectors ability to be able to show true colors, especially yellow and orange.

Multimedia projectors can project a native signal at one of these resolutions and maybe able to interpolate to a higher resolution; SVGA (800 x 600), XGA (1024 x 768), SXGA (1280 x 1024), or UXGA (1600 x 1200), WXGA (Widescreen 1366x768) and on up to WUXGA. Many projectors also are able to show aspect ratios of 4:3, 16x9, and 16x10. Check your computer specs before purchasing a projector to insure that it will work with the resolution and aspect ratio of the projector you may purchase.

The committee awarded 17 multimedia projectors. We confirm these bid awards with vendors (This process usually takes 7-10 days to complete) and then begin writing catalog descriptions to get the Spring 2008 AV Co-op Catalog online.

The Shoot-out is just a small part of the bid process so you can see that we are really busy trying to get it all done and available to customers.

I hope you take advantage of all the hard work that the AV/Computer Co-op Committee goes through to find the best projector for your needs. You can contact me, or any AV Co-op committee member, if you have questions on multimedia projectors or anything listed in the AV / Computer Co-op Catalog.

A list of Awarded Multimedia projectors and a link to their specifications is included