Your Guide to Buying the Best Classroom Projector

Thanks to technology, classroom learning is no longer limited to textbooks and journals. Projectors come in handy to provide learners with interactive sessions and an enhanced learning system. Tutors also have an easy time displaying their content and getting students to understand better and quicker.

Education projectors are proving to be more valuable than ever. The multimedia systems help enhance learning, boost students’ attention, and improve results.

With all the benefits projectors bring, many learning institutions are embracing them, leading to an increase in demand. In response to this demand, there are projector models specifically designed for education. These projectors come with unique features, technology, and specifications.

However, choosing a good classroom projector is not a walk in the park. There are numerous models on the market, and each claims to be the best projector for school. This article aims at helping you understand what to look for when choosing the best projector for education.

Benefits of Classroom Projectors

Thanks to technology, learning has become easier, more interactive, and highly accessible. Projectors for schools are one of the technologies that have made learning easier and more fun for students and educators. Projectors offer benefits like these:

• With the use of projectors, teachers can have more organized lessons.
• Teachers can create bullet list presentations and organized notes that their students can understand better.
• Projectors reflect light, which makes them easier on the eyes for students.
• Bigger images produced by projectors enable easy viewing.
• Students enjoy interactive learning experiences using projectors.
• Projectors offer a good viewing experience regardless of the angle.

What to Look For in a Classroom Projector

Regardless of the intended use for a classroom projector, there are certain features that will maximize your use of it.

Brightness

The brightness of a project will determine how well students can concentrate on the image displayed and grasp what they’re taught. Projectors come with different brightness ranges measured in lumens. The higher the lumen rating of a projector, the brighter the image. The formal term for project brightness is ANSI Lumens. ANSI stands for American National Standard Institute.

Here is how you can understand how lumens work depending on lights produced from different sources:

• Candle: 14 lumens
• 100-watt lightbulb: 1,600 lumens
• Fluorescent light: 400 lumens
• Sunset: 400 lumens
• Movie set light: 1,000 lumens
• Sunny day: 100,000 lumens
• Video projector: 500–10,000 lumens

Ambient light is the biggest competitor of projector brightness, and too much of it affects the projection image output. If you’re going to use a classroom projector where the lumens of another light source are higher, consider getting a brighter one. If you buy a projector that’s not very bright, you’ll only be able to use it in a dark room.

A projector realm features up to three light sources. These include laser light, which produces more than 3,500 lumens. You’ll also get lamp and LED projector lights, both producing up to 2,000 lumens maximum.

If you’re buying a projector for a classroom or a conference room with controlled lighting, one with up to 2,500 lumens will work well. For a classroom with ambient light, a projector with 2,200 to 4,000 lumens of white light and color output will be ideal.

Projection Technology

Projectors rely on three main technologies: LCD, DLP, and LED. Education projectors mostly rely on LCD and DLP projection technologies.

DLP, the digital light procession, is common in many applications. It’s the best projector technology for education because it uses a chip of a spinning color wheel and tiny microscopic mirrors to produce an image. As a result, DLP gives rise to sharp images, responds faster, and delivers 3D quality. With this technology, you won’t need any filters. It can also work with different light sources, including lamb, laser, and LED projector light.

If you’re on a budget, you can go for LCD projectors that are much more affordable but still perform well. LCD technology uses liquid crystal displays and has no moving parts.

Throw Distance

The distance between your screen and the projector is another important factor. The rule of thumb is to have more distance between your projector and the screen if you want a bigger image. If you want better sharpness and brightness of your image, placing the projector nearer to the screen will work.

If you’re presenting in a small classroom, you won’t need a large screen; hence, a short throw distance will be ideal. A short throw distance is also important in a typical classroom setup where the teacher and the learners can move without obstructing the projection.

A short throw distance for your projector simply means putting it about 3 to 8 feet from the screen. With such a distance, you can comfortably work with an 80-inch screen without worrying about shadows and glare.

Light Source

Projectors use three light sources, laser, LED, and lamp, to create the projected images.

Lamp projectors are mostly preferred because of their cost and light quality. However, this light source has the shortest lifespan. Only buy one of these projectors if you need to use it for no more than one to two hours daily. They are ideal for shorter lessons.

Laser-based light sources have more advantages when compared to lamp sources. The first advantage is that they turn on quickly, so you can easily set up your classroom projector and start teaching. Laser light engines also last longer, about 20,000 hours, and require no maintenance. If you’re projecting on large surfaces, you’ll love lasers for their brightness and precise color.

LED projector lights are also a perfect choice if you need reliability, as they can last up to 20,000 hours of continued use. They are also less costly to operate because they require zero maintenance. The LED light sources power on and off very quickly, saving time between lessons. The only downside with LED projector lights is that they’re not as bright as the other two options.

Resolution

An image displayed on a screen consists of tiny dots, each representing a part of the image. A projector takes an image projected into tiny bits called pixels and puts them together. The theory behind this is to recreate the original image. The greater the number of pixels, the more precise and pleasant the resulting image.

The projector’s resolution determines the level of details your image will portray. The projector resolution is described in acronyms like SVGA, XGA, WXGA, and HD as well as numbers. The numbers represent horizontal and vertical pixels of the image that the projector can display in width and height. Here is what the resolution will be on display:

• SVGA: 800 x 600
• XGA: 1,024 x 768
• WXGA: 1,280 x 720
• HD: 1,920 x 1,080

If you purchase an XGA projector, you’ll get a resolution of 1,024 pixels wide and 768 pixels high. If you want a better resolution, go for more pixels. Consider more pixels if you’re teaching lessons that require detailed image displays, such as science or mathematics. You should also consider your source content, as some content is only compatible with higher resolutions.

Contrast Ratio

Seeing details on your projection is very important when buying a classroom projector. Contrast ratio means the ratio of light that can be reflected from a white and black image. The ratio can be displayed at 2,000:1, which means that the white image is 2,000 times brighter than the all-black one.

You’ll need a higher contrast ratio to see more details on images, graphs, or tables. Projectors with a contrast ratio of 4,000:1 to about 10,000:1 will be enough to provide the required image details in a classroom setup.

You can also increase the contrast ratio by adjusting a few things in your classroom. These include covering the windows, switching off lights, painting the walls with darker colors, and using a projector screen instead of a wall.

Aspect Ratio

The projector aspect ratio is not about the quality of the image but rather the relationship between the height and width of the image. In simpler terms, it’s the relationship between the shape of the image and the space it occupies on the screen. It can also be described as how rectangular or square the projected image is.

If the projector aspect ratio is 16:9, the projection screen will have a width of 16 units for every 9 units of height. You will have your image taking a rectangular shape. A 4:3 aspect ratio will mean that the content source will have a width of 4 units for every 3 units of height. The resulting image will more closely resemble a square.

A real-life example is when projecting, you see black lines at the top and bottom or sides of the screen. This will happen if the screen has a different aspect ratio from that of the projector. It can also happen if what you’re projecting has a different aspect ratio than the projector.

You can easily solve this problem by simply shrinking or expanding the image until it fills the black parts on the screen. But this will result in losing some fine details, which is highly noticeable in text-based content.

Other Features to Look For in a Projector

The important features and specs of education projectors are mentioned above. However, there are also characteristics that improve their performance or make them easy to use. Here are additional features to consider when buying the best projectors for schools.

Audio

Not all education projectors come with sound audio. But if you want audio, consider buying projectors that feature immersive audio technology. These types usually produce better sound quality that can be heard clearly in a large classroom.

Interactivity Options

Modern projectors come with smart interactivity features such as interactive pens and touch gestures. Interactive projectors for the classroom make them fun to use. With such projectors, you won’t need a PC to scroll, pin, tab, or rotate images. You can do all these by just passing your finger or an interactive pen over the projector screen.

Connectivity Options

Make sure the projector you buy comes with multiple connectivity options, including one for your media options and content source. Many modern projectors let you connect high-definition sources such as Apple TV and Blue-ray players. Also, the best projector for education allows quick setup, so it doesn’t waste your lesson time.

Portability

Projectors made with lightweight portability features offer you the convenience of teaching in different locations with ease. If you’re looking for one that can move easily, an LED projector is the best projector for school. Also, consider other features such as Bluetooth speakers, smart TV capabilities, and a built-in stand with 360-degree rotation.

Warranty and Repair Policy

A classroom projector with a warranty will ensure you’re covered in case it suddenly fails. Ensure your projector also comes with a repair policy and access to a local service center so you can have it back in use within no time.

Final Thoughts

There are many options to choose from when looking for the best projector for school. Choosing a good projector will help you enjoy a multidimensional learning and teaching experience. Good projectors come with some of the best features and specs. These include good lumens ratings, perfect resolution, high-quality images, and perfect projection technology.

When choosing a classroom projector, consider all the modern features to make teaching and learning easier and more interactive. With a high-quality projector, you’ll be sure to engage students and improve their retention capabilities. Invest in a good projector today, and delight your students with fun learning sessions.