Presentation Classrooms for under 7k - Part one: Requirements

The following is part of a series of posts that discusses ideas and solutions geared to leverage the most out of resources while maintaining a high standard of quality.  While some of these ideas may be incorporated into articles I am penning, I’m posting here in the hopes I can get some feedback and discussion on some of the solutions we have implemented or are going to implement.

So!  For this particular topic, I’ll need to break it up because there is a lot to chew on.  We have implemented this solution - today we’ll go over initial goals and then discuss specific costs, obstacles, gains, and do a post mortem later.

PRESENTATION CLASSROOMS FOR UNDER 7K – PART ONE: REQUIREMENTS

In July of 2008 our institution received a capital expense figure to install ‘projectors and computers’ in some classrooms. This project had to be driven and implemented from our [very small] technology department.  Farming it out to a company was the most logical step given the manpower and our existing skill-sets but initial estimates ranged from 15 to 25 thousand dollars from a variety of companies.  That cost was too high considering the amount of rooms which we felt we needed to do, so we sat down and gave a whack at designing a solution with a lower cost in mind.

Our main requirements for the rooms included:
- a computer (Mac w/ dual boot)
- ability to connect a laptop or other VGA device
- projector with a resolution of 1280 x 800, central monitoring, etc.
- a document imager
- good sound (though we didn’t want a lot of oomph)
- a VCR
- a DVD player
- TV feed (high def preferred)
- a non-obtrusive set-up in a compact space that could be put aside if needed
- an intuitive control interface spanning all devices
- an installation that didn’t require specific AV expertise
- security

If we accomplished the above, we could remove from installation classrooms an old cart that contained a TV, VCR and a document projector – getting rid of this equipment was a necessity given the tight spaces we were working with.

Did we come up with something that met the above requirements?  For the most part, we did – and the total cost, as you may have guessed from the title of this post, was under seven thousand dollars for all equipment and installation costs.

That number is important beyond the relative savings of the initial estimates.  Any solution in this arena will have a shelf life of 3 to 6 years before new technology, end-of-life components, etc. will require some type of overhaul – as many of you are aware tearing down parts of a solution that cost you five figures (or six figures in some cases) can be a cringe-inducing process and many times forces you to retrofit your new devices at an added cost or even commit to a complete re-design. 

At seven thousand dollars our philosophy is that while we can use the infrastructure that we have installed, we can also tear the whole thing down and rebuild with new materials at a cost that is comparable/less than retrofitting a more traditional set-up.  Not to mention that a rebuild, regardless of the technology involved, gives our students and professors that nice fuzzy feeling that they are working with some of the latest and greatest technological tools.  Of course, when that time does come, we will re-use everything possible, but it's good to know the option of a complete rebuild isn't going to break the bank.

So – next post will be about the components that made up our initial solution and the trials and tribulations of getting the solution to work the way it was intended.