Classroom Projectors

Just so you know, in this section think K-12 classroom, rather than  the 100 – 500 seat “classrooms” found at many universities.  Those university classrooms usually end up with pricier, brighter projectors with advanced networking, and more.

Teachers are relying more heavily on classroom projectors at all grade levels, but especially high school. Schools, and more often School Districts are usually in the market to find the biggest bang for their buck. With budgets always tight, it often comes down to how many more classrooms can we equip, if we go with a classroom projector with less features.

Each year, the performance of projectors designed with classroom use in mind (a large percentage) improves, and the prices manage to fall.

The most common classroom projectors currently being installed in classrooms have XGA or WXGA resolution, and brightness of 2500 to 4000 lumens.

There is both a great deal of interest, and a lot of activity when it comes to interactive projectors in the classroom.  Just about every projector company targeting the schools is now offering multiple interactive projectors and often some very different ones.

On a school district level purchase, lower resolution projectors surely sell for under $500. Most districts, however, are likely spending $700 – $1200 a projector, with many fully networking the projectors, including central monitoring. Just plug them all in, and the projectors can be set to notify support of lamp failures or required maintenance (such as filter cleaning), or needing repair.

Cost of Ownership is something that should be considered. Lamp life and cost factor in, big time. There are projectors with 3000 hour lamps that cost $299, and other projectors that might have a lamp good for 4000 hours for $99. These projectors will have to last a really long time, as is the nature of school funding. If these projectors are getting serious use, maintenance, lamp replacments, and repairs all factor in. Consider the value of a projector that has a 3 year warranty, and will send you a loaner, while it’s being repaired.

Down on an individual teacher level, if you need a projector and have no recourse but to buy one yourself, or you have, perhaps a limited grant, fear not. You can find plenty to choose from below $800, and some of them are very light – in the 4 to 5 pound range, for those of you transporting them.