Digital projectors

With nearly 600 digital projector models on the market today, choosing the right system for use in your school or classroom can be difficult.

To help you sift through the choices, we spoke with Dave Dicklich, president of ProjectorCentral.com, a web site that brings together buyers and sellers of presentation equipment. Dicklich outlined several points to consider when weighing your options:

Budget. How much money do you have to spend? If money is tight, which it probably is, there isn't much point in looking at the high end. While projectors today start at just under $1,000, Dicklich said high-end machines have been known to exceed a quarter of a million dollars. And while you're probably not planning to purchase equipment for the local planetarium, it still helps to know your limits. Establishing a reasonable price range will help narrow the field.

Mobility. "If you need more projectors than your budget allows, getting smaller and/or lighter projectors will allow you to share them more easily," Dicklich said. Although smaller projectors generally cost more than larger projectors with comparable functionality, the convenience of mobility should save you from having to purchase one for every room.

Projectors in the mobile class range anywhere from two to 15 pounds. When making your choice, consider whether you'll need to carry the machines by hand or wheel them through classrooms and hallways on a cart.

Room size. According to Dicklich, the size and shape of a room directly affects the type of projector and viewing screen that will work best. In a classroom, if the length of any row of students is greater than its distance from the screen, you'll want to consider a wide-angle screen. The distance to the last row of students will dictate the screen size and the brightness, or lumens, of the projector needed. Keep in mind that the first row of students should be no closer than twice the screen width (see sidebar).

Applications. Will the projector be used primarily for text and data presentations, or graphics, or both? If text, a minimum resolution of 1,024 x 768 (XGA-quality), should be considered to improve readability, Dicklich said. However, if the primary use is for presentations consisting of large text and graphics, an 800 x 600 (SVGA-quality) projector would be fine. On the other hand, if the primary use is video, then resolution can vary considerably.

In general, a higher resolution will make for more readable data and better video. Nearly all data projectors produced today will support high-definition television (HDTV) and lower resolution video, Dicklich said.