Thousands of buyers and sellers of audiovisual (AV) technologies convened in Orlando in June for the annual InfoComm trade show--and many of the new products they discussed were aimed at schools.

InfoComm organizers say this year's show was the largest ever, with a record 770 exhibitors participating. Reflecting strong demand for AV technologies in education and other markets, attendance for the three-day conference topped 26,000, show organizers said.

One of the topics causing quite a buzz at the show was the "going green" of new AV technologies. New environmental regulations, called the "RoHS" directives (for "Restrictions of Hazardous Substances"), went into effect July 1 for all new electronics products sold in Europe--and they go into effect Jan. 1, 2007, for those sold in California. As a result, many vendors were promoting the fact that their latest products are RoHS-compliant.

For instance, GTCO CalComp announced that its InterWrite PRS RF product is now 100-percent compliant with RoHS directives. The system enables students to answer questions and interact in the classroom with wireless, radio-frequency "clickers." A two-line Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) screen enables educators to ask advanced numeric questions that include positive and negative numbers and fractions, in addition to multiple choice or even short-answer questions. Teachers can receive instant student feedback, stir classroom discussion, quickly and easily grade tests and quizzes, and even take attendance using the system, the company says.

Also, ELMO USA announced that its new TT-02 Teacher's Tool document camera is RoHS compliant. The device's camera automatically adjusts to changing levels of room brightness, ensuring easy-to-view presentations, even in darkened rooms, ELMO says. A "microscope viewing" mode lets users display microscopic materials in science classes, and a removable stage makes it easy to annotate materials being presented.

In addition, Samsung Electronics has launched a new online service to help its customers demonstrate RoHS compliance. The service, available at www.samsung.com/rohs, provides easy access to the documentation necessary for showing RoHS compliance, as well as a search index for environment-friendly products. Other companies that have added a section to their web sites with information about their RoHS-compliant products include Panduit Corp., a maker of AV accessories, and Toshiba America.

Digital projectors

In the digital projector market, Digital Light Processing (DLP) technology seems to have emerged as a leading architecture for projector displays, with a majority of new projectors introduced at InfoComm employing DLP technology.

For instance, Dell profiled its new 1200MP and 2400MP DLP projectors. At $649, the 1200MP should appeal to educators on a budget, with 2,000 ANSI lumens--bright enough for showing images in most classrooms without turning off the lights--and SVGA-quality (800 pixels by 600 pixels) resolution. For those looking for even brighter and sharper images, the new 2400MP offers 3,000 lumens and XGA-quality (1,024 x 768) resolution, and it sells for $1,099.