Kent ICT Blog

It may be the lead (connection between the IWB board and projector)- we had problems with the colour going funny- changed the lead and it was solved.

It's unusual for dust to be a problem, especially as they are mounted at ceiling height, and there is little in the way of soft furnishings to created airborne dust in any quantity. What convinces you its dust? They have fans and filters fitted and don't usually suffer single colour loss, as stated thats usually the lead!

Intriguing. Bulbs are a problem though, and life varies dependent on make, and they ARE expensive items!

Have you thought of buying in some sort of air cleaner or filter, or maybe asking a company if you could loan one on a trial basis.
If you done this in one problematic room, it would be a very good indicator as to whether dust is the real problem.

Crockham Hill's ICT Tech responding. I am STILL amazed that no one else appears to have experienced this problem. When our original Sanyo projectors began to be affected, the supplier recommended replacing the bulbs - which we did, but this did not solve the problem as dust had infiltrated the optics inside. We did send the projectors back to the manufacturer to be properly cleaned, but this was very expensive, and we were without projectors for many weeks. The Philips projectors are also now three years old and beginning to suffer the identical problem. The problem occurs in each of five classrooms, to a greater or lesser extent, in classrooms with low and high ceilings. I don't think our classes are dustier than other schools I have visited, and I keep the outside of the projectors and the filters cleaned weekly. We've got an expert coming to look and give advice this week, but we seriously can't be the ONLY school to experience this problem, surely?

At Paddock Wood Primary, we also have had problems with dust in our Sanyo projectors, which are nearly 2 years old. We also changed a bulb which made no difference and then were told by promethean that they needed proper cleaning, so we sent them away (one first to see if it worked) Promethean loaned us a projector, so we were not without one for too long. The other 5 were cleaned over the summer holidays. The projectors seem to be ok at the moment, but it was expensive to have them cleaned.

We are experiencing similar problems at Amherst Junior School. We have 14 Sanyo projectors in school and it has happened to at least 6 of them. Our main problem is brightness of the picture on the board. At least 6 of the 14 projectors are now very dim and hard to see, even in a darkened room. Our technician regularly cleans the projectors and we only had these projectors fitted in January. I have gone round and taken light bulb usage readings from each projector and have discovered wildly different light bulb usage readings - ironically the IT suite which is used everyday with the board on the all the time has one of the lowest bulb usage readings. Is this because the air conditioning is removing the dust? Promethean tell us that they have just discovered that using the 'no show' button rapidly reduces bulb life due to overheating and that we should not use it! They are replacing bulbs for us but are still taking it out of our one free bulb per projector allocation. Would be interested to see if anyone else has been told the same thing by promethean.

I'm very concerned to hear that the "no show" option is making the problem worse - I've been trying to encourage our teachers to use it! If turning the projector on and off is bad for them, and using "no show" is also bad, and having the board glaring in our eyes when it's not actually need is also bad - what is the answer?

Our projectors are always filthy (cleaned monthly), but I'd put that down to the conditions in our building. We're starting to get miscoloured patches (some yellow, some blue) showing on the screens now (after 2 years) - feels like it's only a matter of time before the bulbs all blow.

I am the ICT consultant for 6 schools in the Paddock Wood and Cranbrook Cluster.

All the projectors are extremely dusty from the relatively new building at Goudhurst to the older buildings at Sandhurst.

I have experienced this problem at all the schools I work at with projectors older than 12 months. That is a dimming of the bulb and a purplish tinge to the extremities of the projected image. Annoyingly the worst affected are those projectors that are cleaned the most!

The dimming of the bulb I'm afraid is just end of life and nothing can fix it apart from replacement at approx. £250.00.

The purplish tinge is down to dust inside of the working of the projector and to cure this requires a professional clean. Promethean will send out a replacement projector and the courier waits while the projector is swapped out by yourself. They provide two stages of deep clean and charge £175.00 for the big one. Cranbrook sourced a third party company (Infocus I think < £100.00) but they do not provide a replacement projector and took over a week to return them. Their standards of cleanliness are not as good as Promethean but the tinge did disappear.

With a clean and a new bulb all the projectors are back to their full usability.

My conclusion with the ingress of dust into the internal workings of the projectors is that when the filters are removed a quantity of dust falls down into the projector from the filters and is then sucked inside by the cooling fans which is why the projectors which have their filters regularly cleaned are the ones most affected.

My solution is to vacuum the projector housing with a brush attachment paying particular attention to the filter areas. It is too early for definitive results but if the filters remain in situ dust can not contaminate the inner working. If the vacuum is not efficient enough to clean all the dust then the filters can be removed for a more though clean afterwards.

Incidentally I have never had this problem with NEC projectors due to a better filter deign.

This is not an easy subject - we at CDEC Limited (a Kent based BECTA approved company) who specialize in Data Projectors and Interactive Whiteboards have studied these issues.

In terms of Crockenhill I feel the problem is unfortunately the school has been too forward thinking !!!!!!!!!! This is meant to be a compliment.

The problem is that I believe the Sanyo's at the time were not up to scratch for longevity. The Philips BSures I believe where the biggest fog screens we have ever seen. All the companies in this field offered this projector (including Bullet Point, Matrix, RM etc) as the lamp had a 6000 hour lamp life but we have seen numerous problems with the mechanism in the third year of the projector.

It was not until the BECTA Contract did things change. If you have a projector before this event then unfortunately I think there could be problems.

BECTA stipulated that all projectors should have the filter on the side of the projector or the top. Not the bottom otherwise dust would settle here. If the cover was on the base then a filter cover must be fitted.

I know that the bSure had a filter on the side but due to the design this still attracted dust and after Philips withdrew from the market this left the industry with a big problem.

The Way forward ?

I hope Andy at Crockham Hill would agree, we need to look at all projectors and establish what we can do.

In future we recommend that ALL schools follow the BECTA requirements and buy XGA projectors with a three year warranty on all parts including the lamp. You will be surprised this is only a small extra cost.

For Kent Schools I am happy to send in our engineers to assess your projectors and write a report on their status - THIS WILL BE FREE OF CHARGE.

This service is only free to certain LEAs in our area.

I hope this helps but to be blunt, Projectors should only be scheduled in the budget for a three year life.

Please contact me if you want a free survey.

Kind Regards

Andy Duckworth

Apologise for not mentioning this before but like above I would reccomend cleaning he filters every 3 / 4 weeks.

Either physically unclipping them and blowing on the foam or using a vacuum cleaner when in situ.

Cheers

Andy

Hi,

I came across this thread on a newsgroup and thought I'd throw my tuppence worth in... (we have an AV hire & sales company in edinburgh)...

I'd say that getting 2-3 years out of a projector is pretty much the lifetime of the unit... the optics do get dusty over time and our standard advice for people looking to replace bulbs in 2/3 year old projectors is replace the projector as

1) the optics will be dirty and cannot be cleaned (unless you really want to burn money) - replacing the lamp will not return the projector to 100% (and often the lamp is not the problem in which case you really have wasted the money) and

2) the replacement cost of the lamp will go a good % of the way to replacing the projector with a new one, of a much much better spec and, importantly, with a 3 year warranty.

When replacing projectors its well worth making sure of your warranty terms, we sell projectors with 3 year warranties but I know for a fact that some resellers will only offer a 1 year warranty. I also know that there are ranges of educational projectors available (basically standard projectors but with a different model number) which are sold with special warranty terms covering more than the usual terms (which often exclude lamp after a certain number of hours of usage, etc, and can be invalidated by using the projector too much).


Anyway, thats my viewpoint on the matter. Good luck!

Quite interesting to see that the projector (according to several contributors) has a life of around three years.

This needs to be taken into account. as most schools investing don't consider replacement at the outset.

We calculate that for schools an i-whiteboard has a life of around 5 years, so you can expect two projectors per whiteboard!

Total Cost of Ownership is clearly something to be considered seriously!

Managed service anyone????

Good to hear from the projector suppliers on this issue. It appears that a 3-year life expectancy is standard for video projectors, from what has been suggested so far.

Frankly I think this is appalling.

Why are projectors not built with sealed optics?

I would have expected the projector to last indefinitely, and the bulbs to average at 3 years. Can Primary schools sustain the cost of replacement at this rate? Now I remember when NGfL was first launched we all went "Ouch!" at the cost, but we have managed to find the money - but what about these projectors? I don't know anyone who has been honestly told from the outset to expect to replace them every 3 years.

This is going to have a huge impact on our school buget. We have  already taken into account that our computers will need replacing in about 5 years. Are we really going to have to consider replacing data projectors every 3 years and interactive whiteboards every five years?

At Matrix Display we have always endeavored to notify our customers to make sure that they regularly clean their filters.

This has been mentioned in our training manual sent twice to all schools who took part in the Kent  BECTA Initiative and at the beginning of all our training sessions.

Last year we sent out a reminder stating that ‘We would also like to take this opportunity to remind you that it is important that you should be cleaning your projector filters regularly (once a month).  This will prolong the life of projector and maintain the projector warranty. ‘
As stated above I would like to take the opportunity of correcting Andy in that Matrix has not sold the Phillips Bsure model.

I agree with other comments above. With lamps costing between £250- £300 and new projectors including either a 3 warranty or a FREE additional lamp it is now not cost effective to replace the lamp in an ageing projector. Especially as sometimes this may have little impact!

Matrix have addressed the above issues and offer a range of projectors with 3 year Onsite lamp and machine warranty (including a man in a van) to deinstall/reinstall and repair or replace the projector on site the next day.

Projectors have a life expectancy, dependent on use of around 3 to 4 years.

Matrix can now provide all customers the opportunity to extend the warranty onsite repair/replace for £99 per projector per year. Therefore nothing to worry about for at least 5+ years (bearing in mind the replace part of the warranty!)
As an ex Kent teacher myself, I believe we have the ideal solution  to allow teachers to teach.

Matrix have a Sales Manager based in Maidstone and if required we are only too happy to offer to come in and provide a FREE projector replacement consultancy service .

With regard to SMARTBoards, as long as registered with SMART, they have a 5 year warranty. However they are likely to continue for longer. We have customers who have had boards for over 8+ years! The most important thing with SMART is to make sure you have the latest software to help benefit teaching and learning.

Please contact myself : jonmoore@matrixdisplay.com for further details or if you would like an up to date version of the SMART. Alternatively come and visit Matrix at BETT.

Wishing you ALL a Very Merry Christmas and an enjoyable Break.

Jon Moore

We're seeing some interesting commercial bun-fights between suppliers (tee hee!). I have to say that perhaps when a supplier sells a projector, instead of relying on a written manual (which nobody reads!), if it is this important to carry out regular timed maintenance, they could schedule an email reminder. Just a thought.

In terms of product life and replacement, the industry is clear when it calculates managed services how long each piece of equipment will last before replacement, so perhaps we should use them as a guide. For portable devices such as laptops and tablets, look at three years. For desktop computers 4-5 years max (unless they are thin client), for smartboards look at 5 years (and hope for more!). It looks like we can add projectors to this at 3 years now.

Whilst the shorter than hoped projector life expectancy may come as a shock to schools, it is potentially the reality of an ICT rich environment that relies on corporate audio-visual presentation technology and didactic teaching methods.  

There is also an argument that suggests that school provide an infrastructure that supports privately owned consumer computer devices to reduce the resource overhead. (I wrote a white paper that suggested a mixed ownership model).

http://clusterweb.org.uk/cs/community/kcc_digital_curriculum/archive/2006/11/12/2475.aspx

We've had several problems with our Epson projectors, one has been replaced twice (free of charge) within 14 months.
A second one, only  18 months old, had a light saying that the bulb needed replacing, but in fact it was the whole projector. (Interestingly the Epson engineer, brought a replacement projector incase it was needed!) We did negotiate a 3 year guarantee on bulbs with RM, who were our supplier BUT if a bulb is replaced within that time, the new bulb doesn't take on another 3 year guarantee! BEWARE!
We have taken to cleaning the filters every 6 months with a mini vacuum cleaner and then taking out the filters and washing them.
Our Sony projectors seem to be sturdier and more reliable than the Epson ones.
We were told at least 5 years for our Smart boards but nothing about the life of projectors....if 3 years is their expectancy, we'd better start fundraising now.

In Kent LEA the BECTA scheme funded and "piggyback" ran in 2005 with Matrix (Smartboard) R.M (R.M board) Promethean & CDEC (Hitachi) as the 4 BECTA suppliers.

The board market has always led the projector market. Most obviously with the Sanyo/Promethean alliance but certainly by limiting the numbers of approved suppliers to Kent and hoping that they will retain at least some brand stability we don't expect the fiasco of Philips withdrawal from Projector market to arise in terms of costs of ownership. Nor the demise of companies like Bulletpoint (in the North) which effectively destroyed the BECTA warranty regime in schools supplied by that company.

The BECTA warranty or lamp warranty market is effectively determined best by maintaining supplier and fleet integrity because Lamps are still so costly and inattention to maintenance issues are likely to have highly detrimental effects on costs of ownership. This does not however mean that Lamps need to be bought from the same source as the projector and the maintenance (unless advantageous). Only BECTA warranty creates that link but KCS looks at lamps/maintenance as an increasingly important differentiator from companies who simply sell.

Only the companies with long term presence in Education are likely to be able to offer credible service offers.

KCS expects companies like Matrix and CDEC to lead in the maintenance fields but in terms of Lamps KCS provides one stop services with Reflex who in turn are linked to Just Lamps a vendor to be seen at BETT. We expect schools "google" their lamp supply or simply go back to projector vendor. With a lamp so expensive it is worth checking costs. An integral fleet rather than a difference on brand and models also cuts costs but the lamp/service markets will become more linked.

Also schools should insist on brands they want not be "led" by suppliers at point of replacement.

The objectives of KCS are as much geared as market regulator as supply source so we aim to work with suppliers and schools on what the best arrangements are.
There is not complete incompatability in this.

The maintenance levels of projectors and the support costs schools are prepared to pay vary widely. However we'd remind schools not to be tempted to enter Lease/service arrangements (Closed loops) which are typical in the shark infested waters of photocopier dealers.

The Kent contract (visible suppliers are in KCS catalogue) is renewable for calendar Year 08 & we will be discussing with suppliers & KCC colleagues the array of services that are most suitable for schools. No supplier on contract is guaranteed reaward and no supplier not on contract is precluded.

Whereas R.M don't necessarily run an explicit front line service on projectors (to my knowledge) CDEC and Matrix do. However they are not unique and we are in discussion with Kent Client Services about companies recently at the "Hop Farm show" not in a preclusive way.

Unlike BECTA KCS cannot accredit however we do aim to remain active in the market and at least step into the void BECTA have created from the lapse of the BECTA IWB framework in Jan 07.

The BECTA model does take an explicit view on service costs but hasn't evolved a service market to deal with initial deployment. The MSP model which certainly fits ideally with BSF isn't viable for 650 Kent schools with IWB's so KCS will look at the demand/supply and at least look to provide a point of prescence to the benefit of all parties engaged in this debate.

It is entirely legitimate for any school to pick up independent arrangements but the motorway system (supposedly!) exists to provide mass advantage compared to getting from A-B by country lanes. Similarly projector maintenance is a spectrum of cost from complete attention to complete neglect. KCS is interested in providing some skeleton structures with our Kent agency partners eg EIS but is not able nor intending to control markets in the mixed model Kent operates. However schools do provide want us to provide at least base level support and we still intend to engage with the structured markets rather than allowing everything to eventually be bought in Tesco's.

To that end we welcome the debate but remind that KCS is the commercial structure of KCC in this market and the maintenance aspects of the market will certainly be discussed from BETT onwards in 2007.

It's rare to see a blog with as much comment so there is an issue worthy of debate.

Duncan Riches
Product Manager IT/AV KCS

Duncan, you're clearly a man of few words (LoL). Good points though.

In response to Andy Duckworth, our projectors are all BECTA approved and the dust problem still occurs, even with the filters at the top. The ICT team at Amherst had to prove to the School Governors that we were investing in a reliable product so we followed BECTA recommendations. Promeathean have now told us that these were a brand new model of projector and were relatively untested in School conditions. Are we a cheap form of R&D?

Interestingly in my time at a previous school, I purchased a smart board and projector from CDEC (do you remember me Andy?) and had no issues whatsoever with the projector.

Following the above thread and reading the comments about maintenance, life expectancy and costs I have pencilled in a budget forecast for academic IT requirements. This does not include software or office support.

I have based these requirements on two actual schools from the Paddock Wood and Cranbrook Cluster and have included special needs.

IT Suite 30 PC's  @ £600.00 ea 5 year life.
Classroom 16 PC's @ £600.00 ea 5 year life.
Whiteboard 8 PC's @£600.00 ea 5 year life.
Whiteboard and Projector 8 @ £2,200.00 ea 5 year life
Projector Maintenance (clean and bulb) 8 @ £425.00 ea
Teachers Laptop 8 @ £700.00 ea 3 year life

This gives an annual replacement budget of £12,547.00

Does anybody out there actually have that as an annual IT budget?

I have no comment - I'm just reeling in shock at Rob's projected budget (no pun intended). Thanks Rob - food for thought.

I'm STILL looking for a replacement projector that has a longer life expectancy than 3 years. Security features are great, but at this rate we'd do better to leave our windows open on a three year cycle and have the dusty ones nicked, then claim for new ones on insurance ;)

I'm off to BETT looking for projectors with dust-proof optics (if such a thing exists)!

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the murky waters of data projectors!

At Goudhurst we have a data projector in serious need of a clean only to find out that Promethean have stopped providing a replacement loan projector and have added a collection fee of £50.00 to their cleaning charge of £175.00.

Cleaning will take up to 10 working days. Teachers find it difficult to cope with a power cut let alone a fortnight without an interactive whiteboard such are the learning opportunities they provide.

One plus point though is that all BECTA boards were provided with a free replacement bulb if they should fail within three years. Start claiming!

Incidentally the reason Promethean have stopped providing replacement loan projectors is because of a drain on their resources which would suggest that the amount of projectors requiring a clean is a HUGE and COMMON problem.

In light of the extensive discussions, it is obvious that there is a need for clarity over total cost of ownership, and further that suppliers need to offer a more managed solution, so I have decided to move this forward with the main Kent suppliers. I will also look at the viability of potential alternative AV approaches.

BETT 2007 has thousands of educational ICT products and services on display, live demonstrations and...

Hi

The older Sanyos (PLC-SE15) we have do accumulate dust in the optics and are next to useless after a term, even if the filters are cleaned weekly - and deep cleaning is very expensive. The newer Sanyos (PLC-XE30) are better but still show some dust and will need cleaning in a couple of years.

The best we have is an old Epson EMP-51 which has needed one lamp and no cleaning in five years and has no removeable filters.

Promethean will always push Sanyos as they are a major supplier, and won't acknowledge that the older ones are wrong for the classroom.

We are looking at DLP technology as opposed to LCD as they work on a sealed optic principle and should keep dust out. The Sharp XR-10s is well priced.

Even ceiling mounted the kids produce a lot of dust - a lot is after all dead skin!

Well I went to BETT and grilled all the projector manufacturers I could. It turns out that the reason they don't make projectors with sealed optics is because it would be too expensive for them to manufacture, and still keep the price down for schools. I also got some lame excuses about cooling, which is no excuse because although the bulb does need to be cooled, the lenses and the light path does not. Apparently even a multi-thousand pound cinema projector does not have sealed optics, as it is expected to be professionally deep-cleaned from time to time. I still think if there was enough demand for sealed optics then the manufacturers would include it as a feature to make their product more attractive in the very competitive market. Once again we are tripped up by the REAL Tocal Cost Of Ownership - but then who had experience of this situation three years ago?
Thanks to all the IWB suppliers I talked to and listened sympathetically to my problem. The support they are prepared to give these days is a great improvement on the early days of IWBs in schools. With a full 3-year warranty on projector and lamp, and next-day swap out too we might just be able to sustain this if our luck holds. And technology has moved on since we got our first data projectors, so the current range are (HOPEFULLY) less prone to dust infiltration.
I still havent reported all this back to my Headteacher yet. So I'm off to brush-up on my CPR now so I can deal with the heart attack she is going to have when I tell her the news. Ho-hum!

It is interesting that to read the comments made on the efficiency of the the projectors that you all use. the unfortunate fact of life is that many, if not all the data projectors manufactured today have a shelf life of around 3-4 years. I also agree with the comments made by Andy Duckworth from CDEC & Jon Moore from Matrix.

Like Matrix, Promathean also now have a service contract for the projectors we supply to schools, details of this service can be obtained by emailing myself at peter.brown@prometheanworld.com

In terms of how often a projectors filters are cleaned there is now "excact science". The frequency of cleaning depends on a number of things:
1. Thge type of building-older buildings tend to be dustier than new ones.
2. Frequency of filter cleaning-most projector manufacturers reccomend 3-4 weeks but this is dependant of the school environment. I have some schools that need to clean the filters every week.
3. Projectors can be infected with dust over the summer holidays if building/decorating works has been carried out

We must also mention that if a school forgets to clean the filters at outset, even if it is a brief foresight then this can have a major impact on the long term perfomance of the projector.

If any schools users would like to discuss their particular projector isues on a one to one basis then please do not hesitate to contact me. Like CDEC, our consultancy service if completely free.

Best regards
Peter Brown
Promethean UK Ltd
Tel: 07974 117248

Goudhurst now require 3 - 4 cleans and bulbs. This cost through Promethean is going to be £225 (clean) and £258.00 (bulb) total £483.00 ea.

Shopping around I have found replacement bulbs for £233 saving £25.00 ea reducing the total cost to £458.00 ea.

However through the post today came a flyer for a brand new Sanyo PLC-XW50 for £459.00 - XGA, 1500 lums, 3 year warranty.

I wonder if it has the same fittings as the Promethean supplied Sanyo projectors and could just be swapped out?

Not far behind Robert, we have 4, maybe 5 Sanyo SW35 which will need a clean. Maybe Promethean can give the Cluster a bulk cleaning discount? Over to you Peter.

Fitting alternative models to existing ceiling mounts could create more expense as Robert alludes to.

As Rob mentions earlier (11 Jan) the Epson EMP-51 could run dust free, so why not others?

It turns out the Sanyo PLC-XW50 is approved by Becta and is not only listed but also recommended on the Promethean web site as follows at the bottom of this entry.

With a street price of £459.00 it seems to me to be a better proposition than a clean and new bulb on our existing projectors which from first glace seem to have the same mounting holes for installation onto the existing ceiling mounts. (Peter from Promethean is getting back to me on this)

Although I would like to change the projector make and model the cost is prohibitive especially when new mounting plates and repositioning of the ceiling fixtures are taken into consideration.

I'm going to enquire about a bulk discount; anybody else interested providing that the mounting plate and positioning is the same?

From the Promethean web site:

The Ultraportable PLC-XW50 a lightweight high brightness (BECTa recommended) projector for education, FE, higher education, small business and health care markets

Application: Education FE/HE Education, Small Business, Healthcare
Brightness: 1500 ANSI lumens
Resolution: XGA
Lamp Life: 2000 hours
Contrast Ratio: 400:1
Throw Ratio: 1.65:1 fixed lens
Connections: D-Sub15 (In * 1; Out); Audio
Keystone: Horizontal; Vertical
Noise: <29dBA in eco mode
Weight: 2.8kg
Additional Features: Direct on/off; PIN code security

Hi

Just a point on the PLC-XW50. It's nominal lamp life is 2000 hours. The XE-31 (upgrade from XE-30) is 5000 hours. It's possible to get the XE-31 with a free lamp voucher for about £570. With lamps at £230 this has to be a factor is trying to get a value comparison.

My mistake, I should have mentioned it earlier.

Our projectors at Goudhurst are Sanyo PLC-SE20's, these are SVGA projectors with a 2000 hour lamp life. The same rating as the Sanyo PLC-SW35. The XGA replacement projectors in the above thread would be an upgrade for us and save on the combined lamp / clean cost.

As the Americans would say a win win situation.

If I had a budget in the region of £570.00  I would consider a NEC VT58 or NEC VT590.

But alas I do not, so cost savings is the order of the day and as a bonus an upgrade on our existing equipment.

I managed to get a discount to cover the cost the adapter plates to fit the projector to the ceiling mounts (£25.00 ea) for the PLC-XW50.

However it turns out that the PLC-XW50 does not have a variable throw and is fixed at 1.65m.

It would seem to me that it is unlikely that we could fit the PLC-XW50 without repositioning the ceiling mount which would be expensive and messy.

So my options seem to be a new bulb and a clean for our PLC-SE20's at £458.00 ea or a replacement XE31 projector £699.00 ea. from Promethean (£660.00 from Misco) +  mounting plate.

The ceiling mount brackets are specially manufactured by Promethean so it seems best to stick with Promethean specified equipment.

Our experience is that constant (unecessary?) running is the major contributor to LCD panel distortion. Constant running along with irregular/unsatisfactory filter cleaning will result in a single overheating event that causes permanent damage. Dust settling on the LCD panels appears as coloured blotches on the screen. Purple fringing is caused by LCD panel distortion. Note that "deep cleaning" very often actually means panel replacement, hence the high cost of this service. DLP projectors are far less prone to dust ingress and can be purchased for similar sums to LCD projectors.

I agree with commentators who suggest that schools should establish an adequate ICT maintenace budget. Those of us with long experience of public funding will know that once a budget heading is established then funding will eventually follow. Be prepared so you don't have to fund raise in a hurry. Don't try to do things on the cheap, and don't expect the laws of physics to retreat from an intellectual assault!

Contact me if I or my trechnical team can be of any further assistance.

Andy Worth
Centre Manager
Dorset Centre for Educational Technology
(Dorset County Council)
Tel 01305 224516
a.t.a.worth@dorsetcc.gov.uk

I know that this blog is being read by the cognoscenti of Projectors but KCS is looking at 3 issues that I mentioned previously:

1. Drawing purchase to common suppliers/brands. If you've got the cheapest projector with the most expensive lamp we're not weeping tears at your mistake but basic advice is what County supplies is here for! even if purchases are not directly via us. We're not perfect and not always cheapest but we're here to provide a schools benchmark & to use our knowledge of future markets which we research. We've always done that and that was  also evident in the BECTA deployment which we managed imperfectly in some cases but at least to creating a deployed base.

2. Looking at the service aftermarkets.

3. Looking at pushing down Lamp costs.

Ie all the cost of ownership issues that BECTA may or may not be intererested (bigger fish to fry?)..

Alternately don't switch the thing on! if the cost of using it and the necessity to set aside proper replacement funding is coming as a shock.

We're waiting for several market developments on 1 2 & 3 which will clarify by mid year on best value options but most of the participants of this blog are valued suppliers or customers of KCS even if we're sometimes more of a participant than a referree in the processes. (no I haven't got my own blog!)

I think the principal issue is to give guidance to schools who are not able to do their TCO to death and we are at least looking into the service phases for the next contract relet. In fact some volunteers for KCC contract award panel would be most welcome. As practitioners it's not surprising as to your depth of knowledge but not everyone is starting at or going to the same destination so we're catering for a diverse community.

Also of note don't lease! at least not without talking to KCS first. You will hide/defer the TCO but not change the fundamental parameters in fact you may even confuse yourself with the finances of spreading costs. We see more and more leasing offered!

Duncan Riches
Product Manager KCS

Our discussion on dataprojectors and dust was read by thousands of people and many schools have commented

Thank you - we have the purplish/yellow tinging on one of our projectors, and i am resigned to buying a new one. The comments have been invaluable and will help me research a little further before i spend. Very helpful, if slightly depressing!

If projector has a high temperature cut out and is very near a ceiling or enclosed area lack of cool air even with a clean filter may cause you problems

We have one projector that has become dull and faded around the edges due to dust collecting on the lenses inside the projector. Promethean would clean it but this would entail it being sent away and being costly. I have been asking as to whether there is anybody locally who could do it but so far have hit a brickwall.

I have asked a couple  secondary schools as they seem to have more data projectors than anybody, it seems as though they have a handle on the situation far more than primary schools, they hoover and clean the outsides of the projector at least once a term, they have the staff to do this.

I have also heard of one primary school investing in 'Dustbuster' handheld hoovers that they use in the classroom to clear away the dust so that it doesn't become a problem.

We have had major problems with Sanyo projectors. We recently sent 10 projectors to GM Services to be cleaned. They also provided a detailed report on the state of each projector, half of which turned out to have some sort of problem with the LCD unit. The no show is very effective at burning throught the LCD and generally kills the projector.

The only plus point at the moment is that new DLP projectors are only around £280 from dabs (ex vat). Still we are having to put aside £1000 per year for bulbs and cleaning.

Has anyone actually tested DLP and made the comparison with LCD?

Take a look at:

http://www.projectorpoint.co.uk/ProjectorLCDvsDLP.htm

for pros & cons.

How about KCS setting up a demo for all interested parties?

Great to hear that pur school is not alone in the great dust debate on data projectors. At this very moment my caretaker is hoovering the projectors to try out clear the internal dust problem.

I had no idea that by taking out the filters regularly as advised we could be making the problem worse!

I also had no idea that data projectors only have a life of approx three years. In five years the whole country may be back to blackboards and chalk - they say if you wait long enough everything comes round full circle and is fashionable again!!

I have a tutorial for cleaning the lens inside sanyo projectors. I've done this many times and have saved a fortune doing so. If anyone would like me to email the tutorial let me know.

kpearson@bishopsgarth.stockton.sch.uk

Cheers

Kevin Pearson

IT Support

Hi i work for an FE college, we have 230 Promethean interactivbaords in all our classrooms, we have them in kitchens, motor vehicle, hair and beauty, brinckwork and plastering centres, we always used Hitachi projectors until recently when we started to use Promethean to install and now use Sanyo, we clean our filters every 6 weeks and have projectors in service for at least 5-6 years, i have just had my first issue with dust in our plastering school, i am now investigating a solution for this, i am looking at either a projector with better filtering system or a box/cage with filters built in, the lead issue is a genuine one if either the fly lead between the Pc and the projector is faulty or the full term fixings do have a tendancy of being poorly soldered at times.