Guide to the Best Education Projectors Report 2018-2019

Posted on April 16, 2018 by Art Feierman

Welcome to Projector Reviews 9th annual Best Education Projectors Report – originally our Best Classroom Projectors Report.

This page is designed to touch on a lot of aspects of this report in order to help you take best advantage of the full report, and where to find the things you are looking for. For most of you, scanning this and the next page, rather than trying to absorb everything, will make the most sense.

The goal of this Education Projector Report remains essentially unchanged. It is more about providing insights to what is currently available to schools, both K-12 and higher education, than attempting to find a single, or several “best” projectors.

Business and education projectors - Schools are the largest single market for these projectors

Ultimately, there is no single “best” projector, because there is so much variation in what requirements are needed for a particular location, use, and support: price, resolution, placement flexibility, picture quality, networking, wireless, etc. Every installation has different requirements. We hand out awards to those with superior performance and value for their capabilities.

Higher Education classroom image — Higher Education Classroom/Lecture hall showing DICOM quality medical X-ray

Does a school need interactive projectors?

What about fairly advanced networking?

Or perhaps cost is the key? What are the short term costs and long term costs?

Important to realize: The majority of projectors installed in schools prior to the last few years are 4:3 ratio – VGA, SVGA or XGA. Many schools want to avoid widescreen projectors (16:10 or 16:9), when replacing older projectors because changing the aspect ratio means new screens and possibly moving the ceiling mount. So, while generally going widescreen (HDTV’s 16:9 aspect ratio, or business/education 16:10) is desirable from a presenting standpoint, the replacement market is huge, which keeps the sales of 4:3 aspect ratio projectors plenty strong.

Our objective is to give you a pretty good idea of what’s out there in terms of features, capabilities, and options, and why they are important to various users.

Our goal is also to help decision-makers figure out which projectors will best serve their classrooms, their networking requirements, their auditoriums and special purpose rooms, as well as, when appropriate, which portable projectors work best for those traveling with a projector, whether from room to room, or perhaps a specialty instructor that travels from school to school, or a professor that prefers to carry “his own” when visiting other institutions.

We wish to thank Epson America for sponsoring this year’s Education Report.

Topics Covered in This Projector Guide

What’s in The 2018-19 Classroom Report
- Reviews Section – Links to the 15 Projectors we reviewed
- Annual Best In Classroom Awards
Defining Expectations
- District Level/State Level IT/AV/Tech Coordinator
- School Level IT/AV/ Tech Coordinator
- Teacher
- Teacher – One who's driving force for technology in your school
- Buyers: School, District, State, Consortium
Understanding the physical classroom environment for projector selection
Special Features desirable for classroom and general education use

We fully understand that those of you reading this report come to it with a wide variety of needs, of background, of expertise, and objectives.

If you have something additional you think sharing with our readers would be beneficial, please comment, or if you have some longer content, please email it to us and we will try to add the information in. I’m speaking of features, networking, dealing with environment, support, and more. If you have an epiphany to share, we want to get the word out.

We hope we have provided enough explanations for those less familiar with projectors and how to assess needs and requirements. All things considered, we think we have assembled a report that will useful information to virtually all people involved in researching, buying, and using projectors, whether in K-12, Higher Education, or specialty fields like museums. We hope you agree and find it quite useful.

Epson PowerLite 675W Projector Front Angled — Ultra short throw projectors are ideal for classroom setups.

As always, I would like next year’s report to be even better, so if you have ideas for improvement, email me at reviewer@projectorreviews.com. Just remember, we’re a relatively small organization (I am the only full-time person), so resources – especially time, is somewhat limited.

Again, thanks for taking the time to visit us. It is my hope that you will find our information useful. And, if so, we sure would appreciate the Like! You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Thanks! - Art

Welcome to Projector Reviews 9th annual Best Education Projectors Report – originally our Best Classroom Projectors Report.

This page is designed to touch on a lot of aspects of this report in order to help you take best advantage of the full report, and where to find the things you are looking for. For most of you, scanning this and the next page, rather than trying to absorb everything, will make the most sense.

The goal of this Education Projector Report remains essentially unchanged. It is more about providing insights to what is currently available to schools, both K-12 and higher education, than attempting to find a single, or several “best” projectors.

Ultimately, there is no single “best” projector, because there is so much variation in what requirements are needed for a particular location, use, and support: price, resolution, placement flexibility, picture quality, networking, wireless, etc. Every installation has different requirements. We hand out awards to those with superior performance and value for their capabilities.

Does a school need interactive projectors?

What about fairly advanced networking?

Or perhaps cost is the key? What are the short term costs and long term costs?

Important to realize: The majority of projectors installed in schools prior to the last few years are 4:3 ratio – VGA, SVGA or XGA. Many schools want to avoid widescreen projectors (16:10 or 16:9), when replacing older projectors because changing the aspect ratio means new screens and possibly moving the ceiling mount. So, while generally going widescreen (HDTV’s 16:9 aspect ratio, or business/education 16:10) is desirable from a presenting standpoint, the replacement market is huge, which keeps the sales of 4:3 aspect ratio projectors plenty strong.

Our objective is to give you a pretty good idea of what’s out there in terms of features, capabilities, and options, and why they are important to various users.

Our goal is also to help decision-makers figure out which projectors will best serve their classrooms, their networking requirements, their auditoriums and special purpose rooms, as well as, when appropriate, which portable projectors work best for those traveling with a projector, whether from room to room, or perhaps a specialty instructor that travels from school to school, or a professor that prefers to carry “his own” when visiting other institutions.

We wish to thank Epson America for sponsoring this year’s Education Report.

Topics Covered in This Projector Guide

What’s in The 2018-19 Classroom Report
- Reviews Section – Links to the 15 Projectors we reviewed
- Annual Best In Classroom Awards
Defining Expectations
- District Level/State Level IT/AV/Tech Coordinator
- School Level IT/AV/ Tech Coordinator
- Teacher
- Teacher – One who's driving force for technology in your school
- Buyers: School, District, State, Consortium
Understanding the physical classroom environment for projector selection
Special Features desirable for classroom and general education use

We fully understand that those of you reading this report come to it with a wide variety of needs, of background, of expertise, and objectives.

If you have something additional you think sharing with our readers would be beneficial, please comment, or if you have some longer content, please email it to us and we will try to add the information in. I’m speaking of features, networking, dealing with environment, support, and more. If you have an epiphany to share, we want to get the word out.

We hope we have provided enough explanations for those less familiar with projectors and how to assess needs and requirements. All things considered, we think we have assembled a report that will useful information to virtually all people involved in researching, buying, and using projectors, whether in K-12, Higher Education, or specialty fields like museums. We hope you agree and find it quite useful.

As always, I would like next year’s report to be even better, so if you have ideas for improvement, email me at reviewer@projectorreviews.com. Just remember, we’re a relatively small organization (I am the only full-time person), so resources – especially time, is somewhat limited.

Again, thanks for taking the time to visit us. It is my hope that you will find our information useful. And, if so, we sure would appreciate the Like! You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Thanks! - Art