Installing a projector system into Denbury Primary School
Denbury Primary School is a small, village school 3 miles from the market town of Newton Abbot, with an busy programme of activities and clubs for the children. As part of the Parent Teacher Association’s commitment to enriching the learning and cultural facilities at the school, the PTA made it their goal in 2017 to equip the main school hall with a projector, screen and speakers.
Due to our experience providing audio visual solutions within schools, Ripple Events were asked to put together a specification for the system to provide a simple-to-use, yet tamper proof, system. We were delighted to work with the school and were able to offer our professional expertise and time free of charge as a part of our commitment to local community projects. We were also able to supply the equipment needed at cost, which significantly increased the spending power of a small school with only 114 pupils and limited resources.
One of the key factors to consider was striking the balance between cost and performance. It can be too tempting to over specify a project when it’s not always necessary. There are many cutting edge, touch screen options for system automation which we did consider. However, that would have reduced the budget available for the projector and made the system expensive to edit for future development.
For these reasons, a clearly marked push button solution was used allowing the system to be switched on, turned off and the volume to be adjusted. The source bottom was also used to ensure the HDMI input could be selected if it was not recognised automatically.
The single HDMI input makes a simple connection for high quality pictures without fragile pins that can get bent and damaged. In this instance, we are also using the audio connections. As well as mounting the controls high up to be out of reach of smaller hands, the system automatically locks out and cannot be turned on without a security code entered into the control panel. The panel will stay live while in use and when you power down, it locks.
Being a traditional village school hall with lath and plaster walls and ceiling, running the cables within the walls was going to risk making more of a mess than it would give an advantage. For this reason, cables were run with round conduit which was shaped and adapted to the walls without any breaks.
Powered speakers were mounted either side of the screen with a single audio feed from the projector. This allowed us to set a maximum volume to a position that will ensure the longevity of the speakers and be confident that this level will not be exceeded.
The end result of this installation is a smart, easy to use system that will give the school years of use and allow the hall to be used in the diverse way it needs to provide.
Additional Work within the School
Over the summer we also carried out a complete service of the audio visuals within the classrooms. This involved a half day survey to check lamp and filter hours, check all video and audio connections, check cabling and smart board operations. From this survey we made recommendations and gave a clear quotation for the required servicing, replacement lamps and advisory upgraded to HDMI inputs.
The work corrected long standing faults with interactive Smart boards that were not responding and increased accuracy for all interactive boards.
Replacement of a damaged projector including the reconfiguring and replacement of inputs.
The upgrade of 3 further classrooms to HDMI inputs.
