Business opportunities


Education technology: the changing landscape


When Steljes Ltd went into ad- ministration, it was the latest in a series of events shaking up the education technology sec- tor in recent months. Changes of ownership; changes of distri- bution partners; new entrants to the market – if thought that the changes triggered by the re- placement of IWBs with IFPDs were over, nothing could be fur- ther from the truth. AV News un- ravels it all.


Prior to BETT this year, the education technology segment of the AV business appeared a calmly successful place, with all-concerned quietly making money,


striking alliances and developing new technologies as required – and comfortable with the idea that escalating demand for IFPDs was suffi- cient to provide everybody with revenue growth, and to encour- age new entrants at a manage- able rate.


Alistair Hayward, Head of UKI and ANZ at Promethean: “Per- haps most important, is the fi- nancial stability of the company. Long established in the educa- tion market, the Promethean brand brings proven pedigree and peace of mind that we’ll be here in the future should a warranty ever need to be called upon.”


Just six months after the BETT show, many of the as- sumptions that we felt safe in making about manufactures, distributors and even prod- ucts are still up in the air. In the IWB era, the choice for resellers and their customers was a simple one, Promethean v SMART. This initial choice would determine everything - hardware, software and access to learning resources. The arrival of the IFPD, and the subsequent success of Clevertouch (complemented by Hitachi, BenQ, CTOUCH, Ge- neeworld and iBoard Touch, has created an environment where vendors with touchscreen ca- pabilities have identified the classroom as a target market. The CE vendors Samsung and LG have clear hardware advan- tage. Avocor’s VIVIDtouch ECO- touch from BVS Touchscreens have the further advantage of an education background. For a while, the rise of the IFPD seemed to wrong-foot SMART and Promethean, giving these new suppliers a foothold in the market for their differentiated solutions.


Speed of change


As Head of UKI and ANZ at Promethean, Alistair Hayward believes that the Steljes Ltd administration has accelerated changes in the education tech- nology


P8 AV News August 2016


parallels with earlier changes in the education technology paradigm:


“The speed at which IFPDs have significantly taken over IWB sales in the UK market has not surprisingly given rise to a number of new entrants – which was exactly the case in the early days of the IWB mar-


in


future product innovation.


Moreover, with the summer installation now upon us, it will only be a matter of weeks before we see which vendors come out on top.”


Compatibility With significant numbers of ed-


“We need to move the conversation away from talking about the IFPD as an isolated piece of kit.”


ket growth. However, these new entrants have appeared at the same time as Steljes – a long established distributor in this space – going into administra- tion. These factors were always going to create a lot of unrest in the market for resellers, but the impact on end-users is a lit- tle less clear, as they are not as close to the routes to market as channel operators.”


“That aside, when you look at


the changes collectively, what we are seeing is a lot of insta- bility and uncertainty. Because what has become increasing- ly apparent over the past few years, is that financial security is a critical success factor in being able to sustain a profit- able and long term operation in IFPDs – because it is without doubt an expensive product to bring to market.”


landscape. He draws


Promethean has been through changes itself, which provides the financial support to grow its market and extend its product range. Now part of the larg- er NetDragon Websoft group: “Promethean can offer our channel partners, and end-us- ers, the assurances that the company will be here in the long term. Whether that’s to fulfil any warranties, support technology growth or invest


ucational buyers still undergo- ing the IWB to IFPD transition, a number of newer vendors have identified compatibili- ty with content created in the SMART or Promethean environ- ments as an important feature in minimising disruption. But if legacy content is compatible with other panels, does it ac- tually matter which hardware customers buy?


Rahim Habib is SMART’s Product Marketing and Busi- ness Development Manager for EMEA. He believes that there is a fundamental dif- ference between SMART and SMART-compatible hardware: “Our interactive


displays are


purpose-built for education us- ing a programmatic approach. We’ve applied our 25+ years of experience to design touch and collaboration technology that, combined with SMART software, offer students and teachers a natural learning ex- perience.” “SMART software is opti- mised for use with SMART in- teractive displays. When used together, it provides educators and learners with a complete collaborative and interactive experience. This stems from the combination of the SMART software with SMART drivers,


and firmware working in unison with SMART interactive dis- plays. It is important to high- light that purchasing SMART interactive displays is the most economical way to get SMART software.”


“Our IFPDs have unique fea-


rative experience, by automat- ically detecting pen, finger or palm.”


“From a hardware perspec- tive, the SMART kapp iQ inter- active flat panel is specifically designed to deliver a complete, all-in-one classroom solution.


For some schools, making the transition from IWBs to IFPDs is made more seamless by the availability of ActivInspire, as it is a tried and tested teaching resource.


tures and capabilities that are of relevant pedagogical value: Silktouch, provides an accu- rate, smooth and responsive touch interaction experience; SMART ink for a natural, flu- id and responsive digital ink experience; Pen ID allows two students the freedom to simul- taneously interact with lesson content in the pen colour of their choice; and Object aware- ness offers an intuitive collabo-


It provides educators with the flexibility to deliver lessons across a range of learning and instructional styles, including whole-class, small group and individual instruction. Educa- tors are equipped with simple, one-touch access to a full range of classroom applications for a fully integrated experience with student devices. They have seamless access to the applica- tions they use every day, with-


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