AV news Awards


Category: Collaboration Innovation of the Year Winner:


Clevertouch for IMPACT Plus


Launched at BETT Show in 2009, Clevertouch was the first manu- facturer to show a dedicated large format true interactive displays designed specifically for the education market. Now with their fifth-generation screen, the newly launched IMPACT Plus is part of the Plus Series range and designed to meet the needs of the modern classroom.


Informed by the government’s agenda, the product is designed to enable extraordinary lessons to take place in ordinary classrooms, transforming the learning experience. Our education solution is helping teachers and pupils shine in the digital classroom. Celebrating 10 years of continued innovation, the Clevertouch team supported by family business owners and brothers Kevin and Nigel Batley, bought the first generation of touchscreens to market at a time when the whole industry (manufacturers and education end users) were still very much focused on buying and installing interactive whiteboards and projectors. Weighing in at 100 kilos and costing £8,000 for a 65” Clever-


has seen a 33% growth in unit sales around the world shoot up to 36,000 a far cry from the 100 sold in the first year. By 2023, Plus Series will generate £200 million of revenue for the business through rapid expansion and product investment. Clevertouch has spent the past decade building relationships with key EdTech influencers and solution providers. From software companies to app developers, Clevertouch have found the ideal partners provides the largest range of resources for the classroom. If a teacher requests a new feature in the software, or for an app they've seen in their app store to be added to the Cleverstore, the Clevertouch team aim to fulfil the request within six months. Clev- erstore is owned by Clevertouch and unlike the competition will never show external advertising.


Boasting the dynamic duo of education software - Lynx and Snow- flake, as well as over a hundred apps in various languages, sub- jects and age groups, Plus Series has everything a teacher would need in the classroom. Supporting both types of teaching style - on the fly and pre-prepared, the software can be accessed via the Cloud to allow teachers to work on their content from anywhere. Resources can be easily shared between colleagues or schools. The Plus Series follows the Clevertouch ethos - once you've pur- chased a screen you will never have to pay extra for software. We believe in the price is the price at the point of sale and we’ll never ask for additional subscription costs, and no in-app purchases. If a new version of the software is released, it can be installed at no extra cost.


Members of the Clevertouch team celebrate their Award for Collabo- ration Innovation of the Year,


touch interactive touchscreen, it was a risk, but a risk that the brothers instinctively believed was going to pay off. “Although there was no market for interactive touchscreens in ed- ucation, given the popularity of personal touch devices, we had a gut feeling that it wouldn’t be long before teachers and pupils would be demanding more,” says Kevin Batley, CEO of Clever- touch. With a turnover of £70 million (70% of the overall business), 2019 has been a tremendous year for Clevertouch’s Plus Series which


Category: Presentation Innovation of the Year Winner:


DisplayNote by Montage


DisplayNote was founded in 2012 to simplify how people present, share and collaborate on content in meeting rooms, huddles spac- es, classrooms, lecture theatres and training rooms. Organisations utilise DisplayNote products to share ideas, make decisions and improve how information flows. DisplayNote’s Montage is a simple, effective and intuitive wireless presentation system that is compatible with all the major hard- ware and software providers. With DisplayNote Montage, any at- tendee can share their screen without the need to pass cables, use a plugin, or replace someone in an active session: 1. Presenter mode – with one click, any meeting attendee can become the presenter to enable the flow of information to be con- stant throughout a meeting.


2. Dual network – Attendees can wirelessly present from the pri- mary or guest network, ensuring the right individual is always in control.


3. Share files – folders, documents and links can be securely shared to anyone connected to the meeting. The ability to share work heightens the sense of collaboration promoted by the mon- tage solution


4. Media player – multimedia files, including MP4 and URLs, can be viewed on the main screen within the presentation with no latency. This maintains the focus of the meeting participants. 5. Two-way collaboration – An inbuilt whiteboard allows attend- ees to brainstorm ideas and annotate documents over the main screen. With multiple attendees, this intuitive feature ensures that the notes taken during the presentation can be shared. Project example


DisplayNote worked alongside touchscreen manufacturer Elo Touch to deliver a unique meeting room collaboration solution for the Pet Supplies Plus corporate headquarters in Michigan, United States. Hosting more than 500 employees, the headquarters is the base the Pet Supplies Plus ¬business, which serves as one the largest pet food and supplies retailers in the USA with over 430


outlets across 33 states.


All employees at the headquarters have competing needs for con- ference rooms and meeting spaces, and therefore the rooms were in high demand to serve as spaces for presentations, conference calls and huddle areas. The meeting rooms struggled to meet the needs of the employees. Staff found the disparate systems confus- ing, and the additional cables and parts were forever going missing or being misused.


“Struggling to set up easily takes away 5-10 minutes of produc- tivity from every meeting. Finding cables, ensuring everyone is on the same network, team members being unable to join because of device issues – all of these issues become even more cumbersome when we host hundreds of vendors every year,” comments Lisa Y Brown, Director of IT, Pet Supplies Plus. To address the problem, Pet Supplies Plus specified the Montage solution from DisplayNote, embedded within Elo touchscreen products, to enable wireless connectivity and collaboration in the meeting room spaces. Without the need for any additional hard- ware, the solution has streamlined the technology setup and en- abled productive meetings in the rooms.


Clevertouch supports future pathway solutions saving school thou- sands on having to buy new technology. Every Plus Series has Android and Intel based OPS slots, these can be used as upgrade paths to download all the latest firmware and Android updates to keep the screen running at full capacity. The current Plus Series Android module runs LUX 8, which makes teaching easy with some unique features including super glide touch, handwriting recognition, class voting, Whiteboard, split screen mode, spotlight, Cloud accounts, Chrome browser, Google- Drive, CleverMessage and Clevershare.


Sign into all your settings and cloud accounts by tapping your NFC card against the Plus Series bezel. With dual tip super cool stylus, ideal for group work, and the Clevershare app for screen sharing, IMPACT Plus is designed for the collaborative flipped classrooms. The ability to send messages to classrooms using CleverMessage and the freedom to teach from around the classroom. No longer being tied to the front of the classroom. With the most compre- hensive five-year warranty, ongoing support through former teach- ers delivering training and the ability for modifications to enable seamless integration helped IMPACT Plus beat off all the major suppliers to be chosen as the lead technology across this district.


Category: AV Market Development Initiative of the Year Winner:


Promethean


With more than 20 years’ experience in education, Promethean is a global leader in education technology. Promethean’s combined hardware and software solutions are designed to transform class- rooms into collaborative and connected learning environments that promote student participation and engagement. Committed to developing solutions that enhance educational spac- es, Promethean’s ActivPanel Elements Series has been developed with an emphasis on ease of use, making teaching with technology even easier. The ActivPanel Elements Series has been designed by teachers and developed by Promethean for education - focusing on all the little things that make a big difference in the classroom. Program Highlights


1. Becoming the market leader – through a coordinated strategy that champions a robust product offering, excellent partner rela- tionships and commitment to supporting schools has projected Promethean to achieving its position as market leader- both in the UK and globally.


2. Investment in Innovation – Promethean is committed to provid- ing edtech solutions to schools that directly address their needs. The new Promethean ActivPanel Elements Series has been de- signed in partnership with real teachers specifically for education environments. 3. Strategic channel developments – Promethean has invested heavily in its partner gateway Atlas, a communication platform that provides access to sales support materials and account man- agement tools to make it easier and simpler to do business with the company. Earlier this year Promethean also launched its Pro- methean Certified Installer training as an extension of the Promet- hean Partner Programme.


4. Education initiatives – with a deep-rooted passion for education, Promethean takes pride in pioneering initiatives that give back to education. Now in its fourth year, The State of Technology in Ed- ucation Report is providing valuable insights into the successes and challenges faced by schools and plotting trends in the sector. Additionally, the #ClassroomStory competition – an alternative to the Promethean Grant – is giving teachers the opportunity to share inspirational stories and win a free ActivPanel. 5. Education partnerships – Promethean has forged an exclusive partnership with The Learning Partnership to support the delivery of the STEAM curriculum through digital content and resources. The collaboration will add significant value for end users, further enhancing the range of free to use classroom resources Promethe- an offers. This is the first of several strategic partnerships being brokered by Promethean.


Repeat winners of the Market Development Award, Promethean win their third trophy in a row,


SPECIAL AWARDS


Eddie Morgan (right) of DisplayNote prepares to collect the winner’s trophy for Montage.


AV News March 2020


P13


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