SmartBoards

The advantages of the new system, according to SmartTECH, are:

• Sharper and brighter screen - image shines through only one layer of glass, as opposed to multiple layers of transparent plastic
• No more 'spiking' if screen is pressed at two places simultaneously - cameras are programmed to ignore second point if first is still pressed
• Cameras individually swappable for maintenance
• Calibration procedure remains unchanged.

According to the company, an upgrade for existing real-projection SmartBoards may be forthcoming, involving a swap of the top part of the unit. Pricing has yet to be determined.

SmartTECH has also certified certain NEC projectors with DVI inputs for use within SmartBoards. These projectors accept a pure signal sent directly from the video card to the projector in the digital domain, without any unnecessary D/A/D conversion, which results in a clearer image.

Because most DVI projectors have a traditional analog VGA port in addition to their digital connection, SmartTECH has adapted some of the buttons on the front of the SmartBoard for use in switching between DVI and VGA. Holding down the top three buttons (increase brightness, increase contrast, and increase volume) simultaneously sends a 'switch input' signal to the NEC projector. This would be necessary if one were installing a computer with a DVI connector to replace a computer with a traditional VGA input.

I spent a good deal of time talking with the representatives about the issue of Serial versus USB connections on the current lineup of rear-projection SmartBoards. The staff claimed they were soon going to be bundling a USB/Serial converter with the boards, but had no firm plans to move to an all-USB setup. They claimed switching between USB connections (one for the laptop, one for the internal computer) was much more difficult than Serial. Their claims are, of course, not consistant with either the specifications of USB (which was designed from the ground-up to be hot-swapable) nor, indeed, with the empirical evidence provided by $79 USB KVM we currently use in our server area. But I did my part to fight the good fight.

Another feature I lobbied for was the removal of the legacy Infrared keyboard/mouse they ship with the SmartBoards. This technology is severely limited in its functionality due to its line-of-sight nature. Move the keyboard a few degrees and it loses the connection to the SmartBoard - a crucial flaw in equipment intended for use in large rooms. We end up replacing the keyboard/mouse as one of the first setup tasks we must perform when we install a new SmartBoard. I suggested that, especially given the premium price of the SmartBoard, either a RF or a Bluetooth keyboard/mouse combination be used. To this they had two responses: the first was that high-volume customers in "government agencies" had secrecy concerns which precluded the use of "snoopable" technologies such as RF or even weakly-encrypted Bluetooth. Another representative did not mention the security concerns and instead said they would consider moving to RF if enough customers demanded it. He said they were not happy with the performance of Infrared either and it was for that reason they included the IR dongle on an easily-removable Velcro attachment. (I kindly did not point out that, while the dongle might be easily removable, the attachment cable, squeezed between two hundred-pound metal boxes balanced precariously on top of one another, was notably less so.)

A final enhancement to the new rear-projection SmartBoard is worth mentioning. SmartTECH has realized that many customers find cycling through three sources (Computer, Laptop, Video) is tedious and confusing, especially given the dozen seconds required for the projector to attempt to lock on to each signal before the button regains responsiveness. They intend to move eventually to a toggle button for each source, but in the meantime they have updated the firmware of the front control panel in the following way. When a user presses the source select button to move from Computer to Laptop, and then presses the button again after more than 60 seconds have elapsed, the SmartBoard switches back to the Computer input rather than cycling down to Video input. This is due to the fact that many users switch between Computer and Laptop quite often, and dislike having to go through the (often-unconnected) Video input to go back to the Computer source. Pressing the source select button twice within 60 seconds will still cycle the input to Video as always. Panels with this functionality have a green Power button, as opposed to the older dark grey one, and this feature is available as an upgrade to older panels via a serial-uploadable firmware update.