
Hitachi Corporation has forayed into the Indian digital classroom and presentation solutions market with its Starboard – interactive whiteboard technology. In order to complement its StarBoard, the company has also launched its Ultra Short Throw projector in India, the CP-A100. Hitachi Starboard technology is designed to ideally cater to the ICT-based interactive learning needs of the educational sector and the conference and boardroom needs of the corporate sector.
Talking to–VARIndia, Tarun Jain, Country Head, Hitachi Home Electronics Asia (S) Pte. Ltd., said that the Starboard will make the entire learning process at institutes a great fun. The company has already integrated this technology with some of the premier schools in India, including Podar School, Mumbai and DPS, Ghaziabad, and the outcome has been a great experience for the vendor and the schools as well.
In its go-to-market approach, Hitachi has also tied up with HCL as its partner to sell its interactive whiteboard and world’s first ultra short-throw projectors, and is actively scouting for other partners.
Technologically, the interactive whiteboard is a large interactive display that connects to a computer and projector. A projector projects the computer’s desktop onto the board’s surface, where users control the computer using a pen, finger or other device. The board is typically mounted on to a wall or on a floor stand. They are used in a variety of settings such as in classrooms at all levels of education, in corporate boardrooms and workgroups, in training rooms for professional sports coaching, broadcasting studios and more.
The benefits of the Hitachi StarBoards are that it allows users to write over the top of programmes to highlight and annotate points. One can work on word processing documents, spreadsheets, design projectors with your colleagues. Also, it is possible to insert a blank background and use as a substitute for whiteboard. Normal whiteboards allow users to use only one page, and if they erase the whiteboard, the handwritten notes will be gone. On the other hand, StarBoard allows users to use multiple pages electronically and it is possible to move forward/back pages, as desired. All notes are stored as electronic data, StarBoard Software allows teachers to review and reuse lessons afterwards. Teachers/presenters do not need to create fresh lesson plans for the same subject and curriculum every year anymore. Also, teachers can email lesson plans to the learners who could not attend the lesson. StarBoard software supports PDF, HTML, Images (jpg, png) output. It does not also generate chalk dust, or even marker smell. This is beneficial from the health and safety point of view. Like a true display, it supports multimedia colour visuals, presentations, video clips, movie files or DVDs and Internet. These boards enable children and teachers to manipulate text and objects, and make calculations on screen.
On top of the technology, the Hitachi StarBoard is very strong and it employs infra-red and ultrasonic technology in a clever manner. Starboard is made without embedding and wires or any such material in the board itself. This allows the board to be extremely durable – so durable that even in case the board surface is damaged the board will continue to function.
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