Author Clarification:

I received a couple questions about this article in reference to the Extron Pole Vault System and NEC projectors referenced.

I was not intending to disparage anyone’s product, and the scenario was not a reflection on NEC or Extron, as the Pole Vault System is an ideal solution for many classroom environments.

I mentioned it in the spirit of the article, that control ports are something to consider when choosing projectors in these installations.

The equipment furnished in that job was all provided by the school district, and was procured directly by them from a third party distributor that drop ships hardware.  The district did this in order to save some money, and then hired us to install what they had already procured.

If we had been involved in hardware specification and procurement, we would have been able to identify the control port issue up front, and specify an alternate projector (NEC or otherwise) or at least save them money on the adapters if still necessary.  Extron actually sells them cheaper than the distributor the district bought them from, or we could have even made adapters onsite for a small fraction of the cost, with the help of a local electronics store.

The main point was that the presence of an AV integrator in the design phase could have alleviated any and all issues here.  I hope that answers and questions!

Mark C