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En-Progress & MantelMount Give Noble Schools A Makeover

Published: January 22, 2025
The MantelMount units allowed Noble Schools to mount new Samsung monitors in their classrooms, without losing access to their whiteboards. Photo courtesy: MantelMount

Noble Schools, an open enrollment, public charter network of high schools and middle schools serving students throughout Chicago, has the following features:

  • Provides a world-class education to more than 12,000 students across 17 high school campuses (and one middle school) in Chicago.
  • Supports more than 28,000 alumni.
  • Has no testing requirements or tuition costs yet has achieved an incredible 98% college acceptance rate.

A Mutually Beneficial Partnership

Noble Schools, like any school district, is also constantly looking for ways to improve all aspects of it operations. Since 2014, Wesley Coleman, owner of Chicago-based En-Progress — along with his partner Sterling Tharp — has been involved in improving the schools’ AV technology.

“Noble Schools was looking for a new AV vendor, and we won the business,” says Coleman, whose company provides technology solutions that simplify the use of electronic equipment. “When I first started working with Noble Schools, we were just installing projectors in the classrooms. Originally, we didn’t have the autonomy to offer our opinions or design the solutions. The district had a scope of work that they wanted done, and we were simply the company that provided it.”

Per a statement, Noble allowed Coleman and his team to come in and start off with a couple of small installations. Pleased with the company’s performance, Noble turned to En-Progress to handle bigger projects, though projector installation remained the primary task. Coleman’s and Tharp’s firm worked with the district from 2014 to 2016, then, after a short respite, returned in 2018 to provide additional installation services — again, following specifications already provided by the district. Then, in the spring of 2022, the school district turned to En-Progress with a much bigger job in mind.

Replacing Projectors

According to the team, the projectors in the classrooms had started to outlive their usefulness — teachers grew weary of replacing them, cleaning the filters, buying lenses. Plus, the projectors weren’t bright enough, because they were shining directly on the whiteboards located on the front wall of the classrooms; and in some cases, teachers weren’t using the projectors at all. The district decided to change from projects to large-format displays — 75-inch Samsung monitors. These monitors needed to be mounted in a spot where the teachers could easily access them while offering the students an eye-level view of the screen.

As he pondered the potential approaches, Coleman says he remembered seeing a product called MantelMount at a trade show in 2020. At that show, MantelMount demonstrated one of its product’s primary uses (and the impetus for its creation): mounting televisions above a fireplace. Coleman adds that he observed how the mount could be pulled down when the TV is in use, moving it into optimal (eye level) viewing. It could then be returned to its position high on the wall and out of the way — all with very little effort.

“I thought that, given how much vertical movement the mount offers, it could be perfectly positioned above the whiteboard,” Coleman explains. “It would be easy to pull down, and the monitor would be at a level where all the students would have optimal views. And teachers could just as easily push it back to its original position when the monitor wasn’t in use.”

Bringing in the Mounts

After doing a deep dive into the MantelMount line of manual mounts (they also offer motorized versions), he became convinced it would meet all the challenges of the project, especially the primary one — location.

“The front walls of the classrooms, which would logically be the best place to put a monitor, had two, sometimes three whiteboards on them; moving or removing them was a non-starter,” says Coleman. “Rolling carts were a possibility, but then you have tripping hazards, not to mention possible damage to the monitor.”

According to the team, the MantelMount units were provided by Pioneer Music Company, a wholesale, provider of high-quality consumer electronics products to dealers, integrators and installers. With a convenient location just 90 minutes out of Chicago, delivery to the job was a simple task.

En-Progress Gets Room to Move

Based on the quality of work En-Progress had provided over the previous few years, Noble Schools gave Coleman autonomy to make recommendations and design solutions on new projects. Relying on that latitude, Coleman created a Photoshop presentation for the district’s administrative staff demonstrating how their solution would look, using the MantelMount 540, one of the company’s higher-end manual units. The staff appeared pleased with the presentation, so Coleman says he prototyped two classrooms to gauge the teacher’s reaction. After getting an overwhelmingly positive response, Coleman’s group spent part of the summer of 2022 equipping three additional schools with the MantelMount units, monitors and ancillary equipment.

The Solution

The way the solution works is the teacher’s computer connects to the monitor positioned on the MantelMount, located just above the whiteboards. A separate firm was brought in to run new conduit in almost every room, providing the power source for the monitors. The monitors output to two loudspeakers, providing the amplified sound. The large-format display clones the teacher’s computer, showing students whatever is on the teacher’s screen. The vertical movement is the key to the mounts’ functionality — something that Coleman did not see in any competitive product. “We didn’t know of any other company other than MantelMount offering the vertical dropdown,” explains Coleman. “Without that capability, this solution would not have worked.”

According to Coleman, the versatility of the MantelMount 540, which allows for installation on virtually any surface, played an integral role in the project. En-Progress needed to install the units into drywall, brick, and cinder block; metal studs were used for the drywall. In a few cases, Coleman even employed a Unistrut to drop the height. “We did have to fabricate a few things to make some units fit within the allotted space,” he states. “But we’re a custom AV company. We made it work.”

According to Coleman, there was a short learning curve in terms of installation. “The first two installs took longer than we expected as we were getting used to the product. After the first two installs, the rest went very smoothly.”

Fast forward to 2023: Noble Schools contracted En-Progress to outfit more classrooms with the same setup. And this summer, En-Progress will be continuing the project by equipping additional schools with the full A/V installation, using the MantelMount 540 as the centerpiece. Pioneer supplied the MantelMounts for both projects.

An Ongoing Effort

Mount in classroom

While the MantelMount 540 Pulldown Mount is at home in residential settings, it provides excellent functionality in a school environment as well. Photo courtesy of MantelMount.

According to Coleman, these new setups are not only valuable aids in the educational process, but they also incorporate a level of technology that doesn’t overwhelm the teachers.

“The Samsung monitors are basically TVs, and everyone has one at home, right?” Coleman explains. “The interface to the monitors from the computers is seamless and doesn’t require the teachers to do anything. Plus, the MantelMount units couldn’t be simpler to use. We actually showed the teachers the best method for pulling down the units — it’s not about strength, it’s about the technique. Lean back, arms out, pull straight down. If you do it right, there are no issues.”

Coleman expects that Noble will continue this initiative, putting this modern-day teaching tool in the hands of as many teachers as possible.

“We can’t put the MantelMount unit in all the classrooms, because some of them don’t have enough ceiling height,” Coleman says. “But the goal of the district is to have one in every classroom that can accommodate it.”

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