Mount Wachusett Community College, located in Gardner, MA is a cost-effective 2-year higher education institute offering more than 70 diverse degree programs. With courses dedicated to technology, among other areas, it’s no wonder why the institution selected dozens of Sony’s laser projectors on the school’s Leominster and Gardner campuses.
Arthur Collins, director of media services and chief engineer of the Media Arts and Technology (MRT) program, is an AVIXA-certified AV professional who also works in the broadcast industry. He has been with the Mount for 30 years and has helped shape its adoption and implementation of innovations. As the college’s technology expert, Collins was instrumental in specifying, designing, selecting and installing the Sony laser projectors, including the VPL-PHZ60, as well as professional BRAVIA displays in the school’s classrooms. He purchased the hardware from CCS Presentation Systems New England.
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Collins looked for tools that would provide enhanced learning experiences through accurate colors and engaging visuals. “The first projector the college installed was a Sony,” he explained. “We selected Sony’s projectors once again because they’re offered at an appropriate price point and at 6,000 lumens, they are right in the sweet spot. And while brightness is important, ultimately, when faculty are looking at images, color is a big deal to them. They notice when the reds don’t quite look the same on their laptop. I like Sony’s projectors because their color rendition is spot on.”
Another large factor for Collins in his selection of Sony’s projectors is their reliability and the peace of mind they offer. “We can’t let the technology get in the way of the classroom, meaning it just needs to work and be easy to use and comfortable from a faculty standpoint—and these projectors are. When they turn on the projector, they have the confidence that the system will work.”
As an Extron programmer, Collins also favors the projectors’ support of Extron and sets up an HDBaseT compatible Extron Scaler right into the projectors. “With this setup, we get video control, and everything works quite well," he said. "It also offers a cost savings since we don’t need an HDBaseT receiver. We just go right into the projector.”
Collins also likes the ease of installation and use, adding “As we were rebuilding our Leominster campus, we were under pressure to meet a deadline and the Sony projectors did not disappoint us. We just hung them on the ceiling, plugged them in, changed the settings and we were in business. Similarly, it’s a very simple projector in that you just hit the button and it works. In ten seconds, they’ve quietly fired up and are ready to go.”
Several of the projectors’ innovative features were also noted by Collins, including its automated filter cleaning capability. “The projectors are virtually maintenance-free,” he explained. “We haven’t changed the filters and they have a reversing mechanism that blows air backward to move the dust and filter it out.”
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And it’s not just the image quality and ease of use of Sony’s projectors that the Mount depends on. The college also employs Sony’s professional BRAVIA 55-inch and 65-inch displays, which are used for digital signage in collaborative and communal spaces. “The Pro BRAVIA displays are priced correctly, with a helpful commercial warranty. They look good and they’re reliable,"Collins said. "They are easy to use—we just take our player, plug it in and let that go. The bezel is nice, and we haven’t had a failure, yet.”
As a result of Mount Wachusett’s experience with Sony’s display technologies, Collins once again chose the manufacturer as he recently built out the school’s projection in larger spaces, installing Sony’s 13,000 lumen model.
