A Little Practical Magic Works Big Wonders? BenQ Cooks Up Just the Classroom Projection Recipe to Future-Proof Your School

This Time with Class-Leading 20W Microphone Audio Power for A+ Teaching and Learning Results

EUROPE, September 15, 2010 - A change is at hand for the 21st century classrooms as schools around the world replace outdated teaching tools with new technologies to keep instruction abreast of the latest advances and ensure students reap full benefit of maximized, engaged learning. BenQ, the world’s #1-selling DLP® projector brand in the education market in 2010 (Source, Q1-2010), announced today its game plan for meeting this technological transformation of the education world answered by the launch of a new series of classroom projector models tailor-made to future-proof schools and education institutions with the help of a little “practical magic”. The new models – MX660, MS612ST/MX613ST, MX710/MX711, MX760/MX761, MX880UST, MX810ST/MW811ST/MX812ST, SP891 and SP840 – comes with a comprehensive solution, featuring thoughtful, practical tools that work like magic to satisfy everyday teaching and maintenance needs, from basic to advanced, in every education scenario, for today and tomorrow.

“BenQ is all about bringing enjoyment and quality to life through leading-edge technology. That includes education and everyone in it, whether it’s teachers, students or IT personnel.” said Peter Chen, General Manager of BenQ Technology Product Center. “Here at BenQ, we make it our top priority to identify the day-to-day challenges that take place in school and replace them with new teaching tools and practical maintenance features that are affordable and user-friendly. Our goal is to help teachers and IT personnel to “work their magic”, to provide the best education for our children and make certain everything runs smoothly. It’s what we do, taking something so small, perfect it, so it works like magic.”

BenQ’s newest release of education projector series is an enthusiastically formulated feature recipe in response to the growing market trends, the ease-of-use demands of teachers and the cost-performance considerations of IT personnel and school administrators. The leading ingredient in this recipe is the industry-leading 20W built-in speaker and microphone-in jack. A first in the education projector market, the newly improved built-in 20W speaker with microphone-in jack allows teachers to teach hands-free and hassle-free with a headset, rather than carrying a separate set of speakers and microphone to class. A 20W audio power is ideal for average to large sized classrooms and best used for playing multimedia contents in class. Another magical ingredient of BenQ’s success would be 3D projection technology. BenQ released its first 3D-ready projector models in 2009 and 3D-readied all models for 2010 to provide seamless 3D projection with foresight to 3D visual technology being the upcoming trend in the education market. Already research has shown a proven fact of 35% dramatic learning increase for students introduced to 3D learning (TI Research).

Over the years, BenQ has continued to set the standards in projection innovation, quality and value as the leading brand in the DLP® education projector market. And now, the aspiring leader spreads the magical teaching enjoyment to educators across the globe with the completion of its education projector series. The PointDrawTM Serie, featuring the MP780ST PointDrawTM projector, adds a touch of fun and excitement in teaching as well as learning with the uniquely designed Q DrawTM interactive teaching tool and PointDrawTM pen to boost students’ attention, focus and performance in class. The MP780 ST surprised educators with PointDrawTM interactive capability that frees them from the whiteboard and system calibration hassles. It is estimated that almost 1 in 5 classrooms will have an interactive whiteboard (IWB) by 2013 (Futuresource, Q4-2009).*

The other choice for interactive teaching would be the Interactive Whiteboard Series and the Short-throw Series, featuring the MX880UST, MX810ST, MW811ST, MX812ST and MX613ST. A global short-throw projector expert, BenQ takes the initiative to respond to the growing trend of short-throw projectors with the MX880UST, the first ultra short-throw DLP® projector in the education market. The MX880UST features a 0.3 ultra short throw ratio, allowing teachers to teach just about anywhere with a 78” full-sized image at a 0.4m projection distance – free of space constraints, eye-blinding lights and shadow disruptions. According to Futuresource, short-throw projectors have demonstrated a steady growth from 6% to nearly 25% in both the U.S. and European education markets (Q2-2010).*

For auditoriums or lecture halls, where large-scale projection picture performance is absolutely crucial, BenQ introduces its Full HD Brightness Series, featuring the ultra-bright 4000-lumen SP840 (3000:1 contrast ratio), 4000-lumen SP890 (50,000 contrast ratio) and 4500-lumen SP891 (3000:1 contrast ratio), to brighten up the learning atmosphere. Built to provide mesmerizing clarity for effective learning, these models bring spellbinding vibrancy onto a 500” projection screen (diagonal) with Full HD 1080p image sophistication, BrilliantColor, VIDI and Hollywood Quality Video image processing.* Students get to enjoy images in full, magnificent detail with Full HD applications in each and every picture presentation – the most engaging learning experience ever.

Ready to impress the school IT managers, BenQ comes fully prepared for any demand – accommodating to projector installation challenges, product longetivity needs, as well as low-cost classroom integration, maintenance and repair concerns with future-minded 1.6x zoom + lens shift projector installation and replacement flexibility, virtually color decay-free DLP® filter-free engine, customizable LAN control design compatible with Crestron, PJ Link or SNMP and PC-less projectability that comes with USB display and remote desktop functions.*
* Specifications and features vary by model

For more information about BenQ's projectors, please visit the product pages: MP780ST - MS612ST - MX613ST - MX660 - MX710 - MX711 - MX760 - MX761 - MX810ST - MX812ST - MX880UST - MW811ST - SP840 - SP890 - SP891.