ANyone here doing these as a reseller? Where are you buying from. SmartTech seems to be direct only and a 30 day dealer application process. I see other brands.

Is it worth doing the bundled package with PJ mounted directly over the screen?

Thanks for your input!

 Haven't done any, but getting lots of requests for them.

Great product. I have a friend who is a education consultant for the product in Canada.
He has one in his place; so I've got to play around with the product. Kids love them and they are a lot of fun. The software can be a little buggy sometimes.
I would suggest using their mount and projector.
His projector used a longer throw lens mounted away from the board and it created shadows. He acknowledged that his projector wasn't the best for a smart board. I know they put a lot of R&D into projector's for their smart board's.
It's definitely a product on the rise for schools and board rooms.

Smart is a miserable company to deal with. If you are not going to install a ton of these they wont even talk to you. Even if you do become a re-seller you are likely to get a better margin partnering with someone in your area who is a big provider. That is what we do when we have to sell the Smart brand.

Unless people need the smart branded software I usually steer them in another direction. There are better options for much less.

We use the Hitachi smartboards quite often. We are on a job currently where we are installing 8 of them. Very easy to setup and quite effective as a tool for conference rooms or classrooms. Our go-to is the 88TRIO from hitachi with an Epson Powerlite410 projector.

forget it! the 30 day process is nothing compared to the requirements. they will basically laugh in your face if you arent selling 200 at a time.

we just put a Hitachi 88 trio with short throw Hitachi CP-DW10N? and chief shrt throw bracket. worked perfectly. it has been in use every day for a month with no issues. upon connection we did have a little issue with what port it would work on on the PC but, i think that was more the USB bus on the PC.

here is a loink to the project. we designed, engineered, managed, and installed this project as a sub contractor for primary contractor and have not been paid a nickel!!! this is the job i mentioned in another thread. We used another member here for the design and engineering and would not even consider doing another project without his assistance. i will check and see if it is ok to post his name.

[Link: picasaweb.google.com]

That is not good. putting out that much gear without paying a dime is crazy. You had no draw for payment on the whole project?

The install side of my company is getting ready to do a pretty large conference room.. Already wrote the drivers for Control4 to control the polycom and clearone systems the smart board is next.

it is a long story! i did not furnish the equipment, thank god! i am out about $45k of labor and profit sharing.

Here's a few smart i've installed for a dealer in my region.

Some are in scools and some are in corporate offices.

Here is a before install pic of when a board is still place and they need the smart to be installed over it.



and after 30 minutes...



The UX60



UF75




I like the products and kids in scools go crazy when they see you walk in with a board.

Smart really as a complete solution : projector, board, speakers, usb extenders, usb switchers, mic system...

I must admit that a new client of mine has a Panasonic panaboard and I was really impressed with the board but, not with the projector. Panasonic told my client to get a 16:10 board with a 4:3 short throw projector. They told the client to output a 16:10 resolution to the projector so that the image fills the board...

I love the wires hanging down the wall, very clean install. Thanks for sharing.

We do some subcontract work for a couple of commercial AV big boys that do Smart Boards. So far we have put in about 85 of them, and everyone loves them.

I'd find a Smart dealer in your area and try to work with them to get a board when you need one.

Yup...so do I :-S

The budget is so tight in schools that this is what we are told to do and schools are ok with this.

They don't want to pay for an electrician to come by and install a outlet behind the board or even pay for conduit.

Unfortunatly, I must work with what I'm givin...tieraps!

You can see that the UX60 was not a school.

I used to work for one of the biggest SMART dealers in my area and went through the process of setting up a dealer twice. Service definitely went downhill with the explosive growth, but I'd still say they are a good company to work with, have great marketing, excellent tech support, etc. The Kentucky distribution center helped a lot with customs issues. While they had fits and starts into corporate, education and particularly K-12 education is their focus and yes the main focus is district-wide deals, which is just to be expected. My rep had an M. Ed. For example. They have a crew of people with education backgrounds working the big school districts. Margins aren't great, but I don't think I discounted a SB more than maybe once or twice.

They are very protective of their dealer base. They are typically looking for decent volume, but there are also training and staffing requirements. If you do get approved there are geographic and vertical market restrictions. In most areas they aren't taking on any new dealers for k-12 for example, even though that is the core market, but you might have a shot at getting approve for corporate only or gov only or something like that. Thats really the only line I've run into that with other than back when every display manufacturer had Ed. pricing.

They are a public company now, so you can look up the financials, etc. If you are in a lot of k-12 schools, absolutely go for it. If not, it's only really worth it if you are going to make a big commitment to it. They are selling tons in K-12.

They absolutely have the brand recognition, but as touchscreens become more and more ubiquitous, there is a ton of competition out or coming out. Hitachi was mentioned. There is also ibid, ebeam, polyvision (same parent company owns multiple commercial av integrators), Panasonic. Sharp has a relatively inexpensive flat screen based product coming, etc. The biggest competition in my mind is going to come from iPads, especially with ios5 and AirPlay mirroring. A lot of schools are issuing iPads to teachers. For the price of a cheap projector, $100 applets and a $10 app you have a pretty good wireless annotation/teaching solution compared to a $2k smartboard

Yes, a short-throw on wall projector works better with the front projection boards to prevent the shadowing. Doesn't have to be theirs, they oem displays anyways (used to be NEC, not sure who it is now), but that would be the least of my concerns if I was going to try to become a SMART Tech dealer again.

Oh, and jmacdonald, looks like nice work, but Peerless has a bracket for over-the-whiteboard installs that is specifically made for Smart if you run into that again.

very nice tip!