PolyVision heats up the whiteboard competition

First calibration-free interactive whiteboard unveiled in attempt to catch the market leaders

Manufacturer PolyVision is upping the ante in the interactive whiteboard space with the launch of the first calibration-free board.

Duncan Peberdy, PolyVision’s business development manager, said: “The current method of interactive whiteboard calibration requires the user to walk up to the board and touch between four and sixteen points of a projected image, which is time consuming and tedious,”

PolyVision claimed its lightning interactive whiteboards, available in the UK from October, completely eliminate the need for manual calibration.

“In a market where the two dominant players – Smart Technologies and Promethean – have a 10-year head start on us, we have to deliver something special in order to make any impact,” Peberdy said.

PolyVision launched a partner programme in June, having previously relied on its distributors to support the channel. “The challenge for 2005 was to recruit resellers across the UK. We now have over 30 resellers signed up but are open to more,” Peberdy said.

The vendor redesigned its Walk-and-Talk range of interactive products last year to enable them to be used with existing software.

Colin Messenger, senior consultant at Decision Tree Consulting, said: “Calibration can be a problem. If someone knocks a whiteboard then it goes offline and has to be set up again, or ‘recalibrated’. None of the other manufacturers offer a calibration-free product. In the UK, PolyVision is very small. Smart and Promethean have about 80 per cent of the market between them.”

Nancy Knowlton, chief executive of Smart, said: “While the concept of calibration-free might imply simplified use, it does not mean that at all. Installers look after the set-up of the whiteboard. Calibration might also be required if a new computer is dedicated to the board. At most, completing the calibration routine takes about five seconds.”