Panasonic - Portland State University

Challenge
High lamp and filter maintenance demands and LCD panel alignment issues with PSU’s classroom projectors were causing classroom downtime.

Solution
Standardize general access classrooms with projectors that require minimal maintenance and offer high Roi.

Result
Panasonic projectors with longer lamp and filter replacement cycles have drastically minimized maintenance and classroom downtime, saving the university time and money.

Portland State University (PSU) is located in the heart of downtown Portland, Oregon. Home to nearly 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students, PSU prides itself on enhancing, “...the intellectual, social, cultural and economic qualities of urban life by providing access throughout the life span to a quality liberal education for undergraduates and an appropriate array of professional and graduate programs...”

PSU views technology as a key to enriching the lives of both students and faculty. The university is always looking to update its classrooms and lecture halls with reliable projectors to enhance the learning experience. After realizing the existing devices were not performing to their desired standards, the Instructional Technology Services department decided to move forward with a projector-refresh initiative. The team noticed an increase in the number of projectors that required replacement lamps after only 1,700 hours of use, needed clean filters after only 100 hours of use and had constant problems with image quality because the LCD panels were not aligned properly. In addition, there was a noticeable increase in classroom downtime as instructors were often troubleshooting projector issues with time that would have more effectively been spent teaching. This ongoing maintenance work forced the PSU Instructional Technology Services team to interrupt class time to replace projector lamps and clean or replace projector filters. When the PSU team would call the projector manufacturer’s customer service department for assistance with panel alignment issues, rather than helping solve the problems, the manufacturer just sent new devices. These replacements would later suffer from similar problems. The team grew increasingly frustrated with the manufacturer and its poor customer service.

With more than 20 years of experience, Doug McCartney used his knowledge to lead the institution’s Instructional Technology Services department and help determine the appropriate technology for a variety of campus environments. McCartney immediately decided to launch a three-year technology refresh program to remove the old general access classroom projectors and replace them with devices better suited to the university. Specifically, he aimed to decrease maintenance time by installing projectors with lens shift functions for freedom of installation on campus, longer lamp life and reliable filters. Along with these performance features, McCartney wanted to standardize the projectors in the general access classrooms in order to reduce the instructors’ technology learning curve. McCartney also looked for a projector manufacturer that was willing to go the extra mile with a responsive and effective customer service operation. Ultimately, McCartney was looking to deploy projectors that would lower maintenance time, increase the university’s return on investment (ROI) and reduce its total cost of ownership (TCO).