Epson BrightLink Pro Paves the Way for Smarter Whiteboards

Your dry erase pen’s days may be numbered, warns Epson.

The company announced today a new projector system called the BrightLink Pro 1410Wi that transforms whiteboards into connected and collaborative tools that encourage information sharing and promote increased productivity.

Projector as Small Business Collaboration Tool

The BrightLink Pro 1410Wi is a standalone (no PC required), ultra-short throw meeting room projector that you can either perch atop a whiteboard using the included mounting hardware or situate on a stand to project an image on a blank wall. However you set it up, BrightLink Pro does more than paint slides and meeting notes onto a surface — although it is certainly adept at generating vivid visuals when called upon.

Unlike traditional whiteboards, BrightLink Pro makes it possible to “combine all your analog notes and your digital notes,” said Sean Gunduz, product manager of Epson America’s Corporate Projectors division.

According to Epson’s internal research, meeting notes that take too long to write up and circulate is one of the top technology issues hanging over most workplace meetings today. The time it takes to get people together for face-to-face meetings is a close second.

With BrightLink Pro, meeting participants no longer need to snap pictures on their smartphones to capture notes and impromptu annotations. BrightLink Pro and its included digital pens let users can capture, save and share their scribbles.

BrightLink Pro can save pages as a single PDF file or as multiple PNG files. You can store presentations onto a USB or shoot files to a network drive (via built-in Wi-Fi and Ethernet). Alternately, you can print them or email them to other attendees.

You can link up to four BrightLink Pros on the same network (including VPN) to collaborate on presentations, provided that one PC plays the role of moderator. The BrightLink Pro can also double as an interactive PC display. “The pen becomes a wireless mouse,” said Gunduz.

Taken altogether, these capabilities not only make more productive meetings possible, they help ensure that team members are always on the same page, said Gunduz. There’s no room for misinterpretations — or even lost notes — when a copy of an annotated presentation is delivered to the inbox of each and every participant.

BrightLink Pro Projector Demo

Epson’s 3LCD technology and bright lamps, which generate 3,100 lumens of color brightness and white brightness, combine to produce a clear, punchy image that stood out even in the daylight-filled conference room that Epson used to demonstrate the product to this writer.

BrightLink Pro 1410Wi displays images in WXGA widescreen resolution (1280×768) and up to 100 (diagonal) inches. And its ultra-short throw design, which places the projection elements in close proximity to the display surface, keeps distracting shadows to a minimum.

The projector includes a separate Control Pad that acts like a remote control unit, for functions like source selection, capture, print and save. It also features USB ports that let you load or save presentations directly from a flash drive.

In a nod to the popularity of iPads and Android mobile devices in the workplace, BrightLink Pro works with the company’s iProjection app. Available for iOS and Android, the app lets you wirelessly project files and Web pages and add annotations on the fly.

Epson BrightLink 1410Wi ships in April. Prices start at $2,999 or $2,499 for education customers. All-in-one packages that include a whiteboard from Chief Milestone AV start at $4,199.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at Internetnews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.

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