Smartboards for schools in Trinidad

One Grade at a Time: How Dunross Planned Its Move to Smart Classrooms

A phased smartboard rollout at Dunross Preparatory School shows what happens when a school plans technology as a system, and why a warranty is only as good as the integrator standing behind it on the day something fails.

In 1955, a group of parents founded a small school on Long Circular Road. Seventy years later, Dunross Preparatory School in Westmoorings is still run as a co-operative, built and sustained by its community, under the motto “Learning for life.” That long-term thinking runs through everything the school does, including how it approached classroom technology.

We began working with Dunross in 2013, installing NEC projectors, manual drop-down screens and classroom audio. Those systems did their job well, and many of the projectors passed the ten-year mark. When it came time to start replacing them, the conversation changed. The cost of interactive smartboards had come down, and we saw a chance to move the school forward rather than simply swap old projectors for new ones.

The Opportunity

Projectors had served Dunross well, but they carry ongoing costs: lamps, filters, alignment and brightness that fades over time. Even today’s laser projectors still battle for brightness in a sunlit Caribbean classroom. Interactive flat panels solve that, and they change how a teacher can teach.

The school first considered 65″ screens. After we reviewed viewing distances in the classrooms, the decision moved to 75″, so that students at the back of the room see as clearly as those at the front.

The Solution

We installed the i3CONNECT Elm 2 interactive display. As a factory-direct i3 partner, Streamline facilitates an 8-year factory warranty on every unit. The rollout was planned in phases:

• August 2025: six 75″ units covering two grades, the IT room and the Science room
• 2026: six more units covering another two grades
• 2027 (planned): a final six units, putting a smartboard in every classroom

Each installation includes:

• Wall-mounted 75″ i3CONNECT Elm 2 displays
• Furman power regulation at every screen
• i3 Cortex remote management for the school’s admin and IT staff, with Streamline also able to monitor
• Wireless sharing from teachers’ tablets
• Dedicated VLANs for the i3 boards and teachers, kept separate from office staff

Streamline also handles the networking and security systems at Dunross, so we could design the smartboards into the school’s network from the start rather than bolting them on. We asked the school to provide power. We did everything else.

The boards have excellent built-in audio, so the old projectors, screens and speaker systems came out. The rooms are cleaner and less cluttered, and the old equipment was donated to a nearby school, where it is still in use.

With proper planning, all six screens in the first phase were installed in a single day.

How the Classrooms Changed

Teachers log in with their own credentials and have immediate access to their files, including Google Docs. They are no longer tied to the front of the room: they can walk around, check in with students and control the screen from a tablet as they go. When a lesson ends, they can export it and save it or email it to students.

The students describe it as a “75-inch iPad.”

The school sees the difference too: “The screen quality cannot be compared to a projector. The speed and accessibility is more suited to the world we are moving towards giving our kids a boost for their future.”

Handover and training were done in one or two group sessions. Because we are in the school often, we keep checking in with teachers to see how they are getting on. I often tell them that by now they have more experience with the screens than I do.

For administration, i3 Cortex has become one of the most valued parts of the system. Firmware updates, scheduling, broadcasting messages to teachers and switching every screen off at the end of the day are all done over the network. If a problem comes up during a lesson, IT can log in online and fix it without walking to the classroom.

We also loaned the school a few i3 CAIR sensors, which monitor classroom air quality through the displays.

In the School’s Words

Screens in classrooms are a fair topic for debate, and Dunross has thought about it carefully. In the school’s own words:

On the rollout itself, the school wrote: “The process of bringing in our screens has been seamless with the Streamline team supporting us and making sure our systems are working smoothly in order to make our teachers’ lives a little easier.”

That is exactly how we see our role. The technology should support good teaching, never get in its way.

When Something Breaks

Within days of installation, a motherboard failed in one of the units. We had a demo screen in our office, so we loaned it to the school straight away. The classroom kept its board for the two weeks it took to ship in the replacement part. The part was fitted under full warranty and it cost the school nothing.

A warranty on paper is one thing. A warranty that works depends on an integrator who can diagnose quickly, source parts from the factory and keep the classroom running in the meantime.

Why the Phased Approach Works

Rolling out grade by grade makes the budget achievable, and it gives teachers and students time to get used to the technology.

We made one decision on purpose: no new screens in the final-year classrooms. Students preparing for their Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) should not be learning new technology at the same time. Instead, each year group moves up through the school with the smartboards.

When the final phase is complete in 2027, the first units will still have about six years left on their warranty. For a school, that means predictable costs and easy financial planning.

The Bigger Picture in Our Schools

Many schools in Trinidad and across the Caribbean still rely on older lamp projectors, and with budgets always squeezed, many of those lamps are overdue for replacement. Many schools have no projectors at all.

Choosing a lower-cost option is understandable. But a smartboard is not just a screen. It depends on everything around it: clean power, a properly designed network, trained teachers and support from people who can actually fix it when something goes wrong. At Streamline we think about the whole chain, and we have worked hard to bring the cost of these screens down so more schools can get there.

What to Ask Before You Buy Smartboards

1       How long is the warranty, and who handles repairs locally?

A one-year warranty and an eight-year warranty are very different investments. Find out who actually carries out the repair.

2      Is a loaner available if a unit fails?

A classroom should not lose its board for weeks while a part is shipped in.

3      Are you direct with the factory?

A factory-direct relationship affects how quickly parts and support reach you.

4      How will the boards sit on our network?

Ask about VLANs and keeping classroom devices separate from office systems.

5      What power protection is included?

Proper power regulation protects an investment that should last many years.

6      What training and remote management come with it?

Teachers need confidence with the boards, and IT needs to support them without walking from room to room.

7       Do your staff do AV full time?

Integration is a profession, not a side job.

See the i3 ELM2 in action here

Let’s Talk

To principals and school boards: call us and let’s talk about how we can help. It doesn’t have to be a whole school. Even one board in the Science room can make a difference. This technology excites children, and sometimes it gets parents involved in raising money for more.