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In response to COVID-19, Chile began implementing various measures designed to slow the spread of the disease, such as enforcing social distancing, placing residents under quarantine, and closing schools, shops, and restaurants. While Sanhueza had always conducted his one-on-one private classes in person, Chile’s new restrictions forced him to adapt. As teaching was a fundamental part of his economic livelihood, stopping lessons was not an option. In March of 2020, Sanhueza decided to reinvent his teaching process through online classes.

While Sanhueza was aware of ViewSonic® interactive displays and myViewBoard™ software, he had never considered working with these tools before COVID-19. But since Sanhueza needed products that would enable him to teach his online classes just as effectively as he did in his in-person classes, he decided to invest in ViewSonic products.

On March 15th 2020, Sanhueza purchased a 65-inch ViewSonic ViewBoard® IFP7550 interactive display with 4K Ultra HD resolution and a 20-point immersive touchscreen, to be used in conjunction with Zoom Pro and ViewSonic's myViewBoard™ educational software, in order to teach remotely.

For Sanhueza, acquiring the interactive display was one of the best investments he could have made. Before the pandemic, Sanhueza would spend hours traveling to reach his students. But with virtual classes, he is able to reach them instantly. Now, rather than wasting hours in traffic, Sanhueza is able to spend more time with his family in Peñalolén.

Thanks to the ViewBoard IFP6550 interactive display and myViewBoard software, the quality of his classes has also changed dramatically.

“In my face-to-face classes, the kids interrupted the class to go to the bathroom and look for food. They were not motivated and did everything to avoid the lessons. Instead, with remote classes, since these kids are digital natives, they feel they are in a friendly environment and get excited with all the myViewBoard tools. The interactivity makes them constantly attentive; they do not ask for permission to go to the bathroom or become unmotivated. Students who had two hours of classes started asking me for four, those who had one hour a week asked for two.” says Sanhueza.

The interactivity provided by both the interactive display and myViewBoard software excited students so much that many requested for classes to be continued over the winter holidays (something that had never happened to Sanhueza in his 15-year career as a teacher).

With myViewBoard, Sanhueza can send students and parents QR codes that link to all the work done during a study session, so that students can review their work, and parents can see exactly what is being taught to their children.

Sanhueza believes that once the pandemic is over, at least 80% of his classes will remain remote. One of the main reasons for sticking to remote classes is that the IFP6550 interactive display and myViewBoard enable him to both capture the attention of his students, and easily adapt to their learning style – whether it be audio, kinesthetic, or visual.

“Students have different ways of learning, some do it with the help of sounds, others through touch, or visually. The face-to-face classes are rather explanatory, but the virtual one is more experiential, where I am the intermediary between knowledge and the student, it is a constructive class in which we work together,” explains Sanhueza.

However, not all students liked the idea of having virtual private lessons at first. "There was a young student who wanted face-to-face classes, because supposedly he wasn't going to hook up with the virtual ones and I said, "let's try it.” “We did it and now he is fascinated, he has two classes a week,” says Sanhueza.

For Sanhueza, feedback from his private virtual classes has been so positive that he is now using both the IFP6550 interactive display and myViewBoard for his classes at the Gauss School. Administrators, noticing the substantial improvement among Sanhueza’s students, decided to acquire two more ViewSonic interactive displays for its classes.

“I was quite happy, I was a pioneer in the pre-college school, they congratulated me for my classes. They told me that the best pre-college school classes are the ones I teach using the interactive display. I went from having eight students in my class to having 12 the following week, because the kids spread the word that they were having spectacular classes with me,” says Sanhueza.

Deloitte (Uruguay) wanted to modernize its conference, training, and meeting rooms.

They were looking for a modern solution to replace the aging projector in their boardroom as well as a way to upgrade their training rooms in order to provide their employees with a more comprehensive training experience. Deloitte Uruguay also wanted to create an innovation center for employees to work, interact, and test the latest technology.

Representatives at Soluciones en Sistemas de Información (SSI Ltda.), a firm
that specializes in technology and communication, presented Deloitte Uruguay
with ViewSonic interactive displays.

Since their projectors displayed images poorly, Deloitte Uruguay wanted their new screens to be high resolution. These screens also had to be bright enough to be visible in a dark room.

While Deloitte Uruguay’s old projectors were not interactive, having interactivity in the new interactive displays quickly became an essential part of their company.

“We managed to achieve something we didn’t have before - interactivity with presentations - where the presenter can work on his or her presentation in a very easy way. And collaboration, so that participants can also interact with each other”, highlighted Rafael Charquero, IT Deloitte Uruguay.

Deloitte purchased four ViewSonic IFP50 ViewBoard® interactive displays including two 75-inch displays, one 65-inch display, and one 55-inch display as well as two display stands (VB-STND-001).

Each display came with 4K Ultra-HD resolution and a 20-point immersive touchscreen. The equipment was divided as follows: one IFP7550 was installed in the boardroom, the other IFP7550 was installed in the training room, one IFP6550 was installed in the conference room, while the IFP5550 was installed in the co-working space.

Deloitte Uruguay executives and employees were thrilled with the interactive displays as it allowed them to transition from using outdated projectors with poor resolution to state-of-the-art interactive displays that fostered teamwork.

“We were looking for new tools that allow us to innovate our way of working, to make it dynamic, more productive and efficient. We have very different users within the company, and with this ViewSonic solution we are able to satisfy the needs of everyone, from board members to younger users such as users of the training rooms or co-working [spaces]”, highlighted Rafael Charquero.

As for the installation itself, there were no setbacks and the company leaders were satisfied with the training provided by the equipment vendor on how to use the screens.

Deloitte plans to continue modernizing its company and incorporate more IFP units in the following months, both in Uruguay and other countries on the continent.

Emergency alert systems (EAS) are a critical priority for higher education
campuses, as mandated by the Federal Clery Act. The University of Houston
Downtown Campus had an aging EAS. Deployed in 2011, it never quite met
the school’s objectives.

“At the time we couldn’t find a digital signage system to do what we wanted,” said Steven Cachia, Assistant Director of Information Technology. “So we went with an Android system that ended up presenting some serious challenges.”

In addition to requiring the IT team to modify the tablets, develop their own app
and custom-build a power-up method, the system was high maintenance and not
very reliable.

“Several years back we decided to get serious about making an improvement,” said Cachia. “We began looking for a system that would deliver fast, dependable alerts.”

Additional asks included easy, out-of-the-box deployment and reliable power.

UHD set out to assess the market. Cachia’s team found his options limited.
“There aren’t many providers in this space who could deliver everything we were looking for,” said Cachia. “In addition to the functional specs, we were looking for a reliable product from a reliable brand – a company that would be there for us down the road.”

ViewSonic, the team discovered, had an ideal product to meet their needs:
the ViewSonic EP1042T 10.1” all-in-one interactive digital ePoster. The company’s
30-plus years in the industry and solid brand reputation clearly checked off
the ‘here for the long haul’ box.

“The ViewSonic EP1042T monitors have an integrated media player that enabled
us to lock it down to prevent tampering,” said Cachia. “And with the power over
ethernet, setup was truly out-of-the-box.”

What’s more, he said, it offered exactly what they were looking for at a good
price point for their budget. Cachia’s team evaluated the displays, which worked
seamlessly with their interactive software provider, Four Winds Interactive.
The decision was clear and Cachia invested in 250 units.

In addition to the easy Power over Ethernet installation, everything about the ViewSonic EP1042T 10-inch monitors made delivering and managing the system simple, Cachia said.

“We’re very happy with the ViewSonic EAS solution,” said Cachia. “It’s very dependable. It works well with our software. It receives signals promptly, and we’ve had zero losses. They’re workhorses.” Basically, he added, UHD’s new alert system has been an “install and forget” application for the IT team. Thankfully, the system hasn’t seen much real-time use. When activated in response to what turned out to be minor incidents, the EAS performed admirably, distributing warnings to impacted classrooms/floors. Regular testing confirms the ongoing health of this critical system, which is monitored and managed by the local police department and campus public relations.

Everything related to the EAS project went so smoothly that UHD turned to ViewSonic for its next digital signage installation, Cachia said. “For years,
the university had been showcasing awards in a high-traffic hallway using large
print posters. It was time for an upgrade. We also felt the need to assess a new
digital signage provider and wanted to see how the back-end part of the puzzle
would work with the front-end portion similar to the EP1042T units.”

“The team in charge of the project asked us to find a digital alternative that would be more efficient,” said Cachia. How would a cloud-based signage provider work with the already proven ViewSonic core technology on a larger display concept?

Once again, ViewSonic had just what they were looking for with the ViewSonic
EP5540T. The 55-inch EP series display even came with the same integrated mediaplayer. Cachia’s team tested the ViewSonic EP5540T displays with cloud software from Zignage and worked with both companies to develop their ideal solution.

“They work very well together and we were able to do exactly what we wanted to
accomplish,” said Cachia. “The finishing touch was the addition of Chief Mfg frames to deliver a dressed-up look to the digital award wall.”

Several months post-deployment the award wall is still performing beautifully. In fact, the university has been so pleased with the performance that it has once again expanded its use of ViewSonic products, this time to classroom teaching,

“We replaced our old Smartboards with nine ViewSonic ViewBoard IFP7750-E1 displays and VPC15-WP-4 slot-in PCs. They look better and are performing well,” said Cachia. “Importantly, the choice of sizes is terrific. When we spec technology, we like to be consistent. If we deploy lots of different brands my staff and the instructors get annoyed – they have to train on and learn different systems.”

With ViewSonic as a partner, Cachia said, he has the ability to choose from a wide array of size options to meet the needs of different room sizes. “Because ViewSonic has such a great array of products in their portfolio, it makes it very easy to work with them,” he said. “And their reps are also great to work with. If we need to talk with someone it’s easy to get the answers you need.”

Across all three project deployments – from the emergency alert system and award wall to the classroom interactive displays – stakeholders have been very happy with the results, Cachia said.

“We haven’t had any issues. It’s all good and I look forward to continuing to work with ViewSonic as a panel provider. By no means is this it. We have a lot more panels to buy.”