Fitting out a classroom: the spec sheet we use for New Zealand schools

Most classroom fit-outs go wrong in the same place: someone chooses the panel first and measures the room second. Do it the other way round and the rest of the decisions make themselves. Here is the sequence we walk through with schools.

1. Measure from the back row, not the front

The number that matters is how far the furthest student sits from the front wall. A standard New Zealand classroom runs six to nine metres deep, and that range spans two panel sizes.

• Six to seven metres: the 75 inch ZM. Comfortable to read from the back for a class of 25 to 30.
• Eight to nine metres: the 86 inch ZM. Nearly two metres of canvas, and the one most schools we work with land on.
• Breakout spaces and small group rooms: the 65 inch ZM does the same job at a lower price for rooms up to about five metres.

If you are between sizes, go bigger. Nobody has ever complained that the back row could read the screen too easily.

2. Decide whether the panel moves

A wall mount is included with every panel and is the tidiest option when the panel lives in one room. Choose a floor stand when the panel needs to travel: a shared space, a hall, or a school trialling one panel across several rooms before committing to a block fit-out. The stands run on wheels, carry an accessories tray and fit through a standard doorway.

3. Work out if you actually need a PC

The ZM panels run on their own. Whiteboarding, a browser and wireless casting are built in, so a teacher can walk in and start without a laptop. That covers most primary and intermediate classrooms.

Add a computer when the school has a standard Windows image it wants on every screen, or when the room runs software that only lives on Windows. Two ways to do it:

• An OPS module slides into a slot on the back of the panel and powers on with it. Nothing on the wall, one remote, one power cable. This is the tidier answer for a permanent install.
• A mini PC mounted behind the panel. Better if you want to move the computer between rooms later, or if the school already has a fleet of them.

4. Check how students will get their work onto the screen

Casting from an iPad, Chromebook, Windows laptop or Mac works out of the box without a dongle. For guests or relief teachers who will not have the app set up, the screen-share dongle plugs into their laptop and a single button press puts them on the panel.

5. Order the spare pens now

Every panel ships with two styluses. Infrared touch also works with a finger, so a lost pen never stops a lesson, but the pens do wander. A couple of spares in the order saves a separate courier later.

6. Put it on a purchase order

Schools can buy on a PO with 20th-of-month terms; no card is needed. Build the room on the product page, print the quote, and email the PO to us quoting the reference on it. Panel, stand and PC ordered together save 15%, and freight is a flat rate per item, capped, so a block of classrooms is not penalised for ordering at once.

Not sure which size? Send us the room depth and the roll and we will tell you the panel.