Education AV Systems Price Guide
Schools and educational organisations are often most in need of upgrading their audio-visual facilities, due to the ssheer amount of use that equipment gets.
It is important that schools can budget for larger expenditures, such as a new audio-visual system in their school hall, classrooms, or even portable equipment for sports days and other outdoor events.
As with all our projects, we treat each space as unique and therefore we cannot give accurate pricing indications for projects without discussing the requirements with the teaching staff their requirements and visiting the space to get a feel for the equipment which will be most appropriate.
We realise that budgets are often tight and we may have to discuss how a larger project can be completed in phases, or a more cost-effective product range may need to be selected without sacrificing functionality. It may be that we cannot compete on price with larger companies who have greater buying power than us due to ordering huge quantities of interactive screens at the same time, for example. But we believe that our service and attention to detail make us a standout choice when thinking about a new audio-visual system for your school.
It is important to note a few things that need to be considered before submitting an enquiry with us, as these questions will have a direct impact on how much the project will cost.
Interactive screen vs overhead projector?
In years gone by, before screens became brighter and higher-definition, this would have been an easy choice, with overhead projectors the overwhelming favourite since the turn of the century. However, interactive screens are now far more cost-effective and in many cases can offer enhanced functionality compared to a traditional projector. Furthermore, projectors have a limited lifespan, but many professional displays are designed to be used 18 or 24 hours a day.
Will there be any particular challenges during install?
If the equipment is for a school hall or sports hall, are there going to be any particular challenges to installing the equipment? Things such as climbing frames, high ceilings, basketball hoops or other sports equipment can all add a layer of complexity to the design and solution for these spaces. If we have to mount equipment in security cages to protect them from wayward dodgeballs, this will add more cost (but is important for the longevity of the system!).
Who will be using the equipment most?
We design systems with each user in mind, so understanding who will be using the system most and how they want to interact with it is crucial to a successful installation.
Specific Pricing:
Sound
Generally sound systems are focused on larger spaces, such as a gym or a school hall where assemblies and drama performances take place. Sound systems in these spaces depend on the size and how the room is used which informs the size of loudspeakers and the number of wireless microphones, but a figure of between £6,000 to £9,000 should be budgeted for.
Projection Systems
Projection systems in education environments vary drastically between school projects, as there are so many factors which can affect the requirements and therefore the cost involved with the installation. In a large school hall, a full projection system with a laser projector and long-throw lens, a 3m wide projection screen and a video distribution system to connect to HDMI input plates around the hall will come in at between £7,000 and £10,000.
Visual Systems
For classroom visual systems, this is very dependent on the size of the display required. Typically, a 75” display mounted at the front of the room will be more than adequate for most average classrooms with 25-30 students. For an interactive screen of this size, with a single HDMI input from the teacher’s desk at the front, the cost including installation will be around £2,000 to £4,000.
Lots of church buildings have wonderful acoustics for choirs and concerts, but this becomes unhelpful when trying to understand speech. Even with the aid of sound systems, if the church has a large amount of echo, loudspeakers may actually exacerbate rather than resolve the problem. Therefore, some buildings will need to be treated with acoustic panels to lower the reverberation time (the time it takes for a sound to dissipate to an inaudible level) which will then make it much easier to hear speech.
The great thing about acoustic treatment is that there is a huge range of shapes, sizes and colours of acoustic panels, which allows us to choose a style that is going to perform the role of bringing down the amount of echo, but which will also not impact the aesthetics of the church.
A typical acoustic panel installation will cost between £4,000 and £7,000, depending on the size of the space and the amount of reverberation. However, for full acoustic treatment of a large church with a high amount of echo, you are looking more towards the £15,000 price point.
Due to an ageing population, an increasing number of people are wearing hearing aids to compensate for hearing loss. The level of hearing loss with people wearing aids varies, but even slight hearing loss at key frequencies can cause individuals to have difficulty understanding in busy environments.
Induction loops are effective in churches because they allow the hearing aid wearers to have a direct feed from the sound system, eliminating the other noise happening around them. We have an article which explains hearing loops in more details, including the laws and regulations surrounding them, which you can visit here.
The simplest way of providing an induction loop in a church space is to run a cable around the perimeter of the nave, encompassing the congregation area. An amplifier sends a current around this cable which creates a magnetic field inside the cable loop, which can be picked up by the coil inside a hearing aid.
Usually, installing an induction loop system is quite quick providing that the cable route is not littered with too many obstacles. Therefore, the cost of a hearing loop installation would be between £2,000 and £4,000 if done as a separate project. However, hearing loop systems need to be connected to a wider sound system to function, so are generally installed at the same time, which will allow the cost to be closer to the bottom of this price bracket.
tailored for each individual project
Testimonials
Tailored for each individual project.