PET GROOMING, THE INTERACTIVE WAY

The Epson EB-1430Wi interactive projector has liven up pet grooming courses at Animal Arts Academy

WHILE Kingsly Tan continues to improve his skills in professional pet grooming, he also believes in tapping on the latest technology innovations to engage his students during his classes at Animal Arts Academy.

Co-founded in 2006 by Tan, Animal Arts Academy (AAA) began as a salon at Singapore’s VivoCity The Pet Safari. With five outlets across Singapore, AAA delivers professional grooming courses, styling as well as pet daycare services with quality, creativity and passion.

Until recently, pet grooming courses at AAA were conducted using traditional whiteboards, where instructors would make poodle drawings. “We also took photos of dogs and drew on the printed photos to show our students how to groom the dogs. This can be quite time-consuming,” Tan says.

While looking for a projector, Tan came across the Epson EB-1430Wi interactive projector, which he was impressed with during a demo conducted by Arts of Entertainment (AOE), an audio visual specialist.

“We have not tried other brands of interactive projectors before, but the Epson EB-1430Wi interactive projector has made it so much easier for our instructors to do their drawings,” Tan says.

“Plus, the students and instructors no longer need to deal with pen and paper, saving us about 15 to 20 minutes a day. Our lessons are now more fun and engaging, with students and instructors using their fingers and interactive pen for their poodle drawings,” he adds.

Indeed, the EB-1430Wi’s interactive features let users control their presentations using touch gestures to scroll, press and tap, pinch in/out and rotate images. The projector also makes it possible to transform any flat surface such as existing whiteboards and tables into digital whiteboards and interactive spaces without using additional software.

Additionally, the EB-1430Wi’s PCless interactive feature lets two people write simultaneously with two fingers and two interactive pens at the same time, allowing students and instructors at AAA to collaborate on the same screen.

“After our students finish their grooming on a dog, we’ll take a picture of their finished work, put it up on the big screen and show them their mistakes. We can then make changes on the picture by drawing the correct outline for the dog they have just groomed. This has really helped our students understand and correct their mistakes very quickly,” Tan says.

AAA’s instructors also make use of the Epson iProjection app to project photos of dogs from a smartphone onto the screen, before annotating on them.

“The images are then e-mailed to the students right after the class for their reference,” he adds. “Our students have been very impressed by this!”

Just as impressive to Tan and his students is the projector’s sharp and vibrant images of up to 3,300 lumens, eliminating the need to dim the lights, which are necessary during pet grooming classes.

Finally, with its eco-friendly auto-brightness feature that detects how bright the room is and adjusts the projector’s brightness automatically, Tan is assured of power and cost savings down the road.

“The projector’s brightness and colour have been nothing short of impressive. While other projectors don’t project images clearly in a lit room, this was not the case with Epson’s projectors – the images are projected vividly in our brightly-lit classroom,” Tan says.

With limited classroom space, Tan needed a projector with a short throw distance. He welcomes Epson’s EB- 1430Wi ultra-short throw advantage, as his instructors will not have light beams shining on their faces during classes. Shadow interference is also greatly reduced, making classes more enjoyable for his students.

Tan explains: “When standing in front of the projector, we don’t get shadows on the screen due to the projector’s short throw distance. We can also mount the projector closer to the screen, which works very well for us”.

The projector’s ultra-short throw distance also ensures consistent and uniform colours, plus stable performance when using interactive pens. At the same time, there’s no drop in brightness levels – even in interactive mode.

CHALLENGES

Pet grooming instructors at Animal Arts Academy (AAA) were using traditional whiteboards to make poodle drawings. They also drew on printed photos of dogs to show their students how to groom the dogs. This process was time-consuming and incurred printing supplies.

SOLUTION

AAA now uses Epson’s EB-1430Wi interactive projector to project photos of dogs from smart devices, eliminating the use of pen and paper. Lessons are now more fun and engaging, with students and instructors using their fingers and interactive pen for poodle drawings. The projector’s short throw distance means AAA can position the projector closer to the screen, with no shadows.

BENEFITS

Delivers more fun and engaging lessons

Improvements in productivity, saving 15-20 minutes a day

Bright, vibrant images in brightly-lit classroom

Annotates documents without any PC connection to create compelling presentations

Share and project content easily in whiteboard mode through a URL that can be accessed from a PC or smart device