— to enhance smart schools to Guyana

STARR Computer is now an authorised Service Centre for Epson products after the tech giant completed certification training with Epson on its Interactive Projectors, Digital Scanners and Enterprise EcoTank Printers.

The company also recently signed an agreement with Epson.

According to Rafael Vizcaino, the Epson Engineer, the special training adds value to cost of ownership of its Epson product lines to the Guyanese consumer.

STARR has been a Partner of Epson for over a decade, and, according to Mike Mohan, President of STARR, this new accomplishment enhances the Smart Classroom initiative started seven years ago.

Mohan said STARR welcomes the offering by major oil affiliates to support the local educational drive to help Guyanese enhance their technology skills to be better prepared for future employment opportunities that will be available.

Seven years ago, Mohan said, STARR was trained by Samsung to setup ‘smart classrooms’; however, too many challenges existed to deploy this initiative in Guyana.

“Teachers needed to be trained, classroom security needed to be enhanced, available funding was not easily available, and, Guyanese were not ready to adapt to Android Operating System to run its educational application in the classroom.
Thereafter, STARR went on to develop its own Virtualised Smart classroom solution by integrating Lenovo, APC and HP with computing on a Windows platform. Several private schools had subsequently took advantage of this alternative and proceeded to deploy our solution for their classrooms successfully,” Mohan said.

Today, he said, by adding Epson Technologies to the existing lineup, the company can now deploy virtual electronic chalkboard where a digital pen is used to markup contents to an “electronic chalkboard” while interfacing with up to 50 multiple input devices simultaneously across multiple operating platforms.

“Students are known for using multiple devices including desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets while running on Windows, Android, Linux and IOS platform – no problem, we can now integrate. In an environment where the projected screen is too small from one projector due to size of classroom, we can now stitch two projected screens into one large synchronized screen,” Mohan explained.

Noting that Guyana has lots of wooden houses, and paper stockpiling of records and general prints has always been a fire challenge, Mohan said now that legislation was passed to digitise data contents for regulatory compliances, the Epson high-speed digital scanner is fast becoming a storage of choice.

“Its data can now be stored in multiple locations for centuries, easily accessible and can now join the “big data” world. Our Epson EcoTank enterprise printer is not only energy-efficient, but also high-speed output capable of printing 100 pages per minute. And, since this advanced ink technology with laser quality finish comes with separate ink cylinder compartment, it allows user to add liquid Ink colors only as needed. Obviously, this [will] reduce ink supply wastages,” Mohan noted.

In addition to APC, Lenovo, HP and a number other major International IT Brands, STARR COMPUTER is now also the authorised Epson Service Centre and partner in Guyana.

Mohan added that as Guyana’s oil economy grows, and population explosion matures, unfortunately blue and white collar criminals will also be attracted to seek their fortunes.

STARR has already introduced metal detectors and walk-through body scanners to Guyana.

“This will also be something worth paying attention to for the protection of our students. And, finally a major international vendor will be visiting STARR Computer next week to provide us with technical training on the Enterprise Security Software with embedded artificial intelligence to help us support Smart City Surveillance management,” he said.

Mohan continued: “While our smart solution will reach across the small consumer, academical classroom and large enterprise space, STARR Computer is ready to partner with any enterprise that has an interest to deploying sponsorship to the local learning institutions. In the meantime, STARR will continue to provide free seminars to the schools, unemployed, and, low-income citizens on career development, Fourth Industrial Revolution, renewable energy etc.”