SMART Regional Training Centre Opens in Malaysia

SELANGOR, Malaysia – December 22, 2008 – EP-TEC Solutions Sdn Bhd (EP-TEC), the Malaysian representative and distributor for SMART Technologies Inc (SMART), the leader in the interactive whiteboards (IWB) market, opened a regional training centre for SMART solutions in Kuala Lumpur. This fully-fitted facility offers hands-on training experience to both SMART customers and resellers from the Asia region. It also houses SMART’s latest educational technologies, which plays an integral role in transforming a traditional classroom to a 21st century one, being fully interactive to increase student engagement, participation, interest and retention.


As an organisation that values simplicity and intuitive use, SMART has created interactive solutions such as touching an icon to open a file, or picking up a pen to write notes over any application. The SMART training centre will help educationalists discover features that will simplify the way they teach and work. A survey of SMART customers has indicated that 100 percent of respondents have increased their use of the product through training, while 80 percent of respondents said that training helped them find a way to use the SMART’s IWB more effectively.


“SMART pioneered the IWB in 1991, and this year, 1 million SMART IWBs have been shipped. While the benefits of interactive technologies in classrooms have been lauded by number of studies and educational institutions, Asia still lags in adoption,” said K.N. Loh, Managing Director, EP-TEC. “This training facility will help us clearly demonstrate to educational institutions how SMART interactive solutions can make learning easier, more productive and fun.”


Locally, educational institutions such as Kolej Tuanku Ja’afar (KTJ) and Universiti Malaya have installed SMART’s interactive whiteboards throughout their campuses. Both lecturers and students are very pleased with the results and KTJ’s principal, Walter Jones, noticed a higher academic performance amongst students in the school since the implementation of this technology.

The SMART training centre will showcase, among other solutions:

SMART interactive whiteboards - the touch sensitive display connects to a computer and to a digital projector to showcase computer images. You can then control computer applications directly from the display, write notes in digital ink and save your work to share later.

SMART Document Camera - the SMART Document Camera displays real-time images of any physical object onto a display device for the entire class to see. The document camera is seamlessly integrated with the SMART Notebook, instantly turning objects into interactive content for lessons.

SMART Audio - SMART Audio ensures that students hear every word of a lesson, thus reducing teachers' vocal strain. The classroom amplification system magnifies sound and distributes it evenly throughout the room, so students at the back can hear as well as those sitting in front. The system includes an infrared receiver, a ceiling-mounted infrared sensor, two wireless microphones and four speakers.

Senteo interactive response systems – this system allows teachers to quickly gain insight into learning, track student performance and organize assessment results through wirelessly conducted quizzes that tally and present results instantly, in an automated fashion.