I want to be clear upfront: the schools I work with are not making these mistakes out of negligence. They're making them because classroom AV procurement is genuinely confusing, suppliers often make it more confusing, and there's no standard playbook for how to do it well.
These are the patterns I see repeatedly. Writing them down isn't criticism, it's an attempt to be useful to the schools who are about to go through this process.
Buying on spec, not fit
The most common mistake, and the one that causes the most regret. A school sees a panel with 16GB RAM, 4K resolution, and a built-in subwoofer and assumes it must be the best option. But those specs tell you almost nothing about how well the panel will work in your specific classrooms, with your specific teachers, teaching your specific subjects.
I've seen technically impressive panels gather dust because the interface was too complicated for the staff who were supposed to use them. And I've seen mid-range panels completely transform the way a school teaches because they were the right fit and the teachers were properly trained.
Specs are a ceiling. Fit is the floor. You can only use what your teachers will actually pick up and run with.
What to do instead
Before you look at specs, have an honest conversation about your teachers. How confident are they with technology? What do they need to do daily? What's frustrating them right now? The answers to those questions narrow the panel choice faster than any spec sheet.
Not involving teachers in the decision
Classroom technology is bought by principals and BOTs, but it's used by kaiako. When teachers aren't involved in the selection process, they don't feel ownership over it, and that meaningfully affects adoption.
I've seen schools spend significant money on panels that teachers didn't ask for, don't understand, and quietly avoid using. That's not a technology problem. It's a process problem.
The teachers who will use the panels most are your best early input. What are they currently frustrated by? What would genuinely help them teach? What have they seen at other schools that they wish they had? Their answers are more useful than any vendor demo.
What to do instead
Bring your most tech-engaged teachers into the conversation early. Not to design the procurement, that's not their job, but to inform it. Then bring them into the training first, so they become internal champions who help their colleagues.
Treating training as optional
This is the one I feel most strongly about, because I've seen it play out so many times.
A school invests $80,000 in panels across their classrooms. The supplier installs them, does a 45-minute walk-through with the IT coordinator, and leaves. Three months later, the panels are being used as display screens, HDMI in, slide deck up, no different from the old projector.
"The technology doesn't transform teaching. The training does. The technology just makes it possible."
The panels aren't the problem. The training, or the absence of it, is. A well-trained teacher with a mid-range panel will outperform an untrained teacher with a premium one every single time.
Training isn't a nice-to-have that gets cut when the budget gets tight. It's the mechanism by which the investment pays off. If the training budget isn't there, wait until it is.
What to do instead
Budget for at least two training sessions per cohort: one at installation and one three months later. The follow-up session is where real learning happens, teachers come with actual questions from actual use. Also consider who in your staff can become an internal champion and ongoing support resource.
Going with the cheapest quote
I understand why this happens. Schools are under real financial pressure, and the difference between a cheap quote and a proper one can look like $3,000 or $4,000 per room that could go elsewhere.
But the cheap quote is rarely cheap once you add up what it doesn't include. A panel mounted on the wrong wall at the wrong height. Cable management done with surface conduit that looks terrible and gets caught on things. No training. A supplier who's hard to reach when something goes wrong. A warranty claim that takes three months to resolve because the supplier doesn't have local relationships with the manufacturer.
The cheapest quote is usually the most expensive outcome. Not always, but often enough that it's worth scrutinising what you're actually comparing.
What to do instead
Compare what's actually in each quote, not just the total. Is installation included? What does that installation cover? Is training included? What's the warranty claim process? Who do you call when something goes wrong six months later? A supplier who can answer those questions clearly is worth paying more for.
Doing a full rollout before proving the concept
I understand the logic: buying 20 panels at once gets you a better per-unit price than buying two, so why not do it all at once?
Because you learn things from real use that you can't learn from a vendor demo. Which panel works best with your teachers' style. How the mounting height needs to be adjusted for your room layouts. Which training approach lands with your staff. What the actual ongoing support experience is like.
Schools that do a staged rollout, two or three rooms first, proper training, honest review at three months, consistently make better decisions about the rest of the rollout than schools that commit to 20 rooms upfront.
What to do instead
Start with two or three of your most engaged classrooms. Treat it as a real pilot, not just a delay. Set specific goals for what success looks like at three months, then review honestly before deciding how to proceed.
Buying the wrong size for the room
Screen size is not a status symbol. A 75" panel in a room where students sit within three metres of it is fine. An 86" panel in the same room is overkill and harder to see at close range. An 86" panel in a large specialist room or a hall where students are eight metres away might actually be too small.
The right size depends on the room dimensions, the seating layout, and the viewing distance. There's a straightforward calculation for this, and it's one of the first things I work through when visiting a school.
What to do instead
Get someone who knows what they're doing to visit your rooms before you specify panel sizes. Sending a floor plan to a supplier is not the same as having someone stand in the room and measure the viewing distances. The ten minutes this takes will save you buying panels that are wrong for the space.
Assuming it ends at installation
The day the panel goes on the wall is not the end of the project. It's the beginning. The technology needs to be used, updated, maintained, and periodically revisited as your school's needs evolve.
The best AV setups I see in NZ schools aren't the ones with the most expensive hardware. They're the ones with a principal who cares about whether the panels are being used well, a staff member who acts as the internal champion, and a supplier relationship that's still active two years after installation.
Technology investment without ongoing support is just expensive furniture.
What to do instead
Choose a supplier who you expect to still be talking to in two years. Ask specifically about their post-installation support model. And build internal capability, identify a staff member who will own the technology and support their colleagues.
None of these mistakes are inevitable. They're predictable, which means they're avoidable. If you're planning an AV procurement in the next year, the resources section has more detail on which panels to consider, what things actually cost, and whether an upgrade is even the right call.
Or if you'd rather just have a straight conversation about your specific situation, get in touch.
