It’s a diverse industry, but who would have guessed that AV Technology would take over school water fountains?

Hundreds of schools in the Netherlands have introduced TENQ water coolers with built-in 19-inch LCD screens powered by Scala software. The multimedia-enabled water coolers play educational programming, controlled advertising, and user-generated content that students may submit via www.tenq.tv.

School-specific web portals allow administrators to input information for video and audio display, and power the screens on or off.

Local water companies install and maintain the coolers of TENQ water, which schools can elect to fund for all students, or charge students for each serving of water.

TENQY, the version tailored to primary school students, is in the works.