What We’re Bringing to EDUTech 26: Chameleon Whiteboards
Part of the Envoy EDUTech 26 Series
When schools talk about learning environment investment, the conversation usually gravitates toward screens, interactive displays, and connectivity. The whiteboard rarely gets the same attention. Yet visit any active classroom and it’s still the first thing a teacher reaches for. It is the centrepiece of instruction for most of the school day.
Ahead of EDUTech Australia 2026, we’re showcasing a focused selection from the Chameleon education range, along with something new that’s genuinely worth seeing in person: the SatinTones colour collection. Here’s what you can expect to find at our stand.
The Problem with Most Whiteboards
Walk into a school that’s been running for more than five years and you’ll likely see the same thing: whiteboards with a grey haze that won’t come off no matter how hard you clean them. That’s ghosting, and it’s the inevitable result of a melamine surface that absorbs marker ink over time.
It’s not just an aesthetic issue. A ghosted board is harder to read, particularly for students at the back of the room or those with visual processing differences. Schools end up replacing boards that could still structurally hold up, purely because the writing surface has degraded.
Chameleon’s answer is ceramic steel. Their writing surfaces are made from steel with a porcelain enamel coating, a material that doesn’t absorb ink at all. After years of daily use, the writing quality stays consistent. Markers wipe off cleanly, and the surface stays bright.
What We’re Showing at EDUTech 26
We’ve selected three products from the Chameleon education range that represent the core of what most schools are looking for, from a fixed classroom board through to flexible mobile solutions.
Sharp is Chameleon’s flagship whiteboard for education: a clean, magnetic ceramic steel surface with a frameless design that works in any secondary or tertiary setting. The frameless approach keeps the focus on the writing surface itself, and the magnetic functionality means teachers can attach reference materials, worksheets, and student work directly to the board without adhesives or pins. It’s the kind of practical detail that adds up over the course of a school year.
Curve takes the same ceramic steel surface and wraps it in rounded corners with a softer matte finish. It’s a subtle design choice, but one that makes a genuine difference in primary classrooms and learning support spaces where the feel of the environment matters as much as the function. The Curve is also magnetic, with the same ghost-free writing performance as the Sharp.
The Mobile whiteboard brings Chameleon’s ceramic steel quality to a format that can be repositioned anywhere in the room. For schools running group work, breakout activities, or flexible learning sessions, a high-quality mobile board changes how the room functions. Unlike cheaper mobile alternatives, the Chameleon mobile board holds its writing quality and magnetic function just as well as the wall-mounted options.
”"Chameleon boards are frameless, quality products with a lifetime warranty. The low-glare SatinTones finish and the range of colour choices can genuinely brighten up a classroom, and because the boards are waterjet cut, we can customise them to any size including cutouts for switches and sockets."
Sophie McNuttSolutions Consultant, Envoy Furniture Pty Ltd
Something New: SatinTones
Alongside the boards themselves, we’ll have physical samples of the full SatinTones colour range, and this is worth coming to see.
SatinTones is Chameleon’s coloured ceramic steel surface, available across the Sharp and Curve board ranges. Rather than the standard white writing surface, SatinTones boards come in a range of muted, considered tones with a matte finish that integrates into a classroom interior rather than simply sitting on the wall.
The matte surface is also practically significant. Unlike gloss surfaces, it diffuses light rather than reflecting it, which reduces glare and improves readability across different lighting conditions. In classrooms with strong natural light or overhead fluorescents, this matters more than it might initially seem.
Because the colour is fired into the ceramic steel enamel coating, it’s colourfast and doesn’t fade or chip over time. The writing and magnetic performance is identical to the standard white surface. You get a board that looks considered and intentional without any trade-off in function.
The samples we’ll have at EDUTech 26 let you see and feel the actual surface finishes. Colour and finish choices are genuinely hard to evaluate from a screen, so we’d encourage anyone specifying boards for a new build or refurbishment to come and handle the samples in person.
A Word on Longevity
School purchasing decisions are long-term ones. A whiteboard that costs more upfront but lasts twenty years without surface degradation is a fundamentally different investment to one that needs replacing after five. Ceramic steel has a well-established track record in commercial and institutional settings for exactly this reason.
For facilities managers and school business managers working through lifecycle cost analysis, this distinction is worth examining closely. The surface that performs in year one and year fifteen is the one that doesn’t generate a replacement project in the middle of a tight budget year.
Come and See Us at EDUTech 26
We’ll have the Sharp, Curve, and Mobile boards on display at our stand, along with the full SatinTones sample collection. The best way to evaluate a writing surface is to write on it, and the best way to evaluate a colour finish is to hold it. Come and do both.
Our team will be on hand to talk through sizing, specification, and installation for your school or institution.
This article is part of Envoy’s EDUTech 26 series. We’ll be publishing further pieces on classroom furniture and learning environment design in the lead-up to the event.
Envoy is an authorised Australian distributor of Chameleon writing surfaces. For enquiries ahead of EDUTech 26, contact our team.
