How do I brief my AV supplier?
Communication – ensure the AV company understands your meeting objectives and brief them so that can obtain a quote to suit your needs and budget.
It helps if you have a check list you follow for every event:
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Dates & Venue including access times & contacts for the Event Technician(s).
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Timing for the event including rehearsals
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Audience profile including layout of the room
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The event history including aspects which worked or need improving from your last event
Technical requirements:
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Audio – speakers, microphones etc
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Lighting
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Vision – projectors, screens etc.
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Stage
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Budget – give a range if available. Audio visual equipment varies greatly in price. Setting a budget helps us understand what you need and enables us to quote accordingly.
What sort of a data projector do I need?
When selecting a data projector the main points you need to consider are:
Room brightness – windows, is the light controllable?
Audience Size and maximum distance from the screen.
The brightness of a projector is measured in ANSI lumens. A 3000 ANSI lumens projector is brighter than 2000 ANSI lumens. If the room your presentation is to be held has a lot of natural light you may need to consider the brighter 3000 lumens projector or maybe even higher.
If the audience size is around 50+ you also may need the brighter projector so those at the back of the room see a clear image on the screen.
How do I connect a data projector to a laptop?
1. Before switching on any equipment connect the data projector to the laptop using a VGA (data) cable. There are sometimes two inputs, it doesn’t matter which you chose as long as you remember which one in case you need to change settings later. You can use ‘zoom’ and ‘focus’ to adjust the sharpness and picture size, this is either done on the projector or using the remote. You could also add in about saving an exisiting presentation first as it is quite likely that the client may have an exisiting presentation to change to widescreen.
2. Connect the mains (electricity) lead up to the Data Projector and switch on. It can take 30 seconds for the lamp to warm up. The connect the laptop and switch on. Allow the laptop to boot up before changing any settings on the data projector.
If your image is not immediately displayed then check you are switched to the correct input. Which input did you plug the VGA cable into? There will be a button on the projector labelled input, computer or similar. When this is pushed it will cycle through the inputs each time it is pushed until it matches the input port you are connected to. You also may need to alter the display output on the laptop using a keyboard function button (fn) so you are then displaying on both the projector screen and the laptop.
How do I get the best image from the data projector?
The image will look best when projected straight. If the projector is angled it will affect the focus and create a sloped image (keystone effect). Some projectors can fix the keystone effect but it will never be as clear as when projected straight.
You can use ‘zoom’ and ‘focus’ to adjust the sharpness and picture size, this is either done on the projector or using the remote.
What size screen do I need?
Look at the distance the audience will be sitting from the screen. The width of the screen should be no less that 1/6 of the distance from the farthest spectator in the room - if the back row of room is 48 ft. away then the width of the screen should be 8 ft. wide minimum. It is fine to go bigger but larger screens can require brighter projectors and cause the projector to be placed further back from the screen.
How do I avoid my presentation looking stretched on the screen?
It is all about aspect ratio.
Widescreen images are projected in the aspect ratio of 16:9 as you see on LCD or Plasma screens and most new computer screens as opposed to the traditional format of 4:3 (standard TV screen).
What does this mean to you?
When you start planning for a presentation the first questions to ask are “What display technology are we using? Should I format my presentation in 16:9 or 4:3?
If you build your presentation in 4:3 format and use a widescreen plasma the images will become stretched and the fonts distorted.
Most computer have the capacity to choose the ratio from the outset for application such as Powerpoint.
How do I change my Powerpoint presentation to widescreen format?
To change the aspect ratio in Powerpoint to 16:9 (the default in PPT is 4:3) go to file > Page setup > change the height to 14.2875 Done! Ideally do this before you start to create your presentation, otherwise make sure you Save As… the presentation before you change the ratio as you may need to fix the formatting on the new widescreen version.
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