Setting up the video projector

Preparing your presentation

You should take account of:

• The aspect ratio of the projector
• The aspect ratio of your projected area if smaller than the projected area

Your material should match the aspect ratio of the projector. You should then use a black background for any area that will fall to the side of the screen or for which you don't want projected. You do not need higher resolution (e.g. 1280 x 800 for BENQ) for images than the projector supports.

It is also possible to distort your material to match an odd surface, say for example you are projecting into a curved corner. To figure it out project a grid and then work out your distortions to produce a grid on the surface. Then distort your material accordingly.

Projector Specifications

• newer Benq MW516 WXGA (1280 x 800,16:10) Serial PD75C00427001
• older Sharp XR10-S (800 x 600:4:3) serial 512912817
• Lincoln college dining room Epson PJ

Items needed

• The projector itself, a or. This comes in a storage box complete with
  • An extension cord
  • A powerboard
  • The remote control
  • A cord to connect to a computer. Use the highest bandwidth both your computer and the projector supports, in order from most preferable, HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI, YPBPR component video, VGA, SVideo, RCA composite video
• The screen. This is normally kept in the high pulpit. There are three parts
  1. The screen itself, use two people when moving as it is quite long and you might hit a door-frame or person particularly moving between floors.
  2. An extend-able pole
  3. The base
• About 5 books for adjusting height of things
• A table to put the projector on

Where to put the screen

There are a number of places the screen can be put, each have their pros and cons

• On the high pulpit, left hand side
• In the sanctuary area, left hand side (but this may disrupt the choir)
• To the left of the sanctuary (but this means the projector must be located there as well)

N.B. needs to be at least 4m from screen in order for the projector to fill it.

Assembling the screen

1. Place the base in position
2. Place the screen in the base
3. Place the pole in position
4. Attach the hook on the screen to the pole
5. Extend the pole upwards as required

Putting it all together

1. Put the projector on a table about 4m from the screen
2. Put the computer/video player etc on the same table or near to it
3. Get the computer/video player playing. Note that on most laptops Fn+F7 or similar must be pressed to get output from the VGA port at the back.
4. Connect the computer/video player to the projector using the video cord
5. Turn on the projector. After about 20 seconds the projector should find the video source. If it doesn't check your cabling. The source can be manually selected
6. Adjust the focus and height of the image. Use books under the front of the projector if necessary for adjusting the height

Getting sound through the main PA system

To get sound through the main PA system use a DI Box and suitable connectors (stored with the DI box) to connect the computer/video player etc to the DI Box. The DI box converts from high level inputs to microphone level inputs.

Before the service

1. Run through what you are going to do and make sure it is all working
2. Leave everything with the first slide showing
3. Press the 'AV Mute' button on the remote control to get a black screen

During the service

1. Press the 'AV Mute' button on the remote control to get the screen back
2. Do your presentation
3. When done either press the 'AV Mute' button to immediately mute or alternatively press Standby, then Standby again on the projector to turn off. It will take a few minutes to switch off.

Packing up

• Turn off the projector and allow to cool down (it switches off)
• Put everything away!

Remotely controlling the PC

You might want to try remotely control the PC so you can move further away from it, techniques to try include

• Use a VGA extender cable or two (in box) to move the PC further from the projector
• Use a bluetooth keyboard (about 8m range) to remotely start the presentation
• Use a remote control product like Splashtop, however be careful that this consumes CPU and so isn't a good idea if the PC is struggling to handle the video etc.
• An Apple TV which gives a HDMI output. Under OS X extend the desktop to this screen and set the background to an appropriate picture or black. Powerpoint will then work in Presenter view but be careful it is easy to end up with mirrored or swapped screens inadvertently. You *may* have issues with resolution where the Apple TV accepts 1920x1080 resolution but outputs to a different aspect ration on the projector causing white bars on the top of the presentation..