Main hall presentation kit - what do you have?

[Symbiosis]

Hi All

 

I've been tasked with looking at replacing our aging 10 year old projector and upgrading our sound reinforcement (voice) system

 

Probably helpful to give an overview of what we currently have:

VGA projector to 12ft 4:3 screen

Sound system with wireless hand held mics and a couple of wireless lapel mics

Built in laptop hooked up to the projector in a static unit to stage left

 

Our SLT team dont like using hand held mics and the lapel mics give too much background noise etc - they also dont like having to crane necks to look at the screen from stage left to make sure its working.

 

My thoughts were a mobile (on wheels) lectern with built in wireless gooseneck mic and a wireless projector so the laptop on the lectern could wirelessly (via WiFi) send the video and sound up to the projector and then the sound could be wired back to the amp

 

What do you all have please, any experiences with wireless projectors? Do I need HDMI or is VGA sufficient? It's mostly powerpoints and the odd video

 

Thanks

Edited October 20, 2016 by Symbiosis

[mikeprice]

We have an Epson projector - VGA connected and it works fine

quality ain't wonderful but you can't really tell as the hall is never in blackout - or even quite dark - conditions

 

I have been in school who insist on using HDMI and I couldn't really tell the difference even though that hall could go much darker than this one

 

I also have a Prosound 200W amp connected via a cheap mixer from Maplins which allow me to have a PC, wireless mikes and an external connector for ipads etc all live at the same time - thus stopping people unplugging stuff to get other stuff working

 

As far as checking it is working I think they are being a bit fussy - if it is all set up it should work easily and be reliable - maybe they are used to problem with your current 10 year old stuff?? - so new stuff would be easier

 

 

would be interested in seeing comments about wireless projectors though - could simplify things a lot!

[Rob_D]

Not tried it at work, but I've been using the MS wireless display adapter at home for a little while. If you're running windows 10 its really easy to connect to and it produces a good quality image in my 60' HDTV (although the display lag is noticeable). And only £25 on amazon. - might be worth looking into.

 

We're in the process of getting our hall displays upgraded. But our priorities were brightness and maintenance free (so DPL blubless laser) projectors. Otherwise similar setup with a laptop in a (mostly) static lectern.

When we were looking, a lot of projectors could have a screen/program cast to them across the network (wired for the projector) from a computer with the right software on.

 

Not done anything with wireless sound, but my feeling would be wireless direct from the laptop to the mixer/amp rather than via the projector would be easier - or at least easier to troubleshoot.

 

A moveable lectern would be cool, but I'd be worried about the laptop not being charged up and dying halfway through the presentation.

[Symbiosis]

but I'd be worried about the laptop not being charged up and dying halfway through the presentation.

 

Thanks Rob and yep, my concern as well!

 

Wish we had the cash for a DPL blubless laser projector - out of curiosity, what sort of price range was that please?

[Rob_D]

Wish we had the cash for a DPL blubless laser projector - out of curiosity, what sort of price range was that please?

 

All the laser ones we were looking at were in the £2-3,000 range.

[ataylor]

We ended up going for a wired - mobile lectern approach as we were worried about laptop charge and was not impressed by the wireless display technology we trialed.

 

We basically run HDMI over Cat6, we have also got a VGA extender for anyone that brings in a laptop that does not support HDMI.

 

Also, around the side of the stage, we also have another HDMI & VGA for shows and such.

 

Rarely have issues with this setup, only the wear and tear on the floor trunking and cables which are all replaceable.

 

Hope this helps.

[Symbiosis]

All the laser ones we were looking at were in the £2-3,000 range.

 

Thats not bad - can you let me know which ones you were looking at please?

[Symbiosis]

Thanks ataylor - that's really useful, particularly grateful for the photos. Interesting that you went for the lectern below the stage rather than on it - any reason?

 

Cheers

[ataylor]

They very rarely present onstage.

[mukz]

We ended up going for a wired - mobile lectern approach as we were worried about laptop charge and was not impressed by the wireless display technology we trialed.

 

We basically run HDMI over Cat6, we have also got a VGA extender for anyone that brings in a laptop that does not support HDMI.

 

Also, around the side of the stage, we also have another HDMI & VGA for shows and such.

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Rarely have issues with this setup, only the wear and tear on the floor trunking and cables which are all replaceable.

 

Hope this helps.

 

We have this same setup, but have the SY controller all on the wall in far corner. We had the luxury of cutting a floor box so cables are not trailing and are directly underneath the lectern.

 

Quick Question: did Real Sound and Vision do your sound install by any chance?

[ataylor]

Millgate did ours, pretty good for the most part. Although I had to call them out several times as they didn't install it how I asked.