Mobile Presentations

[westegg]

I have two DVD presentations to make later this year in catering rooms. Portable "business" projectors have built-in speakers, but most are probably not that robust in sound. I'd rather hook up external speakers. However, I also like the specs of a home theater type model like the Epson Powerlite 720 but I'm not sure how best to connect speakers to it. Or would they be attached to a laptop or DVD player? Anyone here do mobile presentations? What do you use?

Thanks!

 

[Adam]

Welcome to the forum!

I don't have any input on which is a good projector, but I wanted to welcome you and mention that audio (if you use that Epson) would need to come from the laptop or DVD player that you are using. Using powered speakers, such as some of the stereo speakers that you can get for PCs, might work well for you. There are other members who have recommendations in that area.

What is your budget for the projector and speakers?

 

[westegg]

Hi Adam! Thanks for the welcome.

I'd want to keep the projector at the $1,000 mark (such as the Epson 720), or a bit higher, and speakers could be maybe $200. It's for rather small sized venues and it's all a matter of having a unified system I can set up easily. I'm not sure if a business projector with built-in speakers would be strong enough, but I'm not sure if the business or the HT model have an advantage over the other in customizing powered speakers.

 

[BMXTRIX]

You don't want a home theater projector for business applications. If there is ambient light in a room contrast ratios quickly fall below 50:1 levels so the 'high contrast' projector you got suddenly is extremely low contrast and doesn't have the lumens to deal with ambient light. What you want is the brightest darn XGA projector (1024x768) of reasonable quality for the money. 50 lumens per square foot of screen is the commercial standard in a typically lit room.

For audio you just hook computer speakers that are appropriate right up to your PC or to a DVD player. These are readily available and work far better than the built in junk that comes with any projectors.

 

[westegg]

Thanks so much for your insight! So, assuming I will never have a particularly dark room, the business projector is the way to go. And am glad to see that pc speakers should be a straightforward choice.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Thanks so much for your insight! So, assuming I will never have a particularly dark room, the business projector is the way to go. And am glad to see that pc speakers should be a straightforward choice.

Here's a list of 21 projectors with 3,000 lumens in the $700-$1,000 price area...

http://www.projectorcentral.com/projectors.cfm?g=1&hide=0&st=1&mfg=&p=700-1000&w=&r=3&br=3000&br=100000&ll=&t=&db=&dt=&c=&ar=&dvi=&td=&i=d&is=&sort=pop

I would recommend an LCD over a DLP, so that narrows it down to 11 choices.

I would also probably go with a Sanyo because they really do have solid business level projectors on the market.

For speakers, you have about a billion choices, so if your primary concern is getting a larger space filled with so-so audio (not great audio) at a reasonable price, you should probably ask in one of the other forums here, but there's a huge difference between computer speaker setups which run from expensive 5.1 setups, to loud, and fairly inexpensive, 2.0 or 2.1 setups. Remember - if you want to fill a space with audio, you need fairly large speakers to do so, and will need the ability to move larger speakers.

 

[westegg]

Thanks; I'll be checking on this.

 

[westegg]

Not that anyone was breathlessly awaiting a resolution to this thread, but I finally selected a projector--a Sanyo PLC-XU350. Seems to fit all the specs I need.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Not that anyone was breathlessly awaiting a resolution to this thread, but I finally selected a projector--a Sanyo PLC-XU350. Seems to fit all the specs I need.

Good to hear! My bill will be arriving shortly.

 

[westegg]

heheheh

Here's now a typically naive question from me....I'm interested in the Mackie srm350v2 as a portable speaker, but I don't see an obvious connection hookup with a DVD player. What do I do?



Update: okay, is that I need to add a mixer? All I need is a basic, compact one to connect a DVD player with the speaker. Any suggestions in regard to the Mackie? Believe me, I'm smarter in other areas.

 

[Adam]

I'm interested in the Mackie srm350v2 as a portable speaker, but I don't see an obvious connection hookup with a DVD player. What do I do?

Those speakers have an input jack that can accept either a 1/4" jack or an XLR jack. So, if I'm understanding it correctly, you could connect to your DVD player by using one of two types of adapter cables. You would use the left/right RCA analog audio outputs from the DVD player and connect to the speakers using either cables like this or like this (just examples - you can buy other lengths and other brands).

 

[Adam]

Update: okay, is that I need to add a mixer?

I sure don't think so. I'm pretty confident that you can do what I mentioned above if you want to connect to a DVD player.

 

[westegg]

Thanks a ton!

 

[westegg]

Also, I don't want a pole for the speaker--what would anyone recommend as a good stand for the Mackie?

 

[BMXTRIX]

A good stand is a pole. They have them in many different varieties, but the pole breaks down and can be packed away - it works out to be a 'tripod' setup and is very stable and is 100% the way it is done in the industry. Quick, convenient, very stable, and cost effective.

You break down the pole mount/tripod setup into a bag and take it with you easily and conveniently. I'm just going to talk you into this unless you have a really good reason to not go this route.

As stated already, you can run a RCA to 1/4" cable directly from any source to the speaker, it is all line level audio. You do have other ways to do it, and to get the stereo audio onto a single speaker will need (at least) a RCA combiner cable.

A cheap mixing board is more effective as it does allow for you to control volume from the mixer and allows for you to add a microphone if you need to easily.

This should work fine...
http://cgi.ebay.com/Behringer-Eurorack-UB802-Mixing-Board-Mixer_W0QQitemZ280358853567QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item4146b09bbf&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65:1|66:2|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50

 

[westegg]

Thanks; very helpful advice.