Listen to the audience

As with other challenges, it may be easier to tell you what not to do. Professional speaker and presentation guru David Paradi surveyed audiences about presentations. Following each negative comment is the percentage of agreement:

• Speaker reads slide copy (69.2%)
• Text unreadably small (48.2%)
• Sentences rather than bullet points (48%)
• Colors unreadable (33%)
• “Busy” graphics, special effects (27.9%)

It’s impossible to list all the good ideas and tell you what you should do, but there are some agreed-upon basics for creating effective presentations. Start here and stay teachable as you look around for more help.

Five steps to a better presentation

1. Successful slides are supportive, giving your message impact and making it memorable. A slide must clarify, reinforce, make an emotional appeal, take the audience to a different “mental location” and/or portray complex concepts simply. Using graphics sparingly maintains their power. Using too many dilutes it.

2. Establish a powerful presence by making your slides readable from the back row. Keep copy simple and follow the “Rule of 66” – six lines of text per screen with six words maximum per line (minimum 24-pt type). Viewing screens with white backgrounds, whether you use monitors or CRE projector rentals, can be like “like staring into headlights” for audiences. Use light text on dark backgrounds.

3. Make your point with “bullets” using the absolute minimum verbiage. Full sentences, if you must use them, should be memorable, brief (15-20 words) and clearly superior to shorter alternatives. Audiences typically remember things with impact, like quotes.

4. Simpler is better for graphs that grab and charts that clarify. Do your fancy effects add to audience understanding? If not, they likely cloud meaning while cluttering the screen. Making clear points is hard enough without annoying people.

5. Show a “map” so your audiences know where you’re headed. You can divide your presentation into sections, using different background colors or icons to show progress and position. Explain the agenda in your opening and never leave your audience guessing.

Don’t dilute your message

Remember, visuals must add power and/or clarity to your presentation or you shouldn’t use them. Used wrongly, they will dilute your message and can even alienate your audience. You should consider one of CRE’s audience response system rentals so you can get real-time feedback on your presentations, in-house and at conferences, for ongoing improvement.

From PCs, displays and office equipment to specialized gear like render farm rentals, CRE is your one-stop solution. Call or e-mail an experienced Account Executive, or tell us what you need with the Quick Rental Quote form. We’re ready with your solutions right now!

Extra dose of inventiveness

A capacitive touch screen at this size would have been extremely costly, so HP engineers added an extra dose of inventiveness to the LD4200TM’s digital DNA. The device has a unique way of delivering multi-touch capabilities with an “array of infrared (IR) light-emitting diodes (LEDs), along with photo sensors.” With a native resolution of 1920×1080, you’ve got full HD for lifelike color and clarity, ably assisted by a superior brightness rating and a 1000:1 contrast ratio (with 3000:1 dynamic contrast ratio). It adds up to jaw-dropping graphics and video, and incredibly sharp text, in bright lighting or dim. CRE has LCD monitor rentals and plasmas, too, for all kinds of display purposes, but we’ve added this great touch screen model because of its power, presence and aforementioned people-magnet potential.

As an attention-getter in exhibit booths the LD4200TM excels with an ultra-wide 178 x 178 degree viewing angle providing clean, bright views. As opposed to TV screens, the LD4200TM can run day and night with low power usage and still enjoy a long, useful life due to its high-quality components. HP sees businesses large and small using the unit for “quick and easy onscreen interactivity” in a variety of settings – retail, point of sale, digital signage, malls, hotel lobbies, airline and other terminals, entertainment venues, colleges, hospitals – and it is bound to show up at conferences, conventions and corporate meetings worldwide.

Wide range of applications

Interactive kiosk rentals can do yeoman’s duty collecting contact information and making small-screen presentations wherever you place them, but for attracting visitors to your booth in an exhibit hall – and thoroughly engaging them – there’s nothing quite like this new HP display. For meetings, corporate presentations and high-end brainstorming, the LD4200TM is also perfectly suited, and teamed with one of CRE’s Audience Response System rentals it could be the star of many productive polling sessions, marketing focus groups and product demonstrations.

The LD4200TM’s hardware supports multi-touch gestures, and after the software driver was WHQL certified a slew of applications started to support their use with this big boy. To make its “magic” happen, you will connect the display to your computer via USB (for control and gestures) and send images via an HDMI connection. It can also take VGA (for tiling, too), component video, composite video and S-video signals. The range of its connectivity makes the LD4200TM extremely flexible for a broad array of duties. You can opt for the rear-facing audio amplifier and speakers from HP that give you 20 watts (10w x 2) of sound.

Whatever you need to spread your marketing message or capture attention in a sea of exhibits, CRE has it, from this great new HP display to all manner of convention rentals. We are also your productivity partners, with the potent Mac Pro rentals and newly-upgraded iMacs to help you finish that post-production, animation or design work and hit your deadline. Contact a seasoned Account Executive today, or fill out the Quick Rental Quote form right now, and let us know just where you need to go – we’ll help you get there, guaranteed.

You could present the PowerPoint show from your connected laptop – or from a CD or DVD containing the presentation and the standalone PowerPoint Viewer application – but PowerPoint is notorious for its propensity to stutter and crash. The most dependable playback format is a universally supported video format like AVI, where you will have a smooth, flawless presentation with no glitches. With an AVI file of your presentation, you can then leverage the power of a neat piece of equipment we found in a rather unexpected place.

Convert PowerPoint presentation to video

Literally scores of applications, from freeware and shareware to commercial packages, can convert PowerPoint presentations to AVI. Most allow a trial period before buying, although they might watermark your video, so find out about that. PowerVideoMaker Professional, for example, converts PowerPoint files to AVI , MPEG or WMV formats, while PPT To Video Scout will convert to AVI and over half a dozen other formats. There are plenty of converters to choose from, and several Web-based conversion sites, as well.

Mention “karaoke” and most people think of rolling carts full of audio equipment. You can still have a big rack of karaoke gear if you want, but the high-powered, handheld Acesonic PK-6000 Pocket Karaoke Entertainment System can replace all of it. If it didn’t have “Pocket Karaoke” stamped on it, it could just as easily be called the “Presentation Player with Voice-Over.” The PK-6000, an iPod-ish media player with a 2.8-inch color LCD screen, stores 2GB of MP3 and MP3+G files in internal memory (plus up to 16GB more on a MicroSD card). It also has native support for AVI video files – and fits in your pocket.

Flexible power with AVI movie

Convert your PowerPoint file into an AVI movie and load it on the PK-6000 via USB. A touchscreen with great navigation tools offers intuitive control, and the PK’s mini-gooseneck microphone lets you speak over the program material as it runs. The device has a built-in FM transmitter so you can use it as a PA, but you won’t need to if you connect it via the included RCA cable to one of CRE’s LCD monitor rentals or other big displays. In addition to its presentation chops, the PK has a digital mixer for tweaking mic volume, echo level and tone settings.

You can make an honest case that the Acesonic Pocket Karaoke was made for presenters as well as singers. There’s nothing in the manual that says you can’t talk instead of sing, or play business presentations instead of Toy Story. At CRE, we don’t let any obstacles get in the way of working smarter as well as harder, and can offer you creative solutions to even the most daunting audio, video and post-production challenges. If you need meeting rentals,  simply fill out the Quick Rental Quote form, and we will get you what you need to capture the meeting presentation on video.

It is not difficult to get going with the presentation once you have the plug-in installed. It provides a new toolbar that lets you edit professionally-designed templates to your needs. You can change graphics, colors and styles in a few mouse clicks, use the special toolbar to create content fields and choose your settings, quickly and easily. Save your slide, move on to the next one and repeat as needed. Load your finished presentation onto a laptop or desktop computer, then plug into a projector rental, set up your screen and start getting that audience feedback you need.

How does interactive polling work?

Audience Response Systems offer small response card keypads that are wireless and use both IR (InfraRed) and RF (Radio Frequency) technology depending on the model. With the keypads, the audience can answer multiple choice, multiple response, short answer, essay and alphanumeric questions throughout the presentation.

Need to poll the audience from different (even distant) locations in real-time? Now there is remote polling technology that allows a presenter to address and question audiences, either using a web-based polling application (through their iPhone or Blackberry smartphone) or a hand-held keypad. This gives the presenter the capability of combining the remote results with those of the local group. Real-time feedback allows the presenter to keep remote participants attentive and focused by displaying results of their ongoing input.

Expanded uses, expanded capabilities

Audience Response Systems have proven their tremendous value in a wide variety of settings. No longer do seminars, product demos, breakout session presentations or other corporate meetings have to be one-way streets – someone talks, you take notes – now that true real-time connectivity is easily achieved. The old salesman’s saying, that the best salesmen listen more than they talk, is a powerful insight, and an ARS gives you the ability to listen to hundreds of people at the same time, responding with information that your organization really needs to know. An Audience Response System, being fully plugged into the MS Office applications, makes it easy to tally, analyze and display the gathered information.

Ready to interact with your audience at your next meeting? Simply fill out the Quick Rental Quote form, give us a call or  send an e-mail and we will take care of you right away. Whether you need audience response, kiosks (another great interactive tool!) or plasma rentals, our objective is to equip you with the best tools available so you can finish on time with excellent results, whatever the task.

At CRE, we support all kinds of businesses in every industry, but have a particular expertise outfitting creative people – designers, audio engineers, video pros, marketing mavens – with powerful media manipulators like our Mac Pro rentals. We know how much effort it takes staying updated on all manner of different software and hardware, with the ability to jump into one of our G5 with Kona card rentals and do your thing. Should you decide to take some online training to maintain and/or improve your professional standing and specialized skills, we would commend you for your work ethic – then share a few tips.

Always check training sources

You must always consider the source of online training because not all teachers and schools are created equal. Use your Web search skills, make some calls, ask questions, get references – anything to get some third-party insight. As you search for a source for training, you should consider the type of training that would work best in your specific situation. You can watch live online classes, or buy books and read online class notes, or use webcams to interact with others, and you can study on your own or in a group.

Rentals for in-house training

If you are looking for training for a group of people, perhaps for professional certification of some kind, you can buy the instructional materials on DVD. CRE has the projector rentals, as well as the audience response system rentals, that can make group training simple and effective. Especially in the IT and technical fields, where widely-regarded certifications are essential for a tech firm’s employees to have, using CRE laptop rentals rounds out a cost-effective training regimen. The more people you can get trained together, of course, the lower the unit cost for the preparation. Win-win.

With large enough hardware or software purchases, vendors can also customize a total solution for your firm and easily integrate online or offline training into the plan. You don’t need to tie up your workstations (which are making your company money) or budget a large hardware purchase when you use computer rentals for training. A room of iMac rentals and/or PCs, the right software, the right learning materials and the right amount of time, and you’ve got another group of experts in Excel, Exchange. Photoshop or InDesign – or Maya, C+, Logic, Pro Tools, Avid, Javascript, Ajax, Cisco, Microsoft, Novell or whatever else you can think of.

CRE has its share of experts, too. Our Account Executives know exactly what solutions will fit your particular challenge, whether it’s a post-production bottleneck, convention, presentation or training session. Call or send an e-mail, or fill out the Quick Rental Quote form, and we’ll get you that personalized training solution you need.

To combat these so-called cybercriminals, new technologies and techniques were developed – and are continuously updated and improved – to provide security for both information and the systems that store it. As the technologies are in a state of constant improvement, IT security professionals must be involved in ongoing education or risk catastrophic losses. The previous blog told you what expertise you needed, while this one tells you how to get it.

The SANS Institute

Founded in 1989 to undertake collaborative research and provide state of the art education, SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Network and Security) Institute oversees programs that reach some 170,000 computer and network professionals worldwide every year. From auditors and system operators to network administrators and chief information officers (CIOs), increasing numbers of IT professionals are sharing insights, learning lessons and finding solutions to a never-ending stream of security challenges.

SANS brings together security professionals from a diverse array of global groups – including corporations, think tanks, universities, government agencies and trade associations – to benefit everyone concerned with information security. It is among the most trusted, and without question the world’s largest, independent source for IT security training and professional certification. The group is a fabulous resource for everyone, from small TV post-production firms with CRE Mac Pro rentals to financial institutions running huge databases on IBM iSeries servers.

In addition, SANS creates, maintains and distributes the most extensive set of research documents available regarding information security. Many of these valuable resources are free for the asking, including use of the Internet Storm Center (an “early warning system”), a weekly news digest called NewsBites, a weekly vulnerability report entitled @RISK and timely security alerts available by RSS  or e-mail.

Annual training conference

In San Diego, from May 7th to 15th, the group will be holding its SANS Security West 2010 training conference. To benefit fully from over 20 top-rated course offerings presented by expert instructors, make sure your show attendees pack our convenient laptop rentals to take notes, stay in touch via Wi-Fi and download course materials.

Security West 2010 is the place to be for security pros and business owners, and CRE can outfit you for attending, exhibiting or making a presentation. If you’ve reserved a spot at the Vendor Expo, we can set you up with touchscreen LCD monitor rentals, interactive kiosk rentals or anything else you need to present and promote your product or service.

Diverse and comprehensive

SANS veterans will recognize both classic, always-relevant offerings as well as exciting new courses in the comprehensive lineup. From SANS Security Essentials Bootcamp Style, Intrusion Detection In-Depth, Computer Forensic Essentials and Developing Exploits for Penetration Testers & Security Researchers to Comprehensive Packet Analysis, Security Architecture for Systems Administrators and Virtualization Security Fundamentals, the course offerings are both diverse and comprehensive.

The conference will also feature special events, a Vendor Expo/Reception and SANS@Night talks, all absolutely free to registered attendees. There are many informal yet enriching networking opportunities at SANS training events where you can forge valuable professional relationships that can last for years. That’s the kind of relationship that CRE has with many of its valued clients and customers. Whether you’re an old friend or a new one, call or send an e-mail to our experienced Account Executives (or use the Quick Rental Quote form) for all of your computer, networking, storage, presentation and event management rental needs.

Content is king

In the process of familiarizing yourself with some pretty nice audiovisual equipment and computers, never forget that the most important thing is the content. In many cases it will be a PowerPoint presentation and/or some Flash animation. One of CRE’s laptop rentals with the Microsoft Office installed will be plugged into the 3K projector, set on a cart/stand with a power strip and locking wheels. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have a backup laptop running the presentation simultaneously on its own screen. If the presenting PC crashes, the other will be in sync to continue.

With all the included cables and power cords properly attached, you’re ready to roll. On a 6-ft. tripod screen (with skirt) you can showcase your product or service with a presentation including video clips, bullet points that follow your script and/or a slideshow, all controlled by a cordless presenter. If your message is as high-quality as the presentation system, you have the ingredients for a great session.

Stepping it up a notch

If you anticipate a large crowd, you may need to consider some supplemental equipment, for starters a cordless microphone and powered speakers, and other kinds of audiovisual rentals. Depending on the room, you may need some lighting equipment, too, and for archival and/or training purposes you could also bring in some video recording gear. CRE’s digital recorder rentals can be used to hold digital media for use in your presentation, record the session or capture attendee contact information.

If you’re going to have a table in the room for registration, collecting business cards, getting contact information or providing sell sheets or brochures, CRE’s office equipment rentals could be a big help.

Some of the best help you can get in a breakout session, of course, is from your audience. With one of CRE’s Audience Response System rentals, you can interact with attendees and poll them during and after the presentation – or base the presentation around an audience Q & A session in the first place. Whatever your breakout room plan, our experienced Account Executives are ready with the ways, means and expertise to bring it to fruition. Call, send an e-mail or fill out a Quick Rental Quote form and we’ll break out, bring over and set up whatever you need, whenever you need it.

Scouting locations and lighting needs

When movie makers scout locations, they check more than just “look and feel,” and immediately assess the place, inside or out, in terms of lighting. This is what light meters are for – a great all-purpose tool for checking light levels, and assisting in developing lighting setup plans.

Depending on the meeting type – screen presentation or speech, a dais up front or a podium – you will set up lights in a particular way. If you can’t hang lights from the ceiling to illuminate a podium, you can use freestanding spots from the sides. If the focus of the audience is a presentation on a large-screen,  then you would keep that area dim and perhaps throw a small spotlight on the speaker.

Interactivity needs light

If you are using an Audience Response System rentals, your challenge is to keep lights low enough not to interfere with the screen image, and high enough for people to see their handheld response devices. This can be accomplished, somewhat counterintuitively, with more, not fewer, lights. With sideline lights every few rows, keep the rear lights a bit higher than the middle ones, the middle ones a bit brighter than the near-front ones and create a “lighting gradation” to achieve your goal.

Alternatively, you can use an indirect approach, such as illuminating the room walls with bottom-up spots, even colored ones (choice of color matters). All of these maneuvers, of course, will depend on what the built-in room lighting offers, but if they are not “dimmable,” it is better to leave them out of the equation entirely.

Speaking of control…

Today’s lighting components, from ceiling-mounted spots to colored ones on stands, all connect to central control panels that can also run the audiovisual equipment – including a  high lumen projector rental if you need one.

The basic lesson is that more lights means more control, and greater flexibility in directionality, brightness, color and other variables. You don’t have to believe in Feng Shui to know that such room characteristics as size, paint and carpet color, seating arrangements and ceiling height affect your lighting plan – and mood, too.

Our expert Account Executives can put you in a good mood by helping you put together a great meeting, so give a call, send an e-mail or fill out the Quick Rental Quote right now. CRE is in the solutions business, and we have one for you, too.

Good lighting gives presenters a more dramatic, more impressive stage presence, and also ensures that video or film recordings are clear and usable. Armed with a PowerMac G5 with Kona card rental from CRE, an artist could adjust lighting and contrast “in post,” but you always want to capture the best possible original image.

Different strobes for different folks

There are many leading specialty lighting makers offering a world of lighting products for every situation. Event lighting can include fluorescent, incandescent, strobe and LED lights, and are available in banks, spots, tubes and other shapes, in all sizes and wattages. No matter what type of lighting you need, there is a light that will meet your needs.

For large meeting halls or dinner events, theater-style lighting adds color and drama to the atmosphere, and can transform “the usual thing” into something truly memorable. Many of the new, smaller, integrated systems can be controlled by computers available to rent from CRE.

Let there be light

Consider these basic lighting tips as you plan your next event:

• Color is proven to influence audience mood, and it’s fascinating how it works, so do a little research before your next big meeting.
• Different colors and textures can attract or redirect people’s attention.
• You can project graphics across the stage or wall using gobos, etched disks inside the light fixtures.
• Make sure presenters suffer no distracting facial shadows. Do a dry run.
• Stage “washes” keep presenters well lit as they walk the stage
• Follow spots will pick out award winners or notables from an audience.
• Powerful psychological effects can be achieved by lighting the entire room.
• New, “intelligent lighting” can be programmed to sweep the room, create effects and change colors.

In Part 2, we will show how to set up lighting for a press conference or presentation in a mid-size room (think conference breakout or company meeting). In the meantime, if you’re planning an annual shareholder meeting or exhibiting at a trade show, CRE is the one-stop shop. Our experts can help you with everything from lighting to computers, audience response system rentals to kiosks– just request a Quick Rental Quote today. We can definitely throw some light on the subject for you.

As a two-part article recently explained, there are still some important differences between “business” projectors and those intended for “home theater” use. However, some manufacturers are experimenting with product designs that join the best features of each type into a single device. Perhaps one of the last areas of divergence is the native (or “physical”) pixel count, which affects two very important specifications: (1) the resolution and (2) the aspect ratio.

Simply put, “resolution” is the number of pixels that are packed into the physical dimensions of a projected image or monitor, and “aspect ratio” is the relationship between width and height. A four-foot by three-foot image has an aspect ratio of 4:3, standard for TVs from their introduction until just a short time ago. Now, a projection screen at that ratio could display an image of 800 x 600 resolution, or there could be more pixels packed in for a higher resolution and sharper image in the same dimensions, like a pixel count of 1200 x 900. Both have the same 4:3 aspect ratio, both fit on the 48-inch by 36-inch screen, but the latter has the higher resolution. Of course, CRE rents various sizes of Fast Fold Da-Lite screens to fit all situations.

Wide, wide world

The standard SVGA (800 x 600) and XGA (1024 x 768) business projectors have a native, or built-in, aspect ratio of 4:3, as well, so the image corresponds to a standard computer screen or “regular” television. Widescreen content, such as DVDs and HDTV programming, has an aspect ratio of 16:9. The best way to handle the widescreen format is to use a projector with a native widescreen resolution, which today is more likely to be a home theater projector (although not for long). This is the only way you can avoid the image stretching, letterboxing, image cropping, or other aspect ratio adjustment techniques that make 16:9 content fit on a 4:3 screen.

Most of the basic business projectors are SVGA and are not up to the task of displaying HD images from your satellite, computer, cable tuner or other HD input. They simply do not have sufficient resolution to do the job right. The two primary HD resolution formats today are 720p and 1080i (1280 x 720 pixels and 1920 x 1080, respectively). An SVGA projector with its resolution of 800 x 600 pixels cannot display either of these formats without downscaling.

Working it out

Even DVD content, which at 852 x 480 has a lower resolution than HDTV, is a bit much for the entry-level SVGA projectors to do a good job. XGA, as its numbers indicate, has sufficient resolution to handle DVDs and can get quite close, needing only narrow top and bottom letterbox bands, to displaying 720p, as well. With just an XGA projector, screen and a laptop rental from CRE, you have a mobile presentation system that can handle a meeting or conference then head home for a DVD movie night with the family.

Widescreen projectors for home and business come in both WVGA and WXGA. Choosing a lower-cost WVGA (854 x 480) projector will save you some money and cover all the bases if you will be watching only DVD movies. For displaying HDTV content, a WXGA (1280 x 800) projector is required. This pixel array will enable you to display any and all HDTV content up to 720p with no rescaling. You will even be able to view 1080i or 1080p material on the more-capable WXGA projectors, but the projected image will need compression so that the 1920 x 1080 pixels in a 1080i or 1080p HDTV image can be scaled into the native pixel array of the WXGA projector.

Ask the experts

Remember, image resolution is only one of many important factors in assessing your projector. Color balance, brightness (lumens), edge-to-edge clarity and other specifications may be even more important at times. Business projectors are becoming more media-savvy all the time, just as business people are becoming as sophisticated as the audiophile and videophile consumers that have driven the advancements in home theater technology.

New business projectors will be debuting in the coming year from leading manufacturers, models that promise to bedazzle and amaze an audience of engineers or CEOs the way that home theater projectors wow the family with Harry Potter movies. Whether you contact one of our expert Account Executives now or later—by e-mail, phone or rental quote request—you will get state-of-the-art advice and equipment for your meeting, conference or presentation needs.