Showing presentation from chapel in cultural hall

[craiggsmith]

The presentation appears washed out unless you darken the room enough but then nobody can see the presenter.

Good to know, thanks!

[sbradshaw]

A more low-tech solution would be to have a second computer at the back of the room with the same presentation open, then assign someone to advance to the next slide in the back whenever the presenter in the front advances.

[craiggsmith]

I was going to do that but we had videos as well, and I think it would have been too difficult to sync them well enough so that the audio would be in sync.

[jviola]

Does the computer have an s-video output? If so, I would split the signal and covert it to the composite input to both projectors. You will need some cat 5 or 6 Ethernet cable and an s-video balun.

S-video spitter
http://www.amazon.com/30S2-12101-S-Vide ... tter+cable
S-video balun
http://www.amazon.com/Muxlab-Avad-50001 ... B001DPX5TE
S-video to composite or AV
http://www.amazon.com/StarTech-SVID2COM ... +composite
You may need to order s-video gender changers.
http://www.amazon.com/S-Video-MiniDin4- ... r+changers

I hope this helps.

[craiggsmith]

My computer has an s-video output, but strangely it wouldn't play the embedded video in the powerpoint we were showing. I have a VDA that I can split it with, and I could rewire a couple things and use the building wiring, but it kills the quality. Thanks for the parts though, I'll take a look.

The quandary is that a presentation requires high resolution but a low frame rate, whereas a video is opposite. So solutions that work for one don't often work for the other.

I hope someday we'll have a real built-in video connection between the chapel and cultural hall.

[mevans]

Your meeting's probably over by now. What did you do and how did it work out?

[craiggsmith]

After discussing it further with the area office we determined that there wouldn't be enough people for there to be any value in showing it in the cultural hall. So we got a reprieve, but we need to figure this out someday, before we actually need it.

[mevans]

I've seen the low-tech solution mentioned by sbradshaw in use (put it on more than one device and have multiple operators). It works for PowerPoints, but would be odd if there's video, because the screens will be slightly off, depending on when Play was pushed.

The expression encoder idea is interesting, but I wonder how much latency there is. Would it be distracting?

Probably the best solution is to run some cat 5 or 6 and get baluns. Most HDMI baluns seem to need two network lines, but I've seen some that claim to work with just one network line. I've used baluns for other signals, but haven't yet experimented with HDMI baluns.

It may not be too difficult to run the lines if you don't mind crawling in attics. Years ago (in my single carefree years) I used to crawl through the church attics to get cables places, but now it's hard to find the time. I don't know if you could get the FM group to run the lines. I'd start there.

Hopefully the church starts thinking of video distribution systems for buildings that support things like HDMI.

[jbtork]

If this is something you wish to do on a regular basis, contact your FM and have them look into installing an AVDH-1 or AVDH-2 in your building. Depending on your install, it is possible to have a VGA connection at the podium for a laptop that connects to the AVDH device that would be located in the Satellite Equipment closet. The input from the VGA is run through a scan converter in the AVDH device and then can be fed throughout the building using the AV equipment in the satellite cabinet, if your building is so equipped.
Your Stake president will most likely have to give approval for this to be installed, it is a long term solution that can also be used for sending and receiving local stake Conf Broadcasts if you stream them for over flow purposes.

[michaelfish]

Hey, I'm reaching here but has anyone thought of using one of the new Google ChromeCast HDMI receivers ($35) and Fling to stream the video file? The author of this article says

...[Fling] is really a simple tool. There is no need for servers, browsers or anything. Simply open the native app and drag/drop your files. The video should start playing right away

...onto a display with an HDMI input. This is similar to Apple's AirPlay.

Here's how I think it will work. Plug the HDMI adapter into the HDMI input of the projector (I'm assuming your projector has one). Then, using a Windows laptop, use Fling to play through the HDMI port using the ChromeCast device (streams without a server). Complete the setup and play!

If someone has one, let us know how well it works. Does it have to connect to an existing WiFi SSID or can it be used in Ad-Hoc mode?