That projector has audio inputs so must have a built in speaker.
Judging by the size in comparison to the ports I expect you would be presenting at the front with the projector pretty close to the front (i.e. it isn’t a long throw requiring long cabling, boosters, etc.) As such, a 2m cable is likely to be ample ( ut see final point below).
HDMI carries video and audio and so could conceivably cover you for both aspects … but it depends how powerful that inbuilt speaker actually is and the size of the room. If the room isn’t overly large for the 20 people, then I’d expect it to be okay, but probably not great. Worth having your own speaker as a backup, but just ensure that if you want to use it, the audio isn’t purely just sent via the HDMI.
The venue obviously has a projector and a room they use for these sorts of events. Why not visit or call them and ask someone who knows the details to walk you through the setup they have used in the past? Make a list of what you need to know and then check them all off with them as they talk you through it. Let them offer up anything they think will be useful to you and then ask any follow ups to fill in the known gaps.
I do quite a bit of presenting for my job and present from a number of different Apple devices - MacBook Pro, iPad, and iPhone. Here are my go-to suggestions and what I always keep in a small bag:
I always bring my own VGA cords as well as HDMI cord since I’ve learned you can’t trust anyone but yourself when presenting. Recently I’ve been using an Apple TV and connecting without WiFi which has been really successful and has removed a lot of the ugly cord mess that you can have.
Also, I’ve never had much luck with Apple’s own branded USB-C to HDMI dongle. I’ve burned through two of them so finally I stopped buying them. That could be due to a lot of factors, but I’m done trying with them.
Thanks for all that info @Cwatt7. I almost bought the hootoo yesterday. It was an amazon prime special. But I’ve heard some bad reviews. It’s good to hear it works well for you. For cables, do you think I would be safe going with Monoprice? Another question… how big a room (or how many people) can you get buy with the Beats Pill? I have a fugoo which is similar in form factor. It is a 360º speaker. I think it will be good for about 20 people, but I was curious your experience.
I always bring an Apple TV to present from in class. Contrary to popular opinion, it does not require that you connect it to a wifi network to AirPlay from an iPad or Mac.
@davemacdo@RosemaryOrchard I presume you’re using screen mirroring and/or airplay? That should work from the Mac too, right? It seems to be called airplay on the Mac, but my iOS buttons say screen mirroring. Do you need a cable to connect to the Mac/iPad to the Apple TV? I use it all the time at home, but I’m not sure what technology is behind it. For this presentation, since it’s my first, I am planning to connect to my Mac, but I’d love to have the iPad as a backup.
I just used airplay which for most iOS apps is mirroring - though apps like Keynote and PowerPoint have a presentation mode of course. This would be airplay on the Mac - and doesn’t require any cables between the device and the Apple TV.
So, I’m beginning to get my head around how to get the video from the Mac or iPad to the projector. My current dilemma is sound. I need to present a 5 min video. I’m told the room doesn’t have speakers. Someone on here thought the projector might have a built in speaker, but the person in charge doesn’t know and this is a new projector to them. Sooo. If I connect via HDMI and the projector has a built in speaker I might be golden. But, I want a backup just in case.
If I connect via HDMI could I still run a headphone cable from my iPad/Mac to my speaker? The speaker is also bluetooth, so that’s an option. First off, I don’t know if the sound will output through both HDMI & headphone jack/bluetooth at the same time. Also, I’m afraid getting the audio and video synced up might be a nightmare.
Has anyone tackled this?
PS. Just so you don’t have to go scrolling up to find it, here is the photo of the projector:
I had a trial away from my home turf in an older courthouse last year, and brought a projector and huge screen with me. I could be remembering this incorrectly, but I think when I was plugged in via HDMI to the projector, the sound may have been routed over HDMI, too. I didn’t want this, since the projector had no speaker (and even if it had one, it probably wouldn’t have been very good). Fortunately I had tested this all in advance.
I ended up getting a decent sounding speaker that I could plug into the headphone jack on my MacBook, and routed the sound through that and the video through a VGA cable (or, if my memory is wrong, through HDMI - but either way I did the sound through the external speaker). The jury had no problem hearing the speaker, which I ran to a spot closer to the jury box.
I don’t know how big your room is, Doty. The area I needed to reach was pretty small (the jury box), but the speaker had enough oomph it would have covered a bigger area.
The only thing I would change was I had to adjust the speaker audio from my Mac, as the speaker had no volume controls. It would have been nice to have the choice to adjust the volume from the speaker itself.
Thank you Evan. I won’t be able to test this ahead of time, so your experience is invaluable! I have a bluetooth speaker that I think will suffice (and it has onboard volume!) In an ideal world, I could use both the projector speaker and my bluetooth speaker. Am I hearing you right that I should plan to plug in the speaker to the headphone jack to stop it from sending sound through the HDMI? Is bluetooth less than desirable in this situation?
I wish I could remember if I went via HDMI or not. Part of me thinks that I couldn’t uncouple the sound from the HDMI, so I ended up getting a VGA cable (I actually still have the long VGA cable, but I’m only about 80% sure I ended up using it). That older technology let me send just the video via VGA, and sound via the audio cable.
I didn’t want to use Bluetooth, because I didn’t want to monkey around with wireless sound during a trial. My video was probably about 30 minutes, so I wanted the reliability of a wired connection. You might be fine with Bluetooth, though.
Yes, iOS screen mirroring is AirPlay, and it doesn’t require that you connect with a cable. The icon with a rectangle and a triangle at the bottom is AirPlay.
I use this thing for HDMI to VGA. It works fine with Apple TV, but it does require power, as HDMI to VGA is more involved than just changing the shape of the plug:
You can adjust all the sounds output settings on your Mac in system preferences. I use Bluetooth to the speaker than a local Airplay connection to my Apple TV and it works like a dream
Hi everyone. I thought I’d give a quick update. My presentation was very well received. Thank you everyone for your help!
My request to look at the projector before the presentation led to keeping it at my house for the better part of a week! I tested a lot of setups, but, in the end, I decided to present from my Mac using this hdmi - usb c adapter (thanks @adabbagh) and this clicker. The clicker works fine on a Mac, but iOS implementation feels very flaky. You have to use accessibility and voice over on iOS to make it work and I got frustrated and stopped trying. I would like to hear from people who either a) got this remote working on iOS or b) have found an iOS clicker that is not annoying!
Other random thoughts:
I love Keynotes’ implementation of the touch bar on the MBP! I’ve never enjoyed the touch bar as much!
I used my iPad with the presenter notes for my personal notes. I loved this, but I wish there was a way to view my current and next slide with the presenter notes at the same time. The iPad is big enough, but that combination isn’t available.
I had no idea of the room setup, so I took a music stand with me to hold my iPad. It worked well and I will do this again.
For sound, the projector did indeed have a speaker. It sounded like a tin can! Instead, I connected my bluetooth speaker via headphone cable to the Mac. What I discovered with HDMI is that when the headphone cable is plugged in, sound stops going over the HDMI to the projector and the speaker takes priority. Every once in a while during my practice, the connection seemed to be lost and I needed to unplug and replug the headphone jack, but luckily this didn’t happen on presentation day. One thing I didn’t get a chance to test is whether I could have used a splitter and connected two speakers together in a daisy chain. One speaker was sufficient in my loud restaurant room that held 20ish people.
Getting the projector to the right height was the most challenging part of the setup. I wondered ahead of time if I should bring wedges or something to adjust the height, but I thought I was crazy. When we were using random things around the meeting room (including my handouts and my iPhone, I wish I had brought something!) Any ideas for how you guys handle this for projectors that are not permanently mounted?
Even though I tested a variety of cords, I never got the VGA connection to work. This seemed odd to me, but unnecessary as HDMI was available and simple.
I did find that I could connect my iPad or iPhone to the projector reliably through Apple’s dongle, but since I couldn’t find a good option for a clicker for iOS, I opted to use my MBP instead. It would work well in a pinch as a backup, but I am fond of a physical clicker and I hope I can find a reliable option for iOS in the future.
Apple TV: I couldn’t get this to work either. I turned off wifi on both the Mac and the ATV, and tried to airplay or screen share, but the Mac couldn’t find the ATV. I tried with my iPad and iPhone as well and had the same result. I’m assuming this was user error, but I would like to know how to make this work.
That’s all I can think of at the moment! I hope this helps someone and feel free to ask questions if I can be of assistance.
You need WiFi and bluetooth enabled to use Airplay - you don’t need to have a wifi network to connect to though. The devices build their own mini network just for the AirPlay
I wondered about that! But I wanted to test it. I guess the only way I could have tested it is if I would have gone into settings and told it to “forget this network” and then set it up again later.
If I was going to use an ATV regularly for this purpose, I would want a 2nd one so I don’t have to crawl behind the TV to unplug it! Does the older (non-4k) ATV work well enough for presentation purposes? Another option might be to try to find a separate power cord for the ATV so I could disconnect the unit easily and quickly.
After hearing David Sparks talk about his presentation kit that he keeps in his trunk I started doing that. It has saved me once, but that once was one of the most important presentations of my career. I was presenting from my iPad Pro with the Apple HDMI lightning adapter. The system in the room would just not recognize it. I went out to my car, grabbed the Apple TV out of the kit and it worked.
BTW, I stayed for testing later, and a power off/power on for the iPad Pro caused the system to recognize it again.
