Audiovisual facilities in lecture theatres

Lecture Theatre 1 and 2 of the William Gates Building are well equipped with audio-visual facilities

• projecting computer screens (Windows PC, VGA laptop connector)
• projecting paper pages
• playing sound and videos
• voice emphasis

Lecturers and hosts of guest speakers should best familiarize themselves in advance with the controls and facilities. The AV facilities are managed by Peter Robinson and Brian Jones and suggestions for improvement should be addressed to them. Martyn Johnson, Markus Kuhn, and Rob Harle are also happy to provide introductions and answer questions on the system.

Room Lights

The room lighting is controlled by identical control panels near the entrance doors You choose between room illumination modes with the silvery control panel next to each door:

• 1 - all lights fully on
• 2 - lecture using projection (less light on the screen)
• 3 - theatre mode (front lit, audience dark)
• 4 - cinema mode (mostly dark, vestigial lighting at the back)
• Off - all lights off

The arrow keys can be used to raise or lower the illumination.

Using the data projectors

There are:

• Two projectors: East and West
• Two benches: East and West

The entrance to the lecture theatre is East. The cycle park is West.

AV control panel

The Crestron AV control panel is located east of the projection screen. It has a touch-sensitive LCD screen plus 10 buttons. Our software interface uses only the touch-panel, not the buttons. If the screen is dark, just touch it to wake up the screen saver. Active buttons are blue, inactive ones are shown in grey

There are currently four different screen menus:

	Main Menu: Leads to the projector, audio and lighting menus. The bottom-left on-screen button activates or reactivates both projectors. A 'warming' message is displayed while the projectors are starting; They cannot be shut down or blanked until the warming part of the cycle is complete. The East projector displays the signal from the East bench and the West projector displays the signal from the West bench. Selecting the source of the signal is carried out at the bench itself. The bottom-right on-screen button turns the audio and video off. A message box will display showing that the projectors are in a cooldown cycle. They cannot be restarted until the cycle is complete.
Projectors: The projectors menu allows either projector to be temporarily blanked. After 9 minutes of blank, a projector will switch off. Selecting 'Turn on for normal lecture' on the main menu will restart a blanked projector without disturbing a running one. Selecting 'Unblank' will unblank the projector, restarting it if necessary.	Audio: Separate volume and mute controls for both the voice-microphone and the computer-audio amplifier systems. Note that you cannot adjust the voice amplification correctly by listening at the bench - the sound is projected to the back of the lecture theatre.	Lighting: A replica of the functions of panel next to the doors.

The Turn on for normal lecture button restores the default state for audio and projectors.

Benches

Each bench is associated with a single projector. The selection of the source for the projector is carried out at the bench, using either a KVM on the bench top (West bench) or one built in to the bench itself (East bench).

East bench

The KVM allows you to select input for the projector from a Visualiser, laptop, or one of two inputs from a PC built into the bench. The LCD on the bench top can be switched independently for maximum flexibility. It takes 1 or 2 seconds for the source to switch to the selected input.

West bench

The West bench does not have the built in PC, in this case the input to the KVM allows you to select the signal from the other bench, thus showing the same image via both projectors. The LCD on the west bench shows the signal being sent to the projector so you can see what you are projecting without looking over your shoulder.

Built-in Windows computer

Each lecture theatre has in the East bench a built-in PC (hostnames: {lt1bench,lt2bench}.ad.cl.cam.ac.uk), running a standard lab-administered networked Windows 7 setup with Microsoft Office, Adobe Acrobat and Matlab installed. This is an easy way for lecturers to turn up and deliver PowerPoint or PDF presentations. To access your normal home directory: click on "Start" and "Run ..." and then open either \\filer\userfiles\crsid\unix_home or \\filer\userfiles\crsid\windows_home.

The PC has a DVD drive and a USB socket to accommodate remote controls and visitors with other media. Everyone with a login on these PCs also has administrator rights, therefore you can install and update software yourself.

Two tips to protect you from network failures interfering with your presentation:

• Make sure you have logged in at least once to the presentation PC before your lecture course starts. This will locally cache your login credentials. You can then log into the machine even if the network is down. Subsequent logins are also substantially faster than the first one.
• Copy your presentation files onto the presentation PC's desktop well before the start of the lecture. This way your presentation sits on the local disc (local profile), and any network failure should not interfere with your presentation.

Visualizer

Each bench has a visualizer (manual available here). This is a high-res video camera with VGA output and illumination that can be used like an overhead projector. It can project normal paper; no transparencies needed. To achieve the best display, use the opt button to switch between Text mode (which electronically enhances images to make text more readable) or non-text mode which is displays objects more accurately.

Setting up a laptop presentation

1. Connect your laptop with the provided VGA cable and your own power cable to the bench.
2. Configure your laptop to 1024 × 768 pixels resolution for best image quality (the projector can handle any standard mode up to 1280 × 1024 via pixel interpolation) and activate its external video connector.
3. If the AV control panel is dark, touch the screen to activate it.
4. In the Main Menu, select the button Turn on for normal lecture
5. The projector menu will show 'warming' for 45 seconds, during this time the projectors will start to display the selected images. The sound reinforcement will switch on.
6. If at any time you want to use the other half of the projection area to show a transparency, use the Projectors Menu to blank the video signal for one projector temporarily.

Lighting Mode 2 (front row off, rest of room at half illumination) is the best trade-off between screen brightness and students being able to see you and take notes.

Before you leave the room, make sure that the projectors are switched off, unless your successor wants to continue using them. Press the bottom right Turn everything Off button, and after a 90-second projector cooling period the system is deactivated and ready for the next user.

Each projector lamp lasts only for about 1000 hours, therefore make sure they do not remain on over night.

The projectors switch off automatically at 13:10 and 22:10, this can be prevented with the button Disable scheduled power off

Radio microphones

The acoustics in both lecture theatres is quite good and most healthy/experienced speakers will not need any amplification. However, using radio microphones is recommended to improve understandability near the back of the room, especially with LT1, large audiences, inexperienced speakers, or speakers with voice problems, strong accents, or sedative topics. Microphones must be used if a talk is recorded or for a member of the audience to use a hearing aid with induction loop.

The radio microphones are clearly labeled with a room (LT1/LT2). Microphones must only be used within their designated room. Each room uses a different set of channels, so equipment in one room cannot interfere with that in the other. Each Lecture Theatre has two hand-held microphones and two lapel microphones. When using lapel microphones we suggest putting the microphone on the right lapel, as speakers invariably turn to their right when illustrating points on the screen with a laser pointer.

The radio microphones are stored in the preparation room between the lecture theatres (GW21), along with AA replacement batteries. On switch-on the microphones show their channel number (08-xx for LT1, 05-xx for LT2) and the battery state of charge. The lapel microphone batteries are changed by flipping the bottom half of the front cover forward, the handheld radio microphone head unscrews to gain access to the battery compartment.

The radio microphones drive the speakers attached to the ceiling. The speaker arrays are driven by digital signal processors to target the amplified voice at the back rows and to suppress microphone feedback. A speaker standing at the bench will not be able to hear that voice emphasis is on.

Laser pointer

There is a simple laser pointer stored in the same drawer in the preparation room as the radio microphones.

Some lecturers bring their own laser pointers, which often include a presentation remote control for the PgUp/PgDn keys with USB receiver plug (e.g., Kensington). These usually behave just like a second USB keyboard and need no drivers to be installed.

Recording facilities

LT1 has a video recording system installed. Ask Rob Harle or Brian Jones for details. There are currently no recording facilities installed in LT2.

Miscellaneous details

• Sound/music can be supplied from signal sources on either bench via 3.5 mm connector. You should find the correct cable provided on each of the two benches to connect a laptop audio output if you want to demonstrate sound via the speakers. Spare cables and a selection of mains cables are also kept in the East bench, but please return them after use.
• Ethernet (RJ45, 100BASE-T) network connections are available on each bench. These are connected to VLAN 190 (the subnet used for self-administered machines in the department). Anyone who has the MAC address of their laptop registered in the department’s DHCP database can access the Internet from there. Fill out this form to enable DHCP for your or your visitor’s computer. University voip telephones will work if connected to the network, retaining their number, institution and any dialling restrictions.
• WLAN coverage for the entire building provides an access point with the SSID “wgb” that provides simple Internet connectivity to the general public. The "wgb" network does not require authentication, but it is shared widely, so the connection may be slow. Eduroam wireless connectivity also extends to the lecture theatres.
• Manuals and documentation for the equipment and wiring are at /usr/groups/building/AV/.
• The teaching benches have thick umbilical cord cables that can be plugged into three floor boxes below the benches, called East, Centre and West. They are normally plugged into the East and West position but the rooms offers a lot of configuration flexibility for special occasions. Such special configurations are not supported by the AV panel and require manual configuration of the AV switches.

Installed equipment

Lecture theatre 1 and 2 of the William Gates Building are equipped with a sophisticated audio and video presentation facilities. In particular, each lecture theatre contains:

• PC running Windows 7.
• two XGA (1024 × 768 pixels) video projectors
• two teaching benches with various AV and power connections
• several additional floor boxes with AV connections
• Four radio microphone receivers with two clip-on and two handheld microphones
• an echo-cancelling mono DSP/amplifier/speaker system for voice from the microphones (Gentner AP800)
• a stereo amplifier/speaker system for sound from bench computer or laptop (interM M500)
• An inductive loop for transmitting audio signals to hearing aids (Ampetronic 252)
• a programmable light controller with control panels next to the doors
• an embedded PC that controls all of the above via serial port connections (Crestron CNMSX-PRO) and provides user access via an illuminated LCD touch panel (Crestron CT-1000) with function keys, as well as a web server
• a high-resolution digital presenter (ELMO P30)
• both the front wall as well as the teaching benches have twisted-pair connectors (RJ45) for 100BASE-T Ethernet or telephone
• both theatres are covered by the Lab’s IEEE 802.11b wireless LAN
• Sony AWS-G500 Anycast Station live content producer (manual, local instructions)

Some of the above equipment is locked away in the projection room and not normally accessible to users.