Connecting PowerPoint Equipment
After you've gotten the equipment to run PowerPoint, you have to connect it all together.
Before we start, here's a list of what you'll need:
- Digital Projector
- Computer or Laptop (with PowerPoint installed)
- Screen (or wall)
- Cables (power cables for the projector and computer and video cable)
Feel free to take a moment and review the Basic Requirements for PowerPoint before going on.
There are different ways to connect the equipment, depending on your church layout and goals.
Let's start with the basics first.
The laptop (or computer) needs to be connected to the digital projector.
Generally speaking, there are 3 cables involved - the two power cables (one for the projector and one for the laptop) and a video (or VGA) cable.
The video cable will have blue square ends.
For quick reference, look at the images below.
Unless you have two graphics cards installed, the video cable will only fit on one port on the computer.It doesn't matter which end of the video cable you connect to the computer and digital projector.
But the port you connect to on the projector does matter.
The Digital Projector will have two VGA ports - one marked VGA IN and the other marked VGA OUT.
Connect the video cable to the port marked VGA IN.
This allows data to flow out of the laptop computer and In the Projector.
This is the most basic setup for connecting the computer to the digital projector.
Now you can run PowerPoint presentation and project it onto a screen or wall.
These cables are generally under 3 feet in length.
If your setup requires a greater distance between the computer and digital projector, you'll need to purchase a longer video cable.
What About Sound?
Suppose your PowerPoint presentation has background music built in and you'd like to hear it.You have two options at this point. Either add a sound system or run the presentation without sound.
The simplest way to add sound is to connect amplified speakers to your computer's sound card.
In this case, you don't need a stereo.
But you do need speakers that are amplified and have enough volume to reach the back of the sanctuary. This is a lot easier than it sounds.
You can buy really good computer speakers with the power and volume to get the job the done.
They'll come with the proper the RCA cable to connect to your computer's sound card. There's also a little trick you can use to cheat a bit.
Suppose you have a powerpoint presentation that you'd like to show while a song is playing. Rather than connecting the sound equipment to the computer, you could just play the song from a CD in the stereo.
This takes some coordination in manually syncing the song with powerpoint presentation.
But it's a great way to add music to your powerpoint presentation without having to connect extra equipment.
How to Run Video Through the Projector
Let's suppose that you would like to show a video through the projection system.Now you need to add a VHS/DVD player and a sound system.
Now you have to connect the following equipment together:
- Digital Projector
- Computer
- VHS/DVD Player
- Sound system
Most small churches, don't have an elaborate sound system or dedicated folks to run it. Not a problem.
You can use a small stereo or boom box with RCA ports on it (which will be red and white).
You'll need a couple of more cables to make everything work properly. These are called RCA cables.
One of the RCA cables will red and white ends.
The other will have red, white and yellow ends.
The red and white ends allow the sound to travel through the equipment.
The yellow end allows the video to travel.
There are a couple of other ways to connect the video equipment, but we're sticking to the basics here.
Putting It All Together
When you look at the digital projector, you'll see a set of Red-White-Yellow RCA ports.Your VHS/DVD player will also have a set of Red-White-Yellow RCA ports. Sometimes the red cable is orange instead.
The back of your stereo will have Red-White RCA ports (no yellow).
Connect the video Output from the VHS/DVD player to the Video Input on the digital projector (red-white-yellow).
Now to the same thing with sound.
Connect one end of the cable (red-white) to the Audio Out on the VHS/DVD player and the other end to the Audio In on the sound system.
If everything is connected correctly, you should have sound and video when you play a video from the VHS/DVD player.
You may have to set the stereo to the AUX setting to hear the sound.
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