Business Power Point Projector Basics

If you need to purchase a power point projector for an upcoming presentation or deadline, time is of the essence and with all the technical jargon and options, this task can really seem overwhelming. That’s why this article was created to give you the simple, basic understanding you need. If you go looking on your own, the first thing that the salesman will tell you is about resolution and brightness and will use other accepted industry buzzwords, but now you’ll know what they are talking about.

When an image is projected, it is made up of a quantity of dots of light called pixels. Your video source, in this case your laptop, determines the initial resolution. Ideally, your projector should operate natively at this same resolution.

Amazingly, not long ago the common resolution used to be rather crude VGA (640 x 480), this was later replaced by SVGA (800 x 600) and the more modern quality XGA (1,024 x 768). You may even hear about SXGA (1,280×1, 024) that will give you even greater resolution, but tends to run on the expensive side.  While projectors can often accommodate more than one resolution, they usually have one resolution that they are most comfortable with, this is the projector’s native resolution or default resolution.

Brightness is one of the most important parameters when it comes to making presentations on the go, the projector bulb that will come with your projector will be graded by something called lumens.  Lumens measure the intensity of a projector’s light and the environment in which you use the projector is a major factor in deciding how many lumens you need. For larger sized audiences in a semi-darkened room, you will probably have to go with Ansi lumens measurements of 5,200 lumens.  Less lumens would be needed for a small audience, with a smaller screen in a well darkened room. In this case 1000 lumens could work fine. When you see the term ANSI lumens, just know that ANSI is a common standard method of measuring lumens.

Another important factor to consider is “throw distance”, this is the distance that your projector should be from the screen.  If your projector needs to be far from the screen, it will usually be equipped with a large throw lens. For power point projector presentations, short throw projectors can be advantageous because you can place them at the front of the room near the screen (behind the presenter) and make your presentation without any obtrusive shadows on the screen or distracting projector lamps glaring at you.

Also important when using projectors for power point and similar presentations is interface connectivity and resolution, your computer needs to be compatible with your projector. Be sure that the resolution of both the projector and your laptop are compatible, ideally the same. Most of the time this is not an issue. In any case, still check to make sure you have the proper ports and cables at your disposal to connect your devices.

In your projector search, you want to look at a really wide range of items and narrow it down from these; find a place that allows you to view many projectors in a sitting. Projectorselect.com is one site that meets this criteria. Now that you know all about some of the basics about Power Point Projectors, you are armed with the knowledge you need to visit sites like ProjectorSelect.com, browse and compare the multitude of projectors available. Good luck.