AV Guidelines

General Advice

Prepare in advance

In supporting the technical elements of the Book Festival, we have two main focuses: to eliminate author worries and to deliver the highest-possible production standards to our audiences. For these reasons we are more than happy to give you as much technical assistance and creative advice as you need in preparing and using your AV materials. However, please be aware that we have a substantial number of events and authors to support. We can only deliver the personal service we aim for if we receive information and materials well in advance. When receiving confirmations from us, please do take the time to check that we have correctly noted your technical requirements for your event(s) and let us know if they change as you continue your event planning.

If you are intending to use AV presentations of any kind, from an audio recording to PowerPoint, please do send us copies well ahead of your event. We will check them and can then guarantee that they will be in the venue, working and ready for your event; there will be no need to worry about corrupt discs or memory discs, incompatible or damaged files or any of the many other problems that can arise when delivering AV material at the last minute.

We are also more than happy to look over draft or finished materials and give you feedback if we receive them in good time. Our technical team have a great deal of experience in this area and are happy to advise you, especially useful if you are new to producing presentations.

'Background' presentations

There is an increasing tendency to use 'background' presentations: scrolling and repeating automatically behind a speaker but never or rarely referred to in the talk. Done well, these can add interest to an event, but frequently the audience instead find they act as a distraction from the conversation on stage. We would strongly advise that great care is taken in preparing presentations of this kind. If venue managers feel that a presentation is distracting for the audience they may play it once through and then return to the Book Festival's title slide.

Controlling your presentation

Should you wish to bring your own laptop, you are more than welcome to do so (see the later section), however all our theatres are equipped with facilities to play PowerPoint and slideshows. Unless you particularly wish to do otherwise, we would recommend sending your materials ahead and using our systems: this will ensure everything is ready in advance and avoid last-minute setting-up and troubleshooting.

We run presentations on a computer located at the venue manager's control position. This has a small handheld remote which you can use to move forwards and backwards through the presentation and also as a laser pointer. Alternatively the venue manager can advance slides for you if the required moments are clear. The venue manager also has a mixer allowing rapid and smooth switching between in-house and visiting computers, DVD and video players etc.

Projection sizes

When sourcing images and video materials, please note that our projectors in the four larger theatres all operate at a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels. Images and videos smaller than this will lose quality and detail if projected full-screen in the theatres. The plasma screen in the smaller venues operates at 640 x 480 pixels.

PowerPoint

PowerPoint is a very powerful piece of software, however it is not always the best tool for the job, and its usability and range of features makes it possible to create presentations that either have technical flaws or do little to enhance your event (and may actually detract from it).

PowerPoint and pictures

If your presentation consists solely of a sequence of full-screen images, PowerPoint is generally not the best solution for displaying them. It tends to produce files which are substantially larger than they need to be, and the overload on the system is one of the most frequent causes of PowerPoint crashing. If you are intending only to show a sequence of full-screen pictures, we would strongly recommend you send us the image files individually to allow us to show them in our slideshow software which is both more responsive and more reliable than PowerPoint. See the section below on Digital Photos.

If you do need to use PowerPoint you can reduce the chances of problems by resizing all images to the right size for projection (see below) and storing them in JPEG or BMP format before adding them to your presentation. Or you can select Best scale for slide show in the Format Picture options for each image and choose a resolution of 1024 x 768 (see diagram on previous page). If you can send presentations far enough in advance we will try to do this for you.

Using video in PowerPoint

You can add videos into PowerPoint presentations, however there are a number of different ways to do this and not all work reliably, especially if the presentation is to be played on different machines. If you are planning to use video in your presentation, please contact us well in advance to discuss the best way to do this.

Slides and prints

We have come to the sad realisation that carousel projection, once the standard for illustrated talks, is a technology time has passed. Anyone who has used slides will doubtless have experienced jammed carousels, blown lamps, lenses slipping out of focus and remotes sticking as well as the normal problems of slide orientation and so on. As carousel projectors cannot guarantee the kind of reliability we expect of our technical equipment, we have decided not to support slide projection any longer.

We have instead invested in equipment to make high-quality digital scans of your slides if they are provided in enough time. We can also scan images from prints, and are more than happy to scan reasonable numbers of images for you free of charge. We will provide a CD with the images for you to use elsewhere.

If you wish to take up this service, please give us plenty of notice. You should also read the next section on Digital Slideshows, as this is what your slides will become!

Sending us slides

If you send slides for scanning, please package them carefully in plastic or card boxes to prevent damage and use a suitable recorded-delivery service. Place the slides in sequence, and ensure each slide is numbered clearly. It is also helpful to identify the orientation of the image (eg top/left etc) on the slide.

Digital Slideshows

Our software allows you to display full-screen photographs very easily and reliably. It has options for the slideshow to be controlled manually (by you or by our technician) or advanced after a fixed time period and if required to loop throughout your event. The pictures will automatically be scaled to give the best fit on the screen.

The software can handle JPEG/JPG or BMP (Windows Bitmap) format images automatically, although we can convert from almost any format if sent ahead. Please include a number in each image filename to indicate the order they are to be shown in or include a list of files in sequence.

Acrobat (PDF), Word (DOC) and other 'document' formats

Please note that files such as Adobe Acrobat (PDF) and Microsoft Word (DOC) are not image files but are instead 'documents' containing versions of the images and information on a printed page layout. It is generally impossible to electronically extract images from document files such as these. While we can do so manually this is very time consuming and often image quality suffers in the process. Please send us the individual image files instead of composite documents.

Video and DVD

The four larger theatres have facilities to play back from VHS video and DVDs, and the smaller venues can support this on our shared plasma screen if we have advance notice. In the larger theatres, we can feed sound from your video through the PA system, however in the smaller venues we may need to set up additional speakers therefore please give us notice if this is required.

Formats and show discs

For reasons of reliability, we ask that you provide your video materials in line with the following guides. Unless the rights-holder specifically permits otherwise, we will not be able to screen material from discs or tapes carrying a 'private-use only' warning. You should be able to obtain clips without this warning as part of your rights clearance.

If your video requires subtitles they must be contained within the clip rather than switched on or off from a menu.

VHS Video

VHS tapes must be in PAL (UK) format.

DVD

DVD videos must be mastered in PAL format, for Region 2, and should be entirely free of menus. Each clip and each black segment should be mastered as a separate track/chapter on the disc.

PC Videos

We can play most formats of video files from disk, however please send files to us in good time to allow us to convert them (if required) and make them up appropriately (if required).

Don't have materials that meet our requirements?

With sufficient advance notice, our technical team may be able to create a suitable event disc from your tapes/discs. To discuss what materials, information and timescales we require please contact the Technical Manager as soon as possible.

Overhead Projectors and Visualisers

An overhead projector is available, however it is shared across the venues so advance booking is essential. We can provide sheet transparency and permanent markers, however if you require anything else we would ask you to bring it with you.

Alternatively in the four larger theatres we can provide a visualiser, which uses a fixed camera to provide a digital equivalent of an overhead projector. This projects onto our main screen and produces an image which is larger, brighter and not subject to the problems of skewing found with overhead projectors. It also allows you to sit or stand to one side of the screen to improve sightlines for the audience. It will project from transparency or paper/documents/objects.

Sound Recordings

We can play sound recordings through the PA system. Recordings should be provided on audio CD, or in advance as data files (WAV/MP3 etc). To ensure accuracy, if you wish to play excerpts we ask that the CD be pre-edited so that there is a track mark at the start of each excerpt, and that the CD contain all the tracks required for your event, in the order you wish to use them. Again, with sufficient advance notice we may be able to make up a CD for you - please discuss with the Technical Manager.

For commercial CDs, we will require a list of the tracks (and durations) to be played including details of the title, composer, arranger, publisher, recording artist(s) and record label for copyright purposes.

Live Music

We have basic facilities to amplify instruments and vocals in all our venues (except the Writers' Retreat and RBS Workshop Tent), and strongly advise you to feed any live music through our PA systems; rain, wind, generators and passing traffic can at times cause surprisingly high levels of background noise. Please let us know in advance of any instruments and musical requirements so we can prepare adequate stage space and technical facilities. If you are performing copyrighted works (even your own) we will need details of the title, duration, composer, arranger and publisher of each piece for copyright purposes.

Flipcharts

We can provide flipcharts with paper and pens, please let us know in advance. If you have particular requirements for number, colour or thicknesses of pens please ask.

Anything Else?

This guide covers the main facilities we are asked about each year. However we love a challenge and the Technical Manager will be happy to discuss requests for any facilities not covered here.