A projection screen is an intrinsic element in any projection system, since the finished presentation will be considered only as good as its weakest link. A projection surface which is high in quality will not only be able to create a great viewing experience, but also improve the integrity of the picture at the stage of visual reproduction. A good projector screen is designed to frame and enhance an image to help recreate a real feel of the images that are being viewed. A fine projection screen can actually make your projector shine.

Projection screens can come in different types and sizes such as front, rear, wide screen, reflective, solid, or non-solid. Projection screens come in handy for recreation purposes or business uses, when you need to hold a conference or presentation. There are a variety of brands in the market that deal in projection screens, with the most well-known being Draper, Epson and Da-Lite.

Front projection screens are by far the most popular, since rear projection screens often require building a projection booth. However, for specialized or high-end applications, rear projection screens have several advantages such as the ability to display quality images in near-normal room lighting, eliminating distractions from the projection equipment, and allowing the presenter to walk in front of the screen.

A projection screen is a device which consists of a support structure and a usually white and somewhat reflective surface that is used for displaying projected images for the viewing audience. These screens can be installed for use in a conference room, with a home theatre, a movie theater, painted on the wall, or as semi-permanent or mobile. Screen surfaces of the white matte variety are the most popular for computer projections because of their ability to display high levels of detail. Glass-beaded or pearlescent surfaces are not recommended for computer displays, but they have very good performance with video images.

Gain is the measure of reflectivity of the projection screen surface. A screen with high gain will reflect more light back to the audience, allowing the room lights to be brighter without washing out the image. However, the tradeoff with high-gain screens is a loss in the viewing angles, with the audience members seated at a perpendicular angle to the screen being able to view the images better than those at other angles.

Pull-down screens have a multipurpose uses. They are very convenient, because you do not need too much space to install the screen. This can work well for conference rooms for the same reason. Electric screens are those that can be mounted on the wall or ceiling. These projection screens are usually large in size and are quite similar to pull-down screens. However, instead of the screen being pulled down manually, an electric motor lowers and raises the screen. This can be done through a wall-mounted switch or a remote control. Certain projectors are equipped with an interface that connects to the screen. This mechanism automatically lowers the screen when the projector is switched on and raises it automatically when the projector is switched off.

These days, portable projection screens have become an extremely convenient option for people to travel out of office to deliver presentations. A portable or a mobile screen can be pulled down onto a free stand, and are used when it is impractical or not possible to mount the screen to a ceiling or a wall. They are user-friendly and can be assembled in matter of minutes. Portable projector screens are also quite affordable because of the increased competition and number of available options. The lightest projector screens are very easy to carry around.

If you’ve been looking for a projector that you can use to highlight your sales pitch to potential customers, or to present reports to managements, it's likely that you've encountered a dizzying array of features, acronyms, and options that make choosing your ideal projector a bewildering experience. Most quality projectors don’t come cheap, and making a mistake in deciding could result in either wasting a lot of money, or getting stuck with the wrong projector for many years to come. In this article we make this task much easier by outlining the key factors to consider in making this important decision.

• Room lighting – Whereas a dark room is usually preferred, in most business settings some lights need to be on in order to take notes and audience interaction. The more lights that need to be turned on, the brighter the projector you’ll need.
• Room size – In a large room with many people, the image needs to be larger and the projector further from the screen. The larger the room and image, the brighter the projector needs to be.
• Usage – Projectors used for training and working groups, where much detail needs to be seen, need to be brighter than those used for graphics and video, which are more likely to be seen in a dark room.
• Projection Screen – A high-quality projection screen provides substantial light reflection, enhancing even a low-brightness projector’s image.  

More on Choosing a Projector – Which is Right for You?

You want to make a splash with your latest sales presentation masterpiece, but you need a projector, so you start looking around at the available alternatives. As soon as you do, your head starts spinning with the technical jargon and myriad options available. What does this all mean?  Choosing the right projector depends on your specific needs, and the options sort themselves out as you understand the technology better.  Let us take a look at some of these options and the terms associated with the projector industry. 

• LCD Projectors - Liquid Crystal Display projectors. Also known as LCD projectors, create images by light projection through transparent LCD panels. They usually have three separate panels for red, green and blue colors. However, single-panel models are in production that are more portable and less expensive. However, the contrast and resolution in these models is lusually lower. In general, LCD projectors produce high contrasts and good colors that result in a good image quality even in dimly lit or partially lit rooms. However, since light is projected through small pixels, the resulting picture can look blocky or pixilated; this effect is known as the “screen door” effect. The number of pixels in a chip of the LCD determines the image resolution of the LCD Projector. 
• DLP Projectors - A Digital Light Processing, or DLP projector, creates images by the projection of light through a transparent chip into a minute mirror. This results in high definition and high quality images. They are great for both home theater and office use. And unlike LCD projectors, they do not produce a screen door effect. DLP projectors produce very high quality pictures and images with high contrast and vivid colors while at the same time using very little energy. 
• Native resolution - This is the measure of the standard image in pixels that is projected on the screen. Higher resolution results in higher detail in displaying pictures, but projectors featuring high resolution is significantly more expensive. When you select a projector you have to take into account requirements such as live feeds, full motion video or standard PowerPoint slides. To find out how your presentation will look at a certain resolution, use your computer monitor to get a rough idea of the level of detail that can be displayed. The most common resolutions available in modern projectors are: SVGA (800 x 600) and XGA (1,024 x 768). These resolutions should suffice for most types of business presentations. 
• ANSI lumens - This is the common scale that is used to determine the brightness of a projector. 1,000 lumens is the minimum amount of brightness for a small meeting room with the lights on. 2, 000 or higher lumens is better suited for presentation venues that are comparatively smaller, and lumens more than 3,500 is good for rooms that are larger. 
• Video Format Capability - The video format of a digital projector determines the kind of video data it can accept. Normally, most projectors on the market offer all three kinds of video formatting, namely NTSC, PAL and SECAM.

Now that we've defined these terms, we'll explain how to choose a projector for your particular situation in the next article in the series.

Your audience will attend your presentation with certain needs and interests, and it's your job to discern what they are before preparing your speech. Having relevant and current information is a critical factor in producing and delivering a successful presentation. So how can you proceed in the right direction on the road to producing a presentation that is relevant to your audience's needs? Here are some pointers:

• Outline your plans and main points before starting to work on your presentation. You must remember that the main purpose of a presentation is to share information on an interactive level with the audience. Preferably, this information is such that they cannot acquire it simply by reading a readily accessible book, article or handout. Therefore, you must ensure to cover all the main points that are of interest to your audience. The presentation should offer something different that will act as a magnet to attract the interest of your viewers, so figure out what that extra something is that you can offer to the audience to give them that "wow" factor that separates most presentations from the truly effective ones.
  
  
• Do extensive research on the background of your audience, their needs, and factors such as age and gender, their level of familiarity with your subject matter, and what their expectations might be. Take into account the purpose of the presentation in the first place, and try not to deviate from the main theme. You need to respect the fact that the viewer has also taken time out to attend your talk, so the speech should reflect appropriate effort and impart information that is appropriate to their needs.
• No matter how attractive or professional the supporting visuals to your presentation or delivery are, you will succeed only if the presentation is based on content that is informative and solid. Try not to bore the listener with too much unnecessary information; stick to simplicity. Also, be careful not to confuse simplicity with condescension; the audience shall not be taken for granted or assumed to be ignorant. This is where your research regarding the audience's background will help most.
• The structure of the presentation shall be sound, clear and forceful. Without this, even the most appealing delivery, style or visuals will fall flat. It is difficult to design an understandable structure if your objectives are not clear . It is not enough to have a rough road map or a general agenda that pertains to your presentation; it is clarity and flow that is important. In fact, the audience might get exasperated if the presentation lacks focus or is muddled.
• When you are in the process of building your content, try to visualize yourself in the place of your audience. Try to figure out what points would interest them and what answers they would like to know. If the content fails to interest you, do you really think your viewer will care about it? So plan out your speech accordingly. A presentation can be called successful if the audience remembers even three points from the talk.
• Stories and anecdotes are an integral part of a good presentation. The best presenters interweave their content and material with lots of illustrations and personal stories. These anecdotes are also easy to remember and have good recall value. However, a story or an illustration should be concise, crisp and to the point and should support the main content.

In the end, it is vital to remember that it is your level of confidence that will help you out in even the trickiest situations. The key to turn up the confidence level is to get plenty of practice and rehearsals before the actual event. That will ensure that fear and anxiety that is produced from unforeseen events is removed. This in turn will raise your level of self belief and confidence which will help you in making the best presentation possible.

As a general rule, visual aids are a must if you want your presentation to deliver your key points in a clear and understandable manner. Unless the speaker is particularly captivating and entertaining, a presentation without visual aids could become monotonous and forgettable. Additionally, the visual aids serve the dual purpose of guiding the speaker through the flow of the speech while emphasizing the main points of your message to the audience. In order to design a PowerPoint presentation that is clear and organized, you need to first outline and understand the purpose of the presentation. Also, give some thought to the size of your audience and their age bracket. Based on these parameters, you need to design and produce your presentation materials. 


Though it may sound trivial, the fact remains that introductions are an important part of the presentation. If you cannot capture the audience’s attention in the first two minutes, coming up with attractive points later on will not help. To avoid boring your audience, ensure that your presentation is concise and delivers the key messages efficiently; that way it will not appear to be unnecessarily long. The body of the presentation should be entertaining and designed to relate to your audience’s needs directly without sounding like a dry tutorial. The presentation should end on a powerful note that summarizes your key points and leaves a deep impact on the viewer’s mind.

Color

When preparing a PowerPoint presentation, try to apply the rules of the color wheel in graphic design. It is imperative to avoid color combinations with colors that fall on opposite sides of the color wheel, staying away from color clashes at any cost. If you decide not to use a professionally-designed PowerPoint template, it is recommended to experiment before deciding on a color scheme that goes with the mood and theme of your presentation. You must remember that color makes a deep impact on the mind, and you do not want your presentation lose its effectiveness because of the wrong color choices. It is a wise decision to preview your presentation in the room where you are scheduled to deliver it, since the image quality of the PowerPoint display may be affected by factors such as overhead lights, amount of sunlight streaming in, and so on. 

Text

The majority of the content is usually delivered by the text of the presentation. Make sure that you deliver your message with concise, summarized statements of your major points, avoiding overly lengthy or wordy descriptions. Fewer words per slide mean that it is easier for the viewer to comprehend the material. Long strings of text should be separated out in bullets and multiple slides.

Special stress should be placed on grammar and spelling. Few things could be more distracting than a presentation with heavy doses of incorrect language, spelling, or grammar. It is advisable to perform a spell check on the presentation before you actually deliver the material. For extremely important presentations, try to rehearse in front of a test audience if you can. Another important aspect that you must not ignore is the font – shape, color and size. It should be simple to read and consistent throughout the entire presentation. A change in font with each slide can be extremely distracting for the audience.

Multimedia

The correct dose of multimedia in the content can take a presentation from ordinary to memorable. The recall value increases for any piece of information that is delivered through well-made video or audio files. Multimedia can be delivered in the presentation through different software such as using verbal narration, music clips, video, MP3, Macromedia Flash files and many other formats. Software such as this can be integrated into a PowerPoint presentation rather easily. However, here again it is important to remember that you should not get carried away with multimedia. Try to keep each PowerPoint page to one or two multimedia files at the most. Too much multimedia content can confuse the audience and reduce the effectiveness of the lecture. Audio clips and music clips can be used along with the visuals to emphasize certain themes.

A multitude of image formats such as JPG, GIF, BMP, PCT, PNG etc can be displayed in PowerPoint Presentations. At all costs, try to steer clear of a large graphic background that could distract the attention of the viewer from the main point that is being explained. The background color should be lighter than the text.

A winning PowerPoint presentation is a combination of these factors, and utilizing them in the correct combination will make the delivery of your message more effective. Well-designed visual aids will enhance your speech and will make your presentation one that your audience will remember.

A presentation can be given by anyone. However, not everyone can give a truly effective presentation without thorough preparation and adequate resources. There are certain elements and presentation skills that are critical to making a presentation entertaining and stimulating:

• Be Prepared - The most important rule is to be prepared. The more you practice your speech, the more fluent and natural you’ll sound when the time comes. Use personal stories and examples wherever possible in your speech. These should not be included blindly, but should, in some way or another, support or emphasize your point. The examples should match the message you are trying to send through your presentation.
   
• Stay calm - Appear calm and relaxed during the course of the speech; do not give in to hyperactivity or nervousness. Also, do not focus on the audience, but on the subject matter of your speech. Use unhurried gestures such as walking patterns and small hand movements. It is important to remember that your audience takes exactly thirty seconds to judge you. Include humorous anecdotes in your speech, but unless you’re purposely trying to be overtly funny, at no point should you mimic a stand up comedian.
   
• Practice Your Body Language - You can practice voice modulation beforehand in order to adjust the tone of your voice so that it complements your message. A powerful voice makes a deeper impression on the mind of the audience. Avoid hunching your shoulders or making nervous gestures; your body language should communicate that you are comfortable and confident.. You should plan out your hand and body positions. Pick three positions, one to your right, one on center stage and one to your left to include every one on different sides of the room, Ensure that you bring along plenty of handouts and visual aids; visual displays are much more effective in communicating your message than words alone.
   
• Use Visuals - You should grab the viewer’s attention by having visuals that illustrate your main points Make sure to take advantage of the presentation software to make your points as compelling as possible. You need to have access to adequate presentation equipment, such as a good projector and a projection screen to provide an effective display surface. In some cases, multimedia presentations with sound and video may help drive your message more effectively.
   
• Start with an Outline - It is advisable to devote some time to making an outline of your presentation before you embark upon the project of creating slides. This will help you save time and result in a more effective and clear presentation. Always remember that presentations that are designed for screen viewing not always come out the same way when you print them. For instance, dark backgrounds may look good on screen, but they may not look the same in print. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the differences for screen versus print presentation handouts.
   
• Know Your Tools - It is extremely important to have slides that communicate your important points with the utmost clarity. In fact, it takes very little effort to go from basic to brilliant. A host of tools are provided by Microsoft PowerPoint that will keep your slides precise, consistent and professional. You should customize the appearance and positioning of the entire layout using a slide master and professionally-designed slide templates. Try to make a variety of formatting changes, and see that you space out your slides effectively. Choose images that have a purpose when you use graphics on a slide. At no point should the slides get too crowded with unnecessary add-ons.
   
• Graphics Clarify Your Message - Create diagrams and charts to emphasize your main points. Slide transitions and animation should be used sparingly and consistently. Too much of them could distract from your presentation’s content. In fact, animation should be limited to key points in order to avoid overwhelming your audience. Graphics, layouts and custom colors can do a lot for your presentation. However, a presentation that has too many disparate colors and fonts, or a misaligned flow chart will not make a very good impression.

These key points will really help in making your presentation effective. Remember that at the end of it all what matters is whether the audience has actually been able to grasp your key messages. Thorough preparation along with strategic visuals and multimedia  go a long way in making powerful presentations.