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Department of Mathematical Sciences

Multi-Media Computing Lab (Wil 1-144)


Room closed Room Open


The Multi-media Computing lab has 28 workstations (with retractable flat screen monitors), a variable zoom projector,  a digital document camera,  a DVD/VCR player and a sound system connected to 4 ceiling mount speakers. The lecturn at the front has a Sun Ray connected to our UNIX server, a plugin for a laptop, and a dedicated cat 5 internet line. All media delivery systems can be controlled and selected from the lecturn. 

  1. Basic Room Operation
  2. Projector operation
  3. Document Camera
  4. Document Camera Slideshows
  5. Workstation monitors - having problems?
  6. Room Policies: scheduling, keys, etc.
  7. Spec Sheets
  8. VCR/DVD player




1. Basic Room Operation:

 Lecturn panel

  1. Turn projector on: DISPLAY ON button on lecturn (or projector remote) - about 1-2 minutes warmup time.
  2. Select device input:  Push the appropriate button on the lecturn panel.
    • DESKTOP/PC --  SunRay
    • LAPTOP   -- connect VGA output in left panel to laptop. 
    • DOCCAM -- document camera. Depress document camera "power" button on it's lower right until it's solid blue. The "PC" button on the document camera is currently irrelevant.
    • VCR -- for VCR or DVD player
    • DVD -- for VCR or DVD player
  3. Internet for a laptop: If the laptop does not connect to the campus wireless network use the ethernet cable in the lecturn's left panel.
  4. Classroom workstations: press key button to open workstation. Turn monitor on (lower right button) - should turn green. If it turns orange (standby mode) wiggle the mouse or hit a key.
  5. USB input: There are two USB inputs in the lecturn's left panel but neither currently has functionality. Later we anticipate flash cards (cruzers) to connect to our Solaris system and/or have an additional PC in the lecturn with USB capability.
When done
  1. Lockdown Worstations: Turn workstation monitors off,  put mouse and keyboards back ( recommended way) and then close workstation tops (firm push to lock at end - don't slam shut)
  2. Power down projector: DISPLAY OFF button on lecturn (or projector remote -depress the remote power button twice). Button flashes for 30 seconds as a powerdown standy mode.
  3. Please put the PROJECTOR REMOTE back in the top right lecturn drawer.
  4. Lock/Close door on way out of classroom.



Most of the projector's remote  features are fluff. Useful ones are the E-Zoom, the zoom, the pointer and the Auto button. The "E-Zoom"  zooms in on the image without changing the projected image size. You can use the (big) green button to move the center point for the E-zoom. The small orange "pointer button" toggles on/off a pointer which can be moved around with the same (big) green button. If you want to make the image size smaller, use the "zoom +/-" buttons at the bottom. Making the projected image size smaller effectively raises the bottom and may be useful if there are many tall people the room - for instance. The "Auto" button can be used to quickly reset the E-zoom back to the maximum size.

E-zoom is a digital zoom so there is some loss of clarity.

zoom is an optical zoom so clarity is retained.

A few technical notes about notes about the EPSON 830p projector and the screen: The (default) aspect ratio is 4:3, it has a 2200-3000 variable lumen output, 1024x768 resolution, automatic keystone correction and autofocus. The screen dimensions are 68" by 91".



The Avervision 530 document camera is essentially a digital camera. It has S-Video, composite video, VGA, DVI and USB output ports and SD/Compact Flash (512Mb max) card slots and can store 80 images in its internal (embedded) memory. It has 1024x768 resolution, 12X optical zoom and an additional 8X digital zoom.  It can easily be folded down to about 7" total height to minimize its vertical footprint. It automatically adjusts to room lighting and has an Autofocus.

It can be used to:
  1.  project "flat finish" notes, papers, etc. For best results turn its overhead light on and the room front light off.
  2.  take pictures and save them as JPEG files either onto its embedded memory (mov) or an SD/Compact Flash card (512Mb max size).
  3.  project transparencies. For best results turn its backlight on and BOTH room lights off. Recommend: make a photocopy of the transparency.
  4.  project "glossy finish" documents. For best results use its overhead light with both room lights off.
  5.  playback JPEG images stored on an SD or Compact Flash card as a slide show.
There is a  remote but it's direct line of sight infra-red technology makes it flakey at best. Recommend: don't use it.

The USB port can connect the document camera to a laptop that (with appropriate free Avermedia Software) can be used to access all the camera's features, including movie making, etc. Recommend: don't use this feature. Perhaps later we'll have an additional PC in the lecturn to access the camera that way.


4. Document Camera Slideshows

A feature of the document camera is that it can present slideshows of JPEG files in sequence.  Such sequences can be stored on the camera's internal (embedded) memory, an SD card or a compact flash card (512Mb max). To use this feature for a lecture or presentation it is best to use an external memory media (SD/Flash card).
  1. To take JPEG pictures and store them on an SD card:
  2. To playback a slidehow sequence of JPEG files from an SD card:
  3. To Creating an SD (Lecture) slideshow at home or work:
  4. Alternate ways of creating JPEG files for a slideshow
  5. Handwritten Notes and Font size

a) To use the document camera to take pictures and store them onto an SD card:

  1. With the "Menu" and "Enter" buttons select memory type: MENU:ADVANCED:MEMORY:TYPE:SD
  2. Make sure document camera overhead light is on - if not keep pressing "Light" button until it is.
  3. Place document on document camera bed
  4. Use document camera zoom if desired
  5. press Autofocus
  6. press Capture
  7. repeat 3-6 as many times as desired.

The resulting JPEG files are stored in a folder "JPEG" on the SD card as files ordered and named "DSCN0001.JPG-DSCN00nn.JPG".

b) To playback a slidehow sequence of JPEG files from an SD card:

  1. With the "Menu" and "Enter" buttons select memory type: MENU:ADVANCED:MEMORY:TYPE:SD
  2. press "Playback" button
  3. Select: MENU:SLIDESHOW
  4. Hit MENU twice quickly to pause at the first frame ("DSCN0001.JPG")
  5. Hit right/left arrows to advance/go back by a single image

Note: The document camera seeks out all JPEG files in all folders but starts its search in the "JPEG" folder.

c) Creating an SD (Lecture) slideshow at home or work:

Any documents can be transferred into the "JPEG" folder of an SD card for playback. So long as they are JPEG files named *.JPG the document camera will recognize them and will play them back using the SLIDESHOW feature. HOWEVER --- THEY MAY NOT PLAY BACK IN THE ORDER YOU INTEND DEPENDING ON HOW THEY'RE NAMED.

If you name them "DSCN0001.JPG-DSCN00nn.JPG" then DSCN0001.JPG is played first followed by DSCN0002.JPG, etc.

Files named "Lecture0001.jpg - Lecture000n.jpg" play in the expected order

However, some punctuation seems to screw things up. For instance, Lecture_0004.jpg shows BEFORE Lecture_0003.jpg. This might have something to do with the "_" character but the way the character ordering scheme works is a bit of a mystery  to me. If you stay away from non-alphanumeric schemes you should be OK.


d) Alternate ways of creating JPEG files for a slideshow

Clearly you can use the method a) above. But a simple effective alternate way is to use your own digital camera to take a picture of your notes or documents (journal pages, figures etc.). Yah,  it's kinda James Bond-ish but it's simple and you can prepare lectures at home. If you try this, large size JPEGS (say from a 5Mpx camera) load slowly. You can use programs like "xv" to shrink the size (30% quality seems fine). Also, beware of the portrait versus landscape issue. You may want to experiment to see if this is a viable method for you. Remember the maximum projection image quality is that of the projector (1024 x 768). Also, some post-processed files simply fail to be detected. DO NOT PRESUME SUCH FILES WILL WORK-CHECK THAT THEY DO.  sample


e) Handwritten Notes and Font size

Most 8.5x11" handwritten notes are legible 4 rows back (unless you write very small). You may consider writing your notes only in the top 7" of of the paper and then zooming (and capturing). As an example this page might better be written like this page. 12pt font is also pushing the boundaries of legibility.


5. Workstation monitors problems:

If you want to reset the monitor back to its default login screen:
  • simultaneously press the "Control" and "Alt" keys, hold then hit "Backspace" twice.

If you the lecturn monitor size is huge (or tiny) when using the Sunray:
  • login then use simultaneously press the "Shift" and "Prop" keys to activate Sun's GUI interface for adjusting display resolution (should be 1024x768).
6. Room Policies and scheduling

Initially the room use "policies" will simply be to use it professionally. The workstations and the front doors of the lecturn will all remain unlocked until such a time as that becomes a problem. Any future policies will be decided by the Executive Committee. Please keep both doors shut and locked when not in use and try not to spill any drinks onto the keyboards. Workstation keys are available to any faculty who want them from the Math office (they are all identical keys).

  • Scheduling for other use (impromptu research and/or visitor seminars, journal clubs, meetings, etc) should be reserved thru the Math office.
  • Summer scheduling for workshops and research seminars is very much encouraged.
  • Try to avoid scheduling back to back 1hr. seminars.

7. Spec Sheets

  1. EPSON Powerlite 830p Projector
  2. Lecturn Plans
  3. Document Camera
  4. Lecturn Scaler
  5. Room Layout and Dimensions (Fix1) and Room Layout and Dimensions (Fix2)
  6. Workstation Desk  and  Workstation Desk Part No.

8. DVD/VCR

To use the DVD or VCR:

  1. Press the DVD or VCR button on the lecturn panel
  2. Open the front door of the lecturn and put your media in
  3. Using the DVD/VCR remote select either "DVD" or "VCR" and then all the remote buttons should work.
  4. Adjust the volume on the front lecturn panel. Do not adjust the volume in the amplifier inside the lecturn (should be left up at near max)

View Text-only Version Text-only Updated: 05/28/2009
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