AV 2012 Audio-Visual and Wi-Fi

OK, I know I am not the first to say so, but I thought the Wi-Fi service was pretty bad most of the time. I appreciate that no matter how much EAA improves it, we will just use it up, but I had to use 3G almost all the time just to check email and forget about Googling anything. Keep in mind that cellular connections are always overloaded, too. There was a thread on that even before this year's event.

But now for the important issue: Audio Visual resources. I'm afraid I am only going to state the problem, not the solution(s), but I think experts can solve the issues.

First, in many instances in the open forum buildings and especially at some times of day, the project images were very, very hard to see and sometimes they were really useless. That's really a brightness issue of the reflected image. In other words, you can increase lamp strength and/or you can improved the reflectivity. As-is, it seriously degrades the value of the presentation. I some cases, the black curtains were lowered to try to improve the visibility, but when it is hot (it often is!) that is a really difficult choice. I will go out on a limb, here and guess that a coat of highly reflective paint (http://www.colebrothers.com/articles/glassbeads.html and http://www.projectorcentral.com/paint_perfect_screen_$100.htm ) would not cost as much as a new projector.

Second, I attended a few presentations, not as many as in prior years, but I think the one I gave was the only one where the computer to projector connection worked easily and well. Yes, I know that EAA provided connected PC's for us to use, but that's often a very poor alternative to using your own. Several presenters used software that likely was not on the EAA-provided computers. My MacBookAir connected effortlessly. Last year, my Windows PC was a lot of trouble. I forget if it was 2010 or 2011, but one of those years I had to use a borrowed PC and there was no obvious reason for that.

Since my "show" was in the Homebuilder's hangar, the sunshine problem was absent. But my images which looked so good on my computer were really not working for the audience when projected on the screen. Had I been in a regular forum building it would probably have been worse. If I give another one, I'll be using only black/white line drawings. PITA.

Video standards are changing. One presenter showed up with only a digital port on his computer, not VGA. He very nearly had to cancel. Someone finally helped him to copy his stuff to a flash drive or CD and he continued, but after a long delay, telling us he was unable, losing audience, etc. He was wrong not to have brought the flash drive as Plan B, but it illustrates the problem.

Maybe it is time to be able to accept the HDMI connectors, too? Some computers are using DVI, but even that is already being phased out. Intel is now pushing Thunderbolt and the Apple laptops already have it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunder...28interface%29
http://www.pcmtechcenter.com/vga-dvi...in-five-years/
Let's not have EAA be like GA and stop the technology clock.