AGC general Monthly Meetings - Technical Considerations

The Andover Garden Club frequently invites experts to speak at their general monthly meetings. These meetings rely on technical equipment that enables the presentation to be viewed by a large audience in South Church’s Fellowship Room. There are two types of meetings that can take place, based on the physical location of the presenter. One type of meeting is when the guest lecturer joins club members at the church and shares his or her expertise on-site. A second type of meeting is when the guest lecturer provides his or her presentation from a remote location. The equipment required for a successful presentation is dependent upon the type of meeting being held.

Guest Lecturer is On-Site

Click here to view a schematic representing the type of meeting where the guest lecturer is on-site.

This meeting takes place when the guest lecturer provides his/her presentation while physically attending the meeting at the church. The equipment required for this type of meeting is a device that contains the presentation (usually the guest speaker’s laptop), a microphone to broadcast the speaker’s comments to the audience (provided by South Church), and a projector (owned by the AGC) to mirror the presentation onto the auditorium screen.

The projector used during these meetings is an Epson Pro EX9240. It is connected to the presenter’s laptop using an HDMI cable. The projector also needs to be connected to a power source. The HDMI cable and the projector’s power cord is stored with the projector in the projector case. Click here to view the user guide for setting up and using the Epson Pro EX 9240 Projector.

Guest Lecturer is Remote

Click here to view a schematic representing the type of meeting where the guest lecturer is Remote.

This meeting takes place when the guest lecturer provides his/her presentation while residing in a remote location outside of the church. This type of meeting utilizes the Zoom application, which enables audio and visual signals to be transmitted over the internet. In this case, the AGC schedules a Zoom call, sending out invitations to club members as well as to the remote guest lecturer. When the time comes for the presentation to begin, the remote lecturer connects to his/her email over the internet and launches the Zoom meeting. At the same time, the club member tasked with technically driving the meeting also connects to her email over the internet and launches the Zoom meeting. Finally, one more club member needs to be assigned to provide and manage a networked device (tablet, cellphone or laptop) to be used for interactions between audience members and the guest speaker. This club member also needs to connect to her email over the internet and launch the Zoom meeting.

The equipment required for this type of meeting is as follows:

  • The remote speaker will have a networked device (laptop, desktop, tablet, etc) that contains his/her presentation.

  • There will be a laptop on-site that will be used to access and drive the presentation over the South Church network. This device should be powerful enough to accommodate multiple peripheral devices and substantial batches of data transmitted over the network. As of this writing (June, 2024) the driver laptop is an HP ZBook Power G8 Workstation, running windows 11 and having 32 gigs of RAM, and is owned by and may be borrowed from club member Holli Marrs.

  • There will be an on-site speaker device used to augment and broadcast the presentation ‘s sound to the audience. The speaker will be hard wire connected as a peripheral device to the driver laptop using an audio cable. The speaker must also be connected to a power source using it’s powercord. As of this writing (June, 2024) the speaker is a Bose Roommate 2 and is owned by and may be borrowed from club member Holli Marrs.

  • There will be a projector used to mirror the presentation from the driver laptop’s screen out onto the auditorium screen. The projector used during these meetings is owned by the AGC and is an Epson Pro EX9240. It is connected to the on-site driver laptop using an HDMI cable. The projector also needs to be connected to a power source. The HDMI cable and the projector’s power cord is stored with the projector in the projector case. Click here to view the user guide for setting up and using the Epson Pro EX 9240 Projector.

  • There will be an on-site networked device (Laptop, tablet, or cellphone) to be used for Q&A interactions between the remote speaker and on-site audience members.

Guest Lecturer is Remote - Attendees are both On-Site and Remote

Click here to view a schematic representing the type of meeting where the guest lecturer is Remote and club members attending the meeting may be both on-site or remote.

This meeting takes place when the guest lecturer provides his/her presentation while residing in a remote location outside of the church, and where club members may attend the meeting both on-site (at the church) or remote (at home). In this case, the South Church environment, as well as the hardware and software requirements, are the same as outlined in the previous section (where the guest lecturer is remote, and all attendees are on-site.

Utilizing the Zoom application, club members are provided with the ability to listen and view the guest lecturer as well as participate in the Q&A session. During the Q&A session, if an on-site audience member wishes to ask a question, she will raise her hand and will utilize the on-site Q&A device (laptop, tablet, or cellphone) to ask her question. If a remote audience member wishes to ask a question, she will activate the raised hand icon within the Zoom application. In doing so, audio control may then be passed over to the remote attendee, at at such time as the question may then be asked. A remote attendee may also ask a question by utilizing the online texting feature within the Zoom application.