Creating and delivering effective presentations is a lot easier if you match your tools to your specific needs.
Show & Tell
To maximize opportunities to reach key customers, try formatting short presentations for small screens on mobile devices, distributing longer ones on DVD, and using a projector for visual impact in face-to-face meetings.
For starters, you can easily enhance PowerPoint slides by adding subtle motion and TV-style transitions with Ovation from Serious Magic. This $100 program also features 100 high-quality templates and useful presenter aids, such as a scrolling teleprompter and timekeeper.
Video clips can add panache to any presentation. The popular Pinnacle Studio 10.5 ($50), with a free download of the v10.5 patch and Advanced Codec Pack ($10), makes it easy to edit video files on Windows PCs and output the results for use on almost any device. You'll need the advanced codec package for encoding MPEG-4.
Give It Away
Two powerful utility packages serve to convert and output presentations, videos, and other large files to virtually any medium for distribution.
DVD Copy 4 Platinum H.264 Edition from InterVideo enables conversion of video files for use on a video iPod, PSP, 3G phone, or set-top device. This sub-$80 program also makes it easy for Windows users to copy presentations and backup important video content to DVD.
Roxio's Toast 7 Titanium for Mac OS eases every task involved in copying and backing up video, music, and other data to CD and DVD. Rapid creation of multi-image HD slideshows and 50+ hour music DVDs are just two of the many possible uses of this powerful $100 suite of applications.
Large As Life
Most modern projectors do a good job displaying video in a variety of business environments, but some are particularly well suited for special uses. The Panasonic PT-LB20NTU wireless projector is a 3-LCD unit that delivers 2000 ANSI lumens at native XGA resolution (1024x768), and allows one or more presenters to deliver slides and video to the big screen--without the hassle of connecting and disconnecting wires. This sub-$2,000 projector also lets you simultaneously display images from multiple wireless laptops, and instantly select any one of the images for full screen display.
The new ViewSonic PJ458D is a cost-effective projector that does a good job projecting PowerPoint slides, movies, HDTV video, and games. This versatile 4.9-lb., DLP-based unit delivers 2000 ANSI lumens of brightness at XGA native resolution and a superior 2000:1 contrast ratio, for less than $1,000.
To do justice to your most spectacular digital photos and video, check out the new REALis SX60 multimedia projector from Canon. This 2500 ANSI lumen projector delivers super sharp native SXGA+ resolution (1400x1050 pixels), high contrast, and excellent color reproduction--making it a good choice for displaying the fine details in CAD drawings and graphics design. The LCOS-based unit features a contrast ratio as high as 2000:1 (in theater mode), and will be available in May for about $6,000.
If you're in the market for a projector, large screen display, presentation software and other new media business solutions, you can get live demonstrations and expert advice from dozens of manufacturers at InfoComm06 (June 3-9 Orlando, Florida).
Color Laser Productivity Center
The KONICA MINOLTA magicolor® 2480 MF color laser all-in-one gives you the competitive edge. Providing print, copy, scan, PC fax, and Camera Direct Photo Print functionality, this Windows®-compatible multitasker prints and copies at a speedy 20 ppm in black-and-white and 5 ppm in color. The ScanSoft PaperPort® SE application makes it a snap to annotate, edit, and save paper documents in PDF, JPEG, and TIFF formats, convert scanned documents to editable text, or drag and drop scanned documents for easy faxing. You can also print photos up to 8.5" x 11" directly from a digital camera.
The magicolor 2480 MF does it all--and it's backed by 5 years of free, rapid-response US-based technical support.
For more information, call 1-800-523-2696 or visit www.buymagicolor.com.
