How to run cables for a interactive whiteboard and projector

[barneyb123]

Hi

Was wondering if some one could help me, ive been asked to pull cables in 5 rooms in a office for interactive whiteboards and projectors. as i have never done this before was wondering if somebody could tell me what cables to pull in and give a bit of general info.

Thanks

 

[redpis]

This site is good for the wall plates and cables, as for what to pull in, you will have to confirm with the client what their requirement is.

http://www.connectorco.co.uk/catalogue/faceplates.htm

 

[ChrisFrost]

An interactive whiteboard is really just a big mouse pad. The board is a feed in to the USB or PS/2 port for mouse control on to the laptop or desk top PC. The image projected on to the board comes from the monitor output on the computer.

If you know which brand of whiteboard is going to be installed then have a look at the manufacturer's site for a manual. Ditto for the projector.

Any further advice really depends on what type of room it is (permanent teaching room or multi-functional presentation room), and how people are likely to use it.

With a basic teaching room you would wire up to a wall plate and the PC would live there permanently. In a multi-functional room you might want the above plus a second PC connection point in the desk or in a floor box so that the room can be used for standard presentations where the whiteboard is simply used as a screen.

Some other questions to ask when planning ...

• what about sound
  what about a video connection
  what type of PC to be used/will it need a signal booster

Sound is simple. Projectors have built in speakers but they're usually pretty poor. Ask if they need better sound now rather than be embarrassed after the job is done.

PC signal boosters is more complicated. The graphics card from the average laptop is designed to work with a 1.5m~3m monitor cable. Anything more than that is a bit of a lottery. The image loses sharpness because there isn't enough drive power to cover the signal losses down the wire. Better wire helps. I use 300 Megahertz bandwidth cable - pretty much the best you can get - which reduces the losses significantly. But even that won't help if the laptop graphic output is underpowered, and there's no easy way to check beforehand. A simple powered VGA distribution amp will help. It will boost the signal enough to counter the worst of the losses and restore the sharpness.