UC Santa Barbara Geography / Computing / Projectors

• UCSB Geography Wireless Projectors
• Connecting a laptop to the projector – Wired connection
• Connecting a laptop to the projector – Wireless connection
• Installing the Panasonic Wireless Manager
• Connecting to the Projector via Wireless
• Starting the Panasonic Wireless Manager Program
• Establishing a Session Identity
• Selecting the correct projector to connect to
• Entering the password required to connect
• Disconnecting the wireless connection to the projector

UCSB Geography Wireless Projectors

The Department of Geography has five ceiling-mounted, Panasonic PT-FW1000NTU wireless projectors in the following spaces:

• Ellison Hall, Room 2610 (Star Lab)
• Ellison Hall, Room 2616 (Spatial@UCSB Lab)
• Ellison Hall, Room 2620
• Ellison Hall, Room 3620 (Descartes Lab)
• Ellison Hall, Room 3621

For the 2nd floor (2610, 2616, and 2620) and 3621 projectors, you can also connect to a projector in a wired fashion at the top of the podium. For detailed and streaming animations, video, and Google Earth, this is the recommended way to connect to the projector. The limited bandwidth for wireless is unable to handle such high frame-rates.

The Panasonic PT-FW1000NTU projector works in several video resolutions, so you may have to adjust your laptop resolution to the setting that best works with the projector. The best (or “native”) resolution is 1280x800 pixels. If your laptop supports this resolution, the projector image will be optimal.

Connecting a laptop to the projector – Wired connection

1. With the laptop turned off, connect the blue, 15-pin VGA connector on the top of the podium into an available VGA-out socket on the laptop.
2. Turn the projector on using the remote control. The projector needs about a minute or two to warm up. You should gradually see the blue, splash-screen gaining intensity on the screen.
3. Turn on the laptop, and boot into your operating system. Depending on your desktop settings, you may or may not see a duplicate of your laptop screen on the projected image. If you have not changed the default setting before, you should be able to see the duplicated image projected, and not an extended desktop.

NOTE: An extended desktop is usually evidenced by moving your mouse all the way to the right on your laptop screen, with the mouse pointer reappearing on the projected image. To change this behavior, consult the laptop’s documentation on how to switch to duplicate-monitor mode.

Connecting a laptop to the projector – Wireless connection

For most users, the wired projector connection at the podium will suffice. However, if you wish to use the wireless connection feature (for instance, being seated with the laptop facing the motorized projector screen at a desk in the classroom or lab), several set-up steps are required:

1. Installing Panasonic Wireless Manager. This manages wireless communications to and from the projector and the laptop computer(s).
2. Selecting the correct projector to connect to.
3. Establishing a session identity.
4. Entering the password required to connect.
5. Connecting to the Projector via wireless.

NOTE: Connecting to the projector wirelessly will prevent your laptop from connecting to other wireless access points, such as the UCSB Wireless Network. Your normal laptop wireless connections can resume after disconnecting from the projector. In short, you cannot access the Internet while connected to the projector wirelessly.

Installing the Panasonic Wireless Manager

NOTE: Panasonic claims that the software may not work with Windows Vista. They recommend Windows XP Professional, with Service Pack 2 installed.

Upon installation, the software may ask whether or not you want to run the software from the CD, or install Wireless Manager to your hard drive. Choose the latter.

Make sure the wireless projector is turned on. This can be done by using the projector remote control, which is located in the podium top drawer.

Connecting to the Projector via Wireless

Double-click the Wireless Manager Mobile Edition icon which should have been placed on the desktop during the installation of the software. Or navigate to it: Start --> Programs --> Panasonic Wireless Display --> Wireless Manager Mobile Edition.

Starting the Panasonic Wireless Manager Program

Double-click the Wireless Manager Program icon on the Desktop. The following boxes appear:

In the Wireless Manager dialog box, the wireless adapter in the laptop is auto-sensed, and highlighted be default. If you happen to have two different wireless adapters in your laptop (the first being the installed adapter within the laptop hardware, and a second wireless network card in the PCMCIA slot), select the appropriate adapter, and click the OK button. If you are already connected to another wireless network when you start up the Panasonic Wireless Manager, you may also see the following box. Click Yes to have the manager disconnect from the first network, and search for wireless printers in the area:

Establishing a Session Identity

Basically, this is a name you give to your laptop so that the projector “knows” where to send and receive data. Since the projector can handle 16 total connections from laptop users via wireless at any one time, choosing a session identity from the onset is crucial. Select an icon in the pull-down menu, and type in a user name with 8 alphanumeric characters, and click OK.

NOTE: The dialog box incorrectly states, “Max 8 words” for the alphanumeric user name. It should have read, “Max 8 characters”.

In the example below, the name “Star-top” has been chosen for the laptop in the Star Lab:

Selecting the correct projector to connect to

The Geography Department has five wireless projectors in close proximity in the North Wing of Ellison Hall. Nearby projectors may be noticed by your laptop at any given time, so make sure you are connecting to the correct projector! Projector broadcast names are “EHxxxPr”, where xxxx is the room number. Click OK on the correct projector:

Entering the password required to connect

E-mail one of the Geography Department Computing Team staff members in advance for the password to connect to the projectors via wireless. Enter this password in the Password Input box. The Wireless manager Live Mode control box also pops up:

The following box may pop-up. If this occurs, click Yes:

If the laptop successfully connects to the wireless projector, the Wireless Manager Live Mode control box shows a green light to the left of the “Live” button. The light-blue vertical channel indicator on the left should show full signal strength:

Click on the “Live” button to send the laptop screen image to the projector. The Wireless Manager Live Mode control box should show a light-blue color to the left of the “Live” button, and the projector should be showing the laptop image on the motorized screen.

Next, change the display resolution to optimize the projection image. In Windows XP, right-click on the Desktop, and choose Properties. In the Settings tab, change the “Screen resolution” slider to 1280 by 800 pixels:

Disconnecting the wireless connection to the projector

Click the “Live” mode button to disconnect the laptop from the projector:

The light-blue light to the left of the “Live” mode button should return to green after disconnecting. To reconnect, click the “Live” mode button again.

Click the “X” in the upper-right corner of the Wireless manager control box to close the program.

The Panasonic Wireless Manager software then will ask you if you would like to save your connection settings. This step is optional. Save the connection settings file to a location on your laptop’s hard drive. It may be helpful to designate in the filename which projector’s settings are being saved. For instance, you may want to name the Star Lab’s projector settings file, “Star Lab Projector Wireless Settings”. The file will save your preferences, including your session identity name, icon, and any special network settings, if any. For instance, the next time you want to connect to the Star Lab projector, simply double-click the Star Lab Projector Wireless Settings file.