Using your laptop as a PA system

I present sessions and tutorials at quite a few conferences each year. I also present on-site training sessions based on my book xUnit Test Patterns at various clients. Speaking in a large room for severals days in a row can be very hard on one’s voice, especially after spending many hours in the dry air of airplanes. At the recent JAOO conference in Arhus Denmark, Mary Poppendieck and I were comparing notes on coping strategies for the dreaded “voice fade” problem when leading multiple conference or trading sessions. She often gets her husband Tom to present parts of the course for her to avoid her having to speak the whole time. I’ve used this strategy in the past when I had co-workers whom I could conscript to help me teach my 2 day Testing for Developers course on automated unit testing. But now that I’m independent, I don’t have any co-workers I can conscript.  Another technique Mary and I both use is hands-on exercises. The main reason for exercises is to improve the retention of the concepts by the students by having them apply them as soon as possible after we describe them. But another purpose is to give the presenter a break! (I hope I’m not giving away any secrets here 😉 )

Another technique to save one’s voice is to use an amplifier. Many conferences provide wireless microphones and sound systems but what if you don’t have access to one? One trick that I’ve used is to hook up PC speakers to my laptop and use it as a public address system. I’ve sometimes carried speakers with me but I find it is pretty easy to find speakers at most client’s sites. Mary carries a wireless microphone with her on her travels but couldn’t remember how to get Windows to send the microphone input to the speakers for output. When I got home from JAOO I played around with things to recall how I had done it on Windows XP and how one can do it on Windows 7.

Here are detailed instructions to turn on the microphone which is muted by default. (Don’t forget to mute the microphone volume when you are done to avoid feedback.)

Enjoy!

Gerard

In Windows XP:

1. Right-click on the speaker symbol in your system tray.
2. Select Adjust Audio Properties
3. Select the Voice tab.
4. Click on Volume in the Voice Recording panel.
5. Under Mic Volume, unclick the Mute check box (the only one checked in the screen grab below)
6. Plug external speakers into audio jack; make sure they are pointed away from you to avoid feedback.
7. Plug microphone into microphone jack
8. Adjust the volume slider of the Mic Volume to taste

In Vista:
I’ve upgraded all my PC’s to Windows 7 but I suspect it isn’t much different. Besides, who’s using Vista?

In Windows 7:

1. Right-click on the speaker symbol in your system tray.
2. Select Open Volume Meter
3. Click on the Speaker/Headphones icon under Device.
4. Click on the Levels tab
5. Make sure the little speaker icon right of the Microphone volume slider is unmuted as in the screenshot below; clicking on it should toggle a little red circle symbol within the icon (as in PC Beep).
6. Plug external speakers into audio jack; make sure they are pointed away from you to avoid feedback.
7. Plug microphone into microphone jack
8. Adjust the Microphone volume slider to taste  (58 in the following screenshot)