Presentation Primer Learn the basics of trial presentation hardware. By Joseph L. Kashi and Thomas Boedeker I n our last article, we looked at the but put heavier stress on your printer. ry is definitely important to obtain maxi- h a rd wa re needed to get digital data, You will need a fast laser printer with a mum performance from a 4200d. documents and video into your comput- high duty cycle, at least 25 pages per Unfortunately, HP typically ships its e r. This time, we will go in re verse and minute and a 15,000 copy per month printers with the minimum usable mem- consider how to get all of that digital (or higher) rated duty cycle. ory, and if you purchase HP - b rand mem- data out of your computer and into the Joe bought an HP 2300 and then ory updates, you easily can spend more consciousness of the trier of fact or added an additional 128 MB DRAM to for them than the actual purchase price opposing party. print Ac robat documents faster. The HP of the printer itself. HP uses a pro p r i- 2 300 is inexpensive and more or less etary 100-pin memory module for the Printers adequate for this role, although we don’t 4 200d and prices those memory mod- T h e re is not much sense in scanning understand why Hewlett-Pa c k a rd doesn’t ules at roughly 10 to 15 times what sim- e very document if you can’t print out ilar generic 168-pin memory costs on the some or all of them for exhibits, attach- open market, a business tactic we are ments or anything else. Adobe A c ro b a t s u re will surprise and shock every HP tends to re q u i re high-performance print- printer cartridge customer. ing unless you are content to run out for You will need a lot of memory in coffee during the lengthy printing pro c e s s . a ny digital law office printer, but we You also will tend to use your printer to s t rongly recommend you try to pur- print multiple hard copies of scanned doc- chase non-HP memory from a re p u t a b l e uments rather than make photocopies, Internet vendor. particularly for color images. You also will need a color printer Reprinting directly from scanned connected to your system — we have documents, especially when selecting been surprised at the number of scanned portions of seve ral different documents color photos and exhibits that need to be as discovery or exhibits, usually is faster printed for trial. Joe was using an older and easier than instructing a secre t a r y HP DeskJet 932 for routine prints up to HP 2300 printer to make a complex set of photocopies 8 - by - 10 inches and a large format HP and then checking to make sure the release a higher capacity toner cartridge DeskJet 1120c printer for exhibits up work was done corre c t l y. Generally, it’s for the 2300 — current versions are to 13 - by - 19 inches. This combination also less expensive, after taking into rather over-priced at about $125 each worked adequately, but not content with account the cost of buying or leasing a and provide only 6,000 pages. leaving well enough alone, Joe purc h a s e d photocopier, paying a charge per copy If you can afford to do so, a faster a replacement for the DeskJet 932, and purchasing copier supplies. laser printer, such as the HP 4200d with an HP Business InkJet 1100, which If you use your printer in this man- a larger print cartridge capacity, is prefer- p romised faster and less expensive color ner, you will gain some extra efficiency able. Adding a lot of extra printer memo- printing. Unfortunately, Joe uninstalled 40 June/July 2004 LAW OFFICE COMPUTING
his DeskJet 932 and tried to install the After a lot of experimentation, we a video stream. This sort of motion pic- b rand new Business InkJet 1100 the concluded a reasonable minimum for t u re output can provide the jury with a night before a trial when he had 45 public presentations is at least 2,000 highly magnified image of an auto cra s h pages of photo exhibits to print. The lumens brightness and XGA (1, 0 24 - by - reconstruction with small vehicle models Business InkJet didn’t work out of the 768) output capability with optical, not simulating an accident sequence. b ox. Error lights kept flashing incon- digital, zooming and focusing. A 2,200 Document cameras can connect solably, and HP’s technical support lumen or 2,500 lumen projector w o u l d directly to the data projector and can pro- closed down at 5 p.m. PST. be even better in a large, brightly lit vide still images and video output for To add insult to injury, HP’s We b c o u r t room, but these are expensive your PC to capture, store and edit. Be re g i s t ra tion page was down, so Joe could for a sole pra c t i t i o n e r. Even a good not even register his printer in the hope of 2,000 lumen XGA projector will cost getting tech support early the next morn- at least $2,200. ing. After about an hour of frustration, Joe Joe ultimately settled on an Epson disconnected the new InkJet, re i n s t a l l e d 74c from Protech Projections S y s t e m s the old DeskJet 932, and slowly but sure- ( w w w. p ro t e c h p rojection.com). This ly printed his exhibits late into the night. c o m p a ny specializes in digital audio- When he did get in touch with HP, the video presentation hard wa re and has re p re s e n t a t i ve was less than helpful, re f e r- good prices. Rod Bradbury at Pro t e c h ring Joe back to the original Internet deal- g a ve us some good advice when we er and offering, at best, to exchange his we re comparing projection systems, new printer for a refurbished unit. and Protech’s service was excellent. www.protechprojection.com Luckily, the Internet dealer who sold the Protech claims the newest Epson XGA product was very reasonable and helpful, p rojectors have superior image quali- s u re your document camera’s output for- e ven arranging for UPS to pick up the t y. Joe was comfortable dealing with mats and connecting cables are compati- unit without cost to Joe. Protech for these highly specialized ble with your video capture device. Joe’s replacement Business InkJet purchases. If you get a document camera that performed flawlessly and he continues Be sure to buy a spare lamp — it will includes a base light, you also can use it to to be very satisfied with its performance not do to have your digital projector fail p roject X-ray and other radiology films, in quickly cranking out large color in the middle of a trial. A re p l a c e m e n t anatomical charts and similar transparent prints. This printer is a fine and eco- lamp usually is at least $300. materials that will not show up well when nomical complement to a fast black and Joe also was interested in an Elmo lit from above. You will want a document white laser printer. or similar document camera to link with c a m e ra that includes complete optical If you intend to become a truly the digital pro j e c t o r. Like data pro j e c t o r s , zooming and focusing capabilities to pre- mobile digital law office, you also will document cameras have either 80 0 - by - s e r ve crisp image resolution. As is true need some means of doing low-volume 600 SVGA output or 1, 0 24 - by - 768 XGA with digital cameras, avoid relying solely color and black and white printing on digital zooming and magnification, a way from the office. The best mobile which basically fakes magnification printer we recently found is Canon’s and zooming, and quickly causes re s- i 70 Color Bubble Jet Printer, which olution loss by enlarging only a por- costs about $400 by the time yo u tion of the overall image. p u rchase the printer, the optional After much consideration, Joe Lithium-ion battery and charg i n g decided base lighting and optical c radle, and some spare supplies. Still, zooming are important enough to it’s a reasonably mobile, high-quali- wa r rant buying a mid-range docu- ty printer that fits in the second pock- ment camera and narro wed his et of many notebook computer tote choice to the Canon Video Visualizer bags. The i70 works well in a court- RE-450X. This XGA resolution docu- room setting. ment camera retails for aro u n d $ 1, 490 at Protech and comes with Video Presentation Hardware both top and base lighting, modest You need a really good digital projector portability when folded (most of Smart Board whiteboard for courtroom presentations. The best these beasts weigh at least 22 pounds p resentation can be ruined, or at least output, with XGA showing a and remain bulky even when folded for u n d e rcut, by a mediocre data pro j e c t o r noticeably better image. t ra vel), with good optical capabilities. that is not bright enough to be seen Modern document Canon, after all, did make its corpora t e readily in a well-lit courtroom or doesn’t c a m e ras project all or a reputation as a first-rate, pro f e s s i o n a l - have sufficient resolution to present evi- selected part of a basic grade camera manufacturer. dence crisply and clearly. Although you flat document image, Initially, Joe gave serious consider- can get any number of bra n d - n a m e include the ability to image ation to Toshiba’s interesting digital data 1,200 lumen SVGA (800-by-600) data 3-D objects, and prov i d e p rojectors that include document cam- p rojectors for $1,000 to $1, 200, the motion picture output at up to 15 e ras (see “Good Projections” on Page 48 savings is outweighed by the substan- to 20 frames per minute, which is of this issue). These are fairly priced at dard performance. enough to avoid unpleasant flickering of $ 1,799 for the 1, 600 lumen SVGA LAW OFFICE COMPUTING June/July 2004 41
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