Introduction

Thank you for your contribution to this conference. This document describes the guidelines to prepare and present audio-visual materials at DATE. Please read all instructions carefully and follow them strictly to maintain the highest possible standards. Even experienced speakers should read the following paragraphs, as they cover several problems that have arisen over the years.

General Rules for Preparing AV Material

All slides must use landscape format. Color should be used carefully and color combinations resulting in a low contrast (e.g. dark blue on black) should be avoided. Please make sure that also index expressions are clearly visible and use an appropriate font size.

Each conference room will provide the following equipment: video projector/screen, microphone, Microsoft Windows 7 Laptop running a presentation management system hosting your previously uploaded slides, Logitech R800 Presenter with bright green laser pointer and slideshow remote controls. Connection of private laptops is only possible on Friday.

The conference laptops are supporting Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 (PPT, PPTX) and all prior versions as well as Adobe Acrobat (PDF) v1.4 compatible without applied security settings. You can also create your presentation with your preferred program application, as long as you can save or export it in this specific file formats. To speed up your start, we provide a PowerPoint template presentation. You are encouraged to use this template to prepare your presentation. Press here to download the PowerPoint file. Macintosh users: please convert your file to PC format or PDF before you leave for the conference. Be aware that PowerPoint Mac-to-PC conversions can lead to unexpected results, especially with fonts, certain formats of embedded graphics, and special characters (ASCII characters 128 to 255). To avoid questions of PowerPoint compatibility, please embed all used fonts, covert them to vectors or use only compatible fonts (e. g. Arial, Courier New, Lucida Sans, Times New Roman, Verdana).

PowerPoint externally linked videos are not supported. Embedded video support is limited due to the variety of available codecs. If you have video content to show, please get sure that your codec is part of the Windows 7 Codec Pack. Audio is not supported. Several other video codecs may work (use at own risk). Limited video conversation capabilities are available via the A/V staff at the conference. The exact A/V room location will be announced at the conference and can be obtained from the registration desk.

Presentation Submission:

DATE will provide a centralized presentation management system for all speakers. All presentations need to be transferred to the notebooks used for presentations before conference start. Therefore, all speakers are requested to prepare their presentations in time and easily upload them online using the web-based upload service. Only one file per talk is allowed. The correct filename is set automatically by the server. The passwords required for upload as well as for presentation check at the conference location will be sent to the main contributing authors some weeks before the conference starts. The upload service will close on Friday, 21 March 2014 23:59:59 CET. Depending on the available internet access on-site, the upload server might reopen again when the conference starts to provide last-minute updates. As a backup, you are required to take your presentation file with you to the conference (CD/DVD/Memory-Stick). Connection of private laptops is only possible on Friday.

At the Conference:

All presenters are required to meet with the local conference Audio/Video staff at least one day before their talk to check their presentation at one of the conference computers. It is possible to advance the slides by using a remote control, the keyboard, or a mouse. As in previous years, you will need to be very careful with the use of animation. There may be a delay from when you push the button and when the next feature or slide appears, and multiple pushes may advance your presentation too far. Also, because of potential problems, pre-timed presentations will not be allowed. Please limit the file size to less than 25 Mbytes (except video content) to minimize problems with storage and access speed that can result in a distorted or incomplete presentation.

Presentation Preview:

Preview computer systems, identical in software and hardware to the one used for presentation, will be available in the Audio/Video office at the conference. This room can be used at any time during the conference for presentation concerns. Since this facility will be shared between multiple presenters, its use can be limited and it will not be available for editing presentations or for rehearsal. Please bring your own laptop if you want to edit your presentation on site.

Speakers must check their presentation at least one day before their talk. The notebooks for slide checks will be available from Monday morning. There will be technicians available at the conference to help in case of any technical problem.