Remote Presentations
Remote presentations take the videoconference to the next level. Remote presenta-
tions are presentations in which the receivers cannot actively participate, so the
sender speaks to a large audience via technology similar to that applied in a video-
conference. The difference is that because of the larger audience size and because
the presentation is purely outbound, the focus on the sender is all the more
intense. Concerns such as audience focus, proper language, decorum, and idiomatic
language are amplified for the one presenter because nobody else is participating in
the process. Success in the remote presentation environment is rooted in the
same principles as success in the videoconference environment. Preparation and a
thorough understanding of the audience, the technology, and the environment are
essential to success.
In building a presentation for remote delivery, the content should be direct,
clear, and unambiguous. Complex ideas should be rendered as less complex analo-
gies that the audience can see or hear and readily understand. The content should be
rendered in digestible segments, because one-way communication does not encour-
age active listening and participation. In video presentations, the graphics should be
simple, because the presentation screens being used by the receivers may be as small
as DVD playback units, which do not allow for a great deal of detail. (Granted,
most remote presentations are projected on larger screens, but there is no guarantee
of how the content will be used and reused.)
As with any presentation, the content should express the clear intent of the pres-
entation at the outset, deliver that intent, and then affirm that the intent has been
met. In dealing with remote media, presenters frequently forget the basics. Micro-
phones do not require the presenter to use a louder voice. Cameras are the eyes of
Video Technologies 15the audience, rather than monitors. In video production, the most common problem
is a failure to look directly into the lens of the camera, as though it were the eyes of
the audience. Because, for the presenter, the “audience” frequently consists of little
more than a cameraman and a sound engineer, there is sometimes a temptation to
present to those individuals. A warm relationship with the camera lens will convey
the message more effectively.
Remote presentations do have their advantages. They allow the presentation or
discussion to be reused, and they enable presentations in venues where temporal or
physical constraints would normally render them impossible. Still, true communica-
tion is a two-way street, and the remote presentation is a one-way avenue