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Video Theater

The Video Theater is located on the second floor, south tower of University Library, and is available to members of the Northwestern community for computer and multimedia presentations and other special programs. It is not available for use as a regularly scheduled classroom, for events that do not require the use of audio-visual or computer equipment at each session or for events that charge admission.

Room description & equipment

Classroom interior
A view of the Video Theater from the rear of the room.

The Video Theater has movable chairs on wheels with swivel writing arms. The chairs allow easy rearrangement for both standard frontal viewing and break-out groups. The AV equipment is housed in a separate control room.

30
seats

Audiovisual equipment

All AV equipment is controlled from a touchscreen on an ADA-compliant lectern at the front of the room.

  • 90" Sharp Aquos liquid crystal flat screen television (1080p; HDTV; HDMI; 3D)
  • Region-free Blu-ray deck that scales to DVD
  • 1/2" VHS Videotape
  • JBL Control 28 stereo speakers
  • Slide projector (by request)

Computer equipment

The Video Theater's computer equipment is housed at the lectern.

  • Dell Optiplex 7040 computer.
  • Smart Podium interactive pen display 
  • Flash drives are accepted in both the front of the PC located inside the lectern, and on the Smart Podium interactive pen display
  • The lectern has HDMI cabling, plus Extron cabling that can connect to any laptop (PC or Macintosh), that has a standard 15 pin VGA/SVGA monitor adapter. It is recommended that users with current Macintosh laptop models bring their own adaptors.

Software on Dell Optiplex 7010 computer 

  • Microsoft Windows 10
  • Smart Podium interactive pen display software: Pen & Touch with 80 Touch Points
  • RealPlayer; Windows Media Player; and inherent Windows 10 apps
  • Adobe Reader
  • Web-based video conferencing
  • Browsers: Firefox, Chrome, Microsoft Edge

Miscellaneous equipment

  • Mobile white board
  • Intercom phones connected to the Multimedia Center service counter

Schedule the room

To reserve these group viewing rooms, request a room with the Libraries event space request form. The room can also be scheduled through the Microsoft Outlook Calendar. At this time, you should also:

  • Reserve laserdisc screenings
  • Specify what media you will need (Blu-ray/DVD, VHS or computer projection)
  • Indicate if you will be using the ADA features of the lectern during presentation