Thinking of watching a presentation on your Laptop but, you prefer the large display you can get from a projector. Probably you want a large audience to hear the video presentation that is being projected. Then you need to go for an external speaker and think of how to connect the projector to an external speaker.
Most Projectors come with their inbuilt speaker, but it might not be suitable for a large audience.
Since you’re aware of that, and you have an external speaker to improve the audio of what is being projected, what you need to understand next is whether the speaker you have will connect to your projector or not. And, before we go into how to connect speaker to projector, let’s quickly breakdown the different types of Speakers that works superbly with most projectors.
The most common types of speaker we have are:
Since a projector with audio output comes with varying sets of connectors, you need to be aware of the connector that your projector has.
The different types of connectors that come with most projectors are:
- RCA connectors
- Stereo Audio Jack
- Optical/TOSLINK
- Bluetooth connectors.
Now, depending on the type of speakers you are using, let’s break down how to connect speaker to projector for the different categories of speakers listed above.
NOTE: It all depends on long as the projector has a compatible port to the speaker they will be able to connect seamlessly, moving on, let’s delve into how to connect a soundbar speaker to a projector
How to Connect Speaker to Projector [Soundbar Speakers]
If you are using a soundbar speaker, your soundbar speaker should have compatible ports with your projector, meaning both your soundbar speaker and your projector should be compatible with an optical connection.
If it isn’t the case, and your projector has an HDMI out and your soundbar speaker has HDMI in you can connect both by following the steps below
- Place the soundbar at your desired location and plug it into a power outlet
- Now, Connect an audio cable to the compatible output port on your projector.
- And, connect the other end to your soundbar
- After connecting both the soundbar speaker to your projector the volume will be more audible and you will be able to control the audio from the soundbar speaker
How to Connect Speaker to Projector using a Stereo Speakers
The majority of stereo speakers will work with one audio port. but one thing you have to factor in is to get power speakers that are suitable for the projector. If your speakers can only connect to an A/V receiver or Amplifiers. it will most likely not work. what that means is you have to confirm the audio connection the speaker uses.
In addition to that, Most stereo speakers usually come wired together. If you have this kind of speaker you can simply connect to a single 3.5mm audio cable either 3.5mm TOSLINK or composite audio cable, both work.
To connect your stereo speaker to your projector here’s how to do that
NOTE: You can connect an adapter to the audio cable if it’s important.
- Place the speaker at the desired location and plug them into a power outlet.
- If it comes with a battery insert them in
- Now, connect the ends of both the stereo speaker and the projector
- After doing this, simply ensure that the volume of the stereo speaker is turned up in case you aren’t hearing anything.
How to Connect Speaker to Projector with A/V Receiver
If you have an A/V receiver and you want to connect it to a projector follow these steps below.
- First and foremost, connect the speakers to the receivers using its sires or a coaxial cable
- After doing that connect the audio and the video input to the receiver.
- Now, insert an HDMI cable into any of the video outputs of the receiver.
- And then, insert the other end of the HDMI cable into the video input on the projector
- Finally, adjust the receiver source to get input from where you want, maybe system, TV e.t.c. and set the video output to your projector.
How to Connect Speaker to Projector [Bluetooth Speaker]
This is one of the easiest ways of connecting a speaker to your projector however, both the speaker and the projector must be Bluetooth compatible.
NOTE: there might be a slight quality in the audio, however, bringing both the projector closer to the speaker could increase the quality of the sound
And to connect your Bluetooth-enabled speaker to your projector here’s how you can do that.
- Power ON the Bluetooth speaker
- Now, enable pairing mode.
- On your projector, make use of the settings menu to also enable Bluetooth pairing mode
- Proceed to accept the connection after entering the pairing code that displays on the screen if required.
NOTE: if you want to connect them at a later time the Bluetooth will automictically connect with the project
Moving on, let’s delve into how to connect speaker to projector and a Laptop
How to connect speakers to projector and Laptop
If you want to play out a video on your laptop such that your projector will pick up the visual content and you want the speaker to play the audio, here are different ways you can achieve that.
1. Turn On your projector
Get the Projector Power cable and insert the correct side in the “Ac in” port and then
After doing that, Get the other end of the power cable and plug it into a power outlet.
Finally, Turn on the projector by pressing the Power button or Switch
Once you successfully carried out this step connect Your HDMI cable to your Laptop
2. Connect your Laptop to the Projector
There are several ways of connecting your laptop to your Projector
You can connect it Using an HDMI cable or Wirelessly, however it’s not limited to that. Below I will be focusing on only these two
How to Connect Your Laptop to an HDMI cable
After doing all that, Get the HDMI cable and connect it to the Projector and then to the Laptop. doing this will make it much faster for your Laptop to recognize the Projector.
If you connect it from the Laptop then to the Projector it might take longer to recognize it. In some cases, it might not work, so avoid connecting the HDMI cable to the laptop first.
How to Connect Your Laptop and projector Wirelessly
If you want to connect your laptop wirelessly to your projector follow these steps below.
- Turn on Both the Laptop and the Projector
- Now some Projector might have Bluetooth enabled if it does simply search for your projector Bluetooth name on your system and connect to it however if it’s not supported with Bluetooth you can plug in a Wireless display dongle on the projector.
- Moving on, Press “window” + “K” on your Laptop to see the list of the available wireless device.
- Locate the name of the wireless device and connect to it. After doing this, the screen will be shared with the device.
- Once you’ve been able to connect your Projector to your Laptop connect it to a speaker
3. Connecting it to a speaker
In this stage, you might prefer to depend on the projector speaker. This works if you are in a small room, but if you’re in a larger room the projector might not be audible enough and you’ll need to connect it to a speaker.
If you plan to connect it to a speaker there are two things you can do.
You can decide to take the audio from the projector by connecting the audio from the headphone jack of the projector and connecting the other end to a speaker
Also, you can take the audio from the laptop by connecting an audio cable to the laptop directly.
Now, that you’ve been able to figure out how to connect speaker to projector, let us proceed to some commonly asked questions regarding this topic
How to Connect your Laptop to projector using a VGA cable
The Video Graphics Array (VGA) Cable only gives out a video output however if you want to have the audio output, then you have to connect the audio cable to the laptop
NOTE: plug in a Wireless display dongle on the projector.
- Get the VGA cable and connect one end to the Projector VGA port, and then connect the other end to the Laptop.
- Turn On both the projector and laptop.
- Now, connect an audio output cable from Projector to the speaker
- Finally, go on your Laptop and simultaneously press the Window + K key to choose the projector from the options on the list
External Speakers for Projector
There are a series of external speaker that works perfectly with a projector, however, before you select anyone there are a few factors you have to look into while selecting an external speaker for your Projector
- Durability
- The quality of the Audio Output
- Wired or Wireless
- Water Resistance
You can find good external speakers on Amazon, some good ones are listed below.
Epson Projector Connect to Speakers
If you have an Epson Projector here’s how you can connect it to a speaker.
- Power on your Epson Projector.
- On your Epson projector, Press Menu Button
- Go to “settings tab” and press “Enter”
- Now, look for the HDMI link option and select it
- Look for the Audio Out Device option and press Enter.
- Moving on, Look for Projector and select it.
- Now, Press ESC till you go back to the Settings tab
- On the Settings tab, look for the Bluetooth option and select it.
- On the Bluetooth option, navigate to Bluetooth Audio and press Enter.
- In the Bluetooth Audio settings, select On. Press Enter to save your choice.
- Now, press ESC till you get back to the Bluetooth menu.
- Over here you have to set your Bluetooth audio device to Discovery or Pairing mode. Doing this enables your Epson Projector to connect to it.
- Moving on, select the “Search Bluetooth Devices” setting in your projector’s Bluetooth menu.
- Immediately you see the Bluetooth audio device, name navigate to it and press Enter to pair them together.
- Finally, you can exit your projector Menu by pressing ESC
How to connect Projector to Speakers wireless
To connect your projector to a wireless speaker both the speaker and the Projector has to be Bluetooth enabled, if they aren’t it won’t work. Simply pair your projector to the speaker’s Bluetooth after powering on both devices.
Conclusion
Since you’ve figured out, How to connect speaker to projector both wirelessly or by using a wired connection. Connecting one should be much of a problem.
In addition, If your Laptop has a Windows 10 OS and you’re struggling to connect it to a Bluetooth enabled device check here to learn how to do that.