soundo26 Posted November 8, 2006 Share Posted November 8, 2006 Hi Guys; here's one for the technical bods out there! I have a job next week where I need to advance a series of powerPoint slides simutaneously. The situation is four laptops with four presentations to four screens, I need to advance the slides on all four with 1 mouse, has anybody done this and can tell me what will work. KVM switchers don't do it and wiring four mice together doesn't work either. Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
broadcast_techie Posted November 8, 2006 Share Posted November 8, 2006 am not aware of an commercial product that would do this, but a bit of diy is probs the cheapest solution. 4 mice (that you don't mind destroying), 4 small relays, a psu, some wire and some paitence. could even couple it up with a keyfob remote if you want to give the control to the presenter. if you get really stuck I'd be interested to experiment on you're behalf... Kris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
d_korman Posted November 8, 2006 Share Posted November 8, 2006 One wireless mouse and 4 receivers on the same channel? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted November 8, 2006 Share Posted November 8, 2006 Go to that webpage thats linked at the bottom of all my posts, and you'll see a way to do it. Might be good for you, might not be, but it does seem to work for me and at least one other person... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo Posted November 8, 2006 Share Posted November 8, 2006 If the presentations are identical, then use one (1) laptop and a video distribution amplifier to split the signal four ways. If the presentations are not identical, then the best mehtod would probably be buying four dirt cheap mice, 5v relays and having fun with a soldering iron. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
henny Posted November 8, 2006 Share Posted November 8, 2006 P2Cue™ http://www.interspaceind.co.uk/products/product.php?id=3 only £150.00 (Excluding VAT at 17.5%) per pc Multi-PowerPoint Control Software P2Cue™ controls multiple computers running PowerPoint via standard Ethernet network connection. Cue commands are sent from the Master computer to all 'slaves' simultaneously, thus ensuring all slides of the presentation advance at the same time and always remain in sync with the Master version. Even if it is necessary to skip to a non-sequential slide in the presentation, all versions being run by P2Cue™ will also advance to that same slide. One or more slaves can also be programmed with a slide offset where a preview or 'next slide' view might be required. Ideal for main, back-up, translation versions and preview or 'next slide' presentations using multiple copies of the same PowerPoint slideshow. * Main and Back-up - The P2Cue™ software automatically advances both versions of the presentation from a single cue source (either the presenter directly, or the show technician cueing from a P2Cue™ master computer) * Main, Back-up and Next (or preview) - P2Cue™ advances main and back-up as above, plus automatically advancing the 'next' version one slide ahead. No matter which slide is cued in the presentation, P2Cue™ will automatically select the next slide for the preview version. * Multiple languages - All language versions (and their back-ups) can be cued simultaneously by either the presenter or the show technician. * Multi-site conferencing - As long as each site has a network link, all versions of the presentation can be simultaneously cued from a single source with no time delay at all, freeing up bandwidth for the video conference itself. * Multi-screen, Multi-room and Multi-format Presentations - P2Cue™ can control and synchronise multiple presentation versions for Multi-screen, Multi-room and Multi-format events. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomo Posted November 8, 2006 Share Posted November 8, 2006 P2Cue™ http://www.interspaceind.co.uk/products/product.php?id=3 only £150.00 (Excluding VAT at 17.5%) per pcPlus network switch (£20), and Cat5 cable (~£10) Or £5 per PC plus twenty minutes soldering for masticated mouses.What value do you put on your time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dbuckley Posted November 8, 2006 Share Posted November 8, 2006 Bloody hell!!!! To think I spent one whole day coding my solution, put it out there for free, and someone else charges only 150 quid PER PC for something a tad posher!!! Sometimes I'm sure I've got the wrong mindset! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
broadcast_techie Posted November 8, 2006 Share Posted November 8, 2006 P2Cue™ http://www.interspaceind.co.uk/products/product.php?id=3 only £150.00 (Excluding VAT at 17.5%) per pcPlus network switch (£20), and Cat5 cable (~£10) Or £5 per PC plus twenty minutes soldering for masticated mouses.What value do you put on your time? I love this place, I learn something new everyday - people have software for everything!!! well almost. Anyway, I have to say I agree with Tomo, not only because it's my idea *cough*, but also it's the cheapest, and doesn't rely on networks. I still get nervious running shows from computers, they have a tendency to freeze at crucial moments. Kris ps I'll never forget that for the Dome Central show they had 2 Macs running logic or similar for the audio playout and it was one persons job to hit the spacebar on both at the same time. If one dies switch to the other. Not even Mac's are reliable Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jhughes01 Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 For the non-computerised equivalant, how about 4 keyboards, and then a piece of wood with bits of dowel protruding to operate the space bar? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundo26 Posted November 9, 2006 Author Share Posted November 9, 2006 Thanks to everyone for your help, keep 'em coming though it's not resolved yet. the P2Cue software was a good option until I read that you have to buy a copy for each PC, don't have that sort of budget for this. The cannibalising of mice sounds a good one but I'm not an electronics whizz kid so would need to look towards getting it made, if this can be dne we will obviously pay for it, the only problem with this option is that the laptops we have do not have PS2 or serial ports so we'd really need USB or wireless if that is possible. The setup will be four laptops, running four different presentations in PowerPoint to four projectors. The solution will have to control all four to advance the slides simultaneously using one button to be operated by our data tech backstage. This is for a job happening next week!! If you can help, we would appreciate it!! Thanks........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blackbird Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 Depends on your coding ability, but if it were me I would just try to share keystrokes over a network with some small apps. It's a relatively quick and painless process to write a vb app (for speed, not elegance!) to sit on one machine and send mouseclicks via a few sockets to another app sitting on each of the 'slave' pcs. Yes, dbuckley's program is much more generic, but for what you're trying to achieve then all you need is a mouse click echoed to each machine. Bear in mind I should be in bed and so my logic may be flawed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 Don't wast your time buy P2Cue , it dose just what it says on the tin, worth every penny. David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
broadcast_techie Posted November 9, 2006 Share Posted November 9, 2006 Just to check, we're right in presuming the laptops will be sat next to each other for the rig? Kris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soundo26 Posted November 9, 2006 Author Share Posted November 9, 2006 Just to check, we're right in presuming the laptops will be sat next to each other for the rig? Kris Yes the laptops will be sat next to each other backstage with the data operator. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.