Recently at work we had a big anniversary party with many clients attending. Management wanted to show a few different videos during the event along with some slides during a speech. They also wanted it to look professional without anything showing during the transitions. I found a software package called Screen Monkey that worked well for this. It lets you control everything from the laptop screen while outputting videos/slides to the external screen.
Presentation solutions
What are some solutions for presentations?
Amateur hour
I consider these methods appropriate only for small internal meetings.
Duplicate your screen with the external monitor.
Everyone sees everything, probably the worst solution unless you’re only showing one thing and have some time beforehand to prep.Extend your screen, do prep work on the laptop screen, and drag windows over to the external screen.
A little better than the above solution but still not professional looking.Embed your videos in PowerPoint or Acrobat and risk the wrath of the gods.
I have seen many people try this only to crash and burn horribly. If you do go this route, let me know so I can bring the marshmallows.
Professional
I consider these methods appropriate for anything involving large groups of people, especially clients.
Hardware
Separate video sources (usually laptops) and some sort of external video switcher. If you will have lots of sources that won’t be under your control, like hosting a conference, go this route.
Pros:
- Much more professional looking.
- Might be easier/simpler to operate.
- You are more flexible with input sources.
- If Joe Blow walks up with his OpenOffice Impress PowerPoint, just hook up his laptop.
Cons:
- More complexity, more equipment, more money, more setup time.
Software
Screenmonkey or some other kind of software switcher. Compared to the hardware solution above, Screenmonkey could be a great tool for conference speakers if they have to handle transitions in their presentations.
Pros:
- Much more professional looking.
- Doesn’t need another laptop and external switcher.
- Lots of features. Layers, transitions, effects, scheduling, etc.
- Free! There is a paid version but the additional features seem to be mostly for external controllers.
- You can save/package up presentations for later use or copying around.
Cons:
- The interface for setting up presentations can be a little clunky. An hour of playing around with it should get you familiar with it.
- Doesn’t seem to be updated that often, maybe once every year or so.
- File formats need to be supported.
- Video formats supported by ffdshow, which is most, are supported.
- Some formats aren’t supported at all, like PDF.
- Some image formats, like TIFF, don’t show up in the file browser but they will load if you change the file type to All Files.
More info
Requirements: .NET 4.0 and K-Lite Codec Pack Full. K-Lite needs to be the full version with ffdshow installed or videos won’t work.
They have a website where you can download it as well as some youtube clips that can give you a feel for it.