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I was asked to set up a presentation system for about 50 people and the original idea was to use a big video screen and some smaller ones so that everybody could see clearly. There was also a requirement for some degree of interactivity so that replies could be typed by the audience.

Then I started doing the 'thinking thing' and realised that many there would have a laptop ( mostly PCs I guess ) with WiFi. So it seemed to me that if I were to set up a base station, it should be possible to do away with the smaller screens and also get the required interactivity without getting special hardware or running cables all over the place.

However I'm not sure what sort of software to run. Obviously it needs to be suitable for both Macs and PCs. It needs to allow the display of photographs together with graphics and text. Video capability hasn't been asked for, but it would be a useful bonus. The replies from the floor are text only and would just be a sentence or two. There may not be a usable internet connection at the venue.

My first thoughts were along the lines of using a chat system, something like iChat A/V or Skype, but I assume that they can't be used in a 'closed circuit' context, without an internet connection. So what solution might work ?

AlanAudio,

I'm no expert I'm afraid, but my first thought was use a Mac running as a web server - pix, graphics and text would be easy to display - video not sure - replies from the floor - well PC or Mac could WiFi to the server IP address easy enough - but you'd need to run some app, perhaps a simple bulletin board app if that would do the job (I've set a simple free app up in less than 10 mins on my Mac's web server.)

AlanAudio,

There are a couple of options, but it depends what kind of timescale you're looking at. OS X Server does come with iChat Server, so that you can run a closed internal network. If you're looking at anything within the region of the Leopard release then iChat Theatre would seem pretty compelling. As long as it is viewable via a PC AIM/Jabber client (which if it works like I think it works it should, I'll have to have a check).

Otherwise I'd look at something like QTSS (Quicktime Streaming Server) along with iChat server to distribute the video and allow the interaction. You can broadcast to different profiles as well which means you can target the same stream to different things like wireless web tablets (the N800 is great for this), laptops or Hi-Def screens. Plus both QTSS and iChat can talk to any OS (use H.264 for QTSS and Jabber for iChat).

JP.

Apple Certified System Administrator

AlanAudio,

Is this a one off event or an ongoing requirement?

If its a one off you are going to have to keep it real simple or it will take you all day to get every body up and running.

I would take a look at an on-line service such as www.webex.com this works on Macs and PCs but you would need a pretty rapid internet connection to stream to 50 users in on venue

Chris@Blue22,

it's initially a one-off, but with the potential to be bi-monthly, mostly with the same people each time.

There are two conflicting requirements, one is to keep it simple, the other is to keep the costs right down. I was hoping that some sort of IM technology might have been practical because the intention would be to get people to download, test and set up the software in advance and then on the day, it would be a matter of getting it working with the local network. But of course that could be a whole new can of worms as well.

For a larger group, we've hired in specialist solutions that work really well, but it's way beyond the budget of this project, that's why the laptop solution looks so tempting.

AlanAudio,

You might look at educational software.

I don't know about Macs, but at the college i work at, they have software for demonstrating software to a class of students. The students get a duplicate of the teachers screen via the network, the software is provided by Research Machines as a part of their network software, but there might be Mac/PC alternatives. When ever i used it, the system was extremely sluggish and frankly almost unusable.

To be honest it really isn't a good idea to rely on this sort of technology. Teachers learn to at least have a back up lesson plan that doesn't use much technology or avoid using complex technology.

I usually just use a single computer and a projector to demo/present stuff. Keeping it simple is always a good idea.

This is the sort of teaching software used for demoing, i don't know anything about this specific software, but it sounds similar to the RM stuff:

http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/25811

It doesn't look like it allows two way interactivity though.