Presenter Mode (Windows only)

Secondary screen in extended desktop mode

The Presenter Mode, currently only available for Windows, requires the computer to be connected to a secondary screen, typically a laptop + projector screen. You must also make sure to set your additional display to Extend your desktop and not duplicate the desktop on both screens.

Make sure the laptop screen is your primary (1) monitor and your connected screen or projector is the secondary (2) monitor.

Primary screen control window

The Presenter Mode is identical to the Technician Mode, except that once you open a Session or Day Conference you'll be presented with the Presentation Control Window on your primary display and your conference's custom Background Image on your secondary display, or a black screen if no background image has been uploaded.

The control window consists of these panels and buttons:

• Left Panel: Live output on secondary screen.
  • Controls:
    • Main Menu: - Goes back to the main menu.
    • Sessions: - Goes back to the session overview for this conference
    • Stopwatch: - A timer that is started once you click Play on a presentation file
• Bottom Thumbnails: All slides in the selected presentation.
• Top Right Panel – Session presentation schedule:
  • Timeline of talks and breaks in the session.
  • Speaker names and time slots.
  • Indicator icons (Green = Presentation with files, Red = Empty Presentation)
  • Controls:
    • "Synchronized / Download Updates" - Triggers sync of data and downloads of new files when "Download Updates" is clicked, and shows "Synchronized" when your local computer is in sync with the server.
    • "Folder" - Opens the computer's folder for presentations in this session
    • "Play Next" - Starts the next item in line. Might be a second file of the currently selected presentation or the first file in the next presentation. Fades to black when switching from one presentation file to the other.
• Bottom Right Panel – Files for selected presentation:
  • Files uploaded for the currently selected presentation in the top right panel
  • Ordered according to file position assigned in web upload interface
  • Controls:
    • Play/Stop: Start/stop selected presentation file.
    • Folder: Opens the selected presentation file folder.
    • Add: Manually add a local file on the computer to the presentation. This will NOT upload the local file back to the Preseria server. It only serves as a shortcut and convenient way to seamlessly switch to a local file on the PC just as if it had been uploaded via the web interface and then downloaded to the machine.
    • Re-download: Force a re-download of a file from the Preseria server.

Running a PowerPoint without PowerPoint's Presenter View enabled shows the full screen presentation on the 2^nd screen and the Preseria user interface on the 1^st screen.

The presentations in this session are all empty (red icons), but the "Download Updates" button is indicating an update is available on the server.

Clicking the "Download Updates" button will either update the session immediately if there's only new schedule changes or prompt you to confirm if you want to download if there are file updates.

Once the download finishes, presentations that now have files change their icon from red to green. Selecting a green presentation will trigger its files to be shown in the bottom right panel.

In the admin web interface you can upload a background for the conference that will be shown on the second screen when no other content is shown. A background can be set per conference and also on individual sessions.

Seamless Presentation Switching in Presenter Mode

In presenter mode the Preseria desktop app integrates with Office PowerPoint, Adobe Reader and VLC for seamless playback and switching between PowerPoint files, PDF files and videos. It will open the presentation file in full screen on the secondary screen and show a live view of the secondary screen in the left panel on the primary screen. If you've enabled "Use PowerPoint Presenter View" in the app's settings, PowerPoint's control window will open on top of the Preseria user interface, fully covering it and showing its notes view, slide thumbnails and live view panel.

Running a PowerPoint with PowerPoint's Presenter View enabled. PowerPoint's window is on top of the Preseria control window.

Presentation Switching Step by Step

This applies to PowerPoints, PDFs, Videos as those are the file types Preseria can automate for seamless switching

1. First select the presenter in the schedule (top right). This will close any open presentations and automatically show the background image (or black screen) to the audience.
2. Once a presenter is selected, his/her files (usually just one) will appear in the bottom right list. Click the file you want to launch and click "Play". A loading spinner animation will be shown on the 2^nd screen (if enabled in "Settings") while the file is loading.
3. Files will be shown in fullscreen on the 2^nd screen. PowerPoints will also open their Presenter View window if you enabled this in "Settings". To close a running PowerPoint presentation in Presenter View, either click the "X", click "END SLIDE SHOW", or click the Esc key, which will bring the Preseria window to the foreground. Then you can either select another presenter or click "Stop" to end the PowerPoint slideshow.
4. If the current file playing is a video, "Pause" and "Seek" controls will appear in the bottom left, where the slide thumbnails are if playing a PPTX or PDF. The video will be loaded and started automatically once you click "Play". You may loop a video by clicking on the "Loop" checkbox next to the seek bar.

Notes for switching with PowerPoint's Presenter View Enabled

When PowerPoint's Presenter View is on top, and you want to bring the Preseria user interface back to the foreground, simply press Esc. Doing that will NOT stop the PowerPoint slideshow (which is what Esc usually does to PowerPoints), but instead bring the Preseria user interface to the front, letting you select the next presentation in line or perform another action. If you want to resume the slideshow, just click the PowerPoint icon in the taskbar, which will trigger the activation of the PowerPoint Presenter View window and bring it to front.

In the Preseria user interface, if you click another presentation in the top right panel, or click the "Stop" button. The current presentation file (PDF, PPTX or Video) will be closed, fading it out, and the background image (or a black screen) will be faded in.

If you instead close the PowerPoint directly from PowerPoint's presenter view, either by clicking the top right close button (the "X") or by clicking "END SLIDE SHOW", Preseria will detect that the PowerPoint was manually closed and show the background image (or a black screen). This does however not trigger a smooth fade or happen instantly, so we recommend you set your Windows background image to the same image as your Preseria background image, or make it a solid black color if you're not using a background image in Preseria. That way the audience won't notice the difference between a Preseria controlled Esc key press, Stop button press and resulting "fade & close" of a file versus a manual close. This is especially important if the presentation laptop lives at the lectern or podium and the presenters themselves control the PC with a mouse as they will naturally click "END SLIDE SHOW" or click the "X" rather than first pressing Esc to bring the Preseria interface up and do a "Stop" from there.

How to handle incoming updates

If the button on the top-left of the schedule changes from gray to red, and its label changes from "Synchronized" to “Download Updates”, then there's been made changes to the current session that you may need to download. Different things may trigger an "Update"; Someone may have uploaded or updated a presentation file, the presentation order might have been modified, or the duration or the title of a presentation might have changed.

Clicking “Download Updates” will STOP the current presentation, fade in the background image on the secondary screen that's visible to the audience. Therefore only do this during a break or otherwise appropriate time.

The button is red and is labeled "Download Updates" meaning an update is available on the server. This could mean new files are available for download, a change in the schedule has occurred or both.

The button is gray, disabled and is labeled "Synchronized" meaning the computer is in sync with the server. A check against the server is performed every 30 seconds.

File updates will trigger a confirmation screen, and showing you what new files area available for download. A schedule change that does not involve downloading files will not trigger a confirmation but instead be applied immediately.

Troubleshooting

Unresponsive presentation or Preseria Desktop App

If Office PowerPoint or Adobe Reader, stops responding for some reason, Preseria might also freeze for about thirty seconds before showing a pop up that asks you if you want to force close the currently running presentation. If force closing doesn't work, restarting Preseria would be the next step. Consider manually ending the PowerPoint or Adobe Reader process via the Task Manager or rebooting if the problem persists.

Preseria is unable to launch PowerPoint properly

Preseria uses the PowerPoint COM interop package to launch and automate PowerPoint. If your Office installation is broken, the COM interop connection may fail. This could lead to the PowerPoint files not opening properly. Try a "Modify & Repair" of your Office installation or reinstall Office if this happens. Also uninstall and then reinstall Preseria whenever you modify or reinstall Office.