Computer Screen

In the same way as you can display a live video feed in your presentation, you can also incorporate a live image of what appears on a computer’s screen. This can be used to show Excel graphics, Powerpoint slides, a Web browser, or similar software applications, as part of your presentation.

The image displayed on the screen of the source computer is sent continuously via the network to the WATCHOUT display computers, where WATCHOUT composites it with other media. For example, you can put a plain Powerpoint presenta­tion on top of a large, high-resolution background, thereby enhancing it with all the high-quality presentation capabil­ities of WATCHOUT.

The computer to supply the image must have VNC server software installed and configured (see “VNC Server Software”).

From a production point of view, you use the live computer image just like any other image. Simply add a Computer Screen object to the Media window and drag it onto the Stage or Timeline from there (see “Add Computer Screen”).

Although the VNC-based solution discussed above provides excellent image quality at virtually no additional cost, it does require a fast computer for running the VNC server software. Even so, it may not provide full frame-rate, and may hamper the performance of the computer somewhat, since it has to handle both the VNC server and the application being displayed (for example, Powerpoint).

As an alternative, you could use a hardware capture card to bring the computer’s screen into WATCHOUT. This solution is essentially identical to the “Live Video” input, described above. However, it may require a different capture card that can be connected to the source computer instead of a video camera.