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Hi Guys.
Thought I'd share my setup for wirelessly using the Playbook to remote control my PowerPoint presentations.
My situation is that I give alot of presentations to large numbers of people. While I have used the HDMI cable to great success in smaller meeting rooms where mobility wasn't an issue, I found in large venues that I needed something wireless and more portable. I personally like to walk about during any talk, changing audience perspectives and engaging with people while I present. So the idea of having an HDMI cable trailing me didn't really gel for these situations. Also, I hate looking back at the screen while talking so having the presentation in front of me so I can casually caste my eye over it is great. On top of that, I love to doodle over my presentations while I talk using the PowerPoint annotation tools (pen, highlight, etc).
In the absence of a suitable app, with some tinkering and some free PlayBook and PC software, I managed to turn my trusty tablet into an awesome walkabout wireless presentation tool. I know I may not the first to do this, however thought I'd share it for those with similar needs. Apologies and credit if this technique has been posted already.
My solution was to use plug my laptop into the conference projector, then create a personal wireless network through which I could use my PlayBook to remote control the presentation on the laptop. Found it to be excellent and with a bit of practice soon soon had full, smooth control over all the normal PowerPoint controls, slide transitions, annotation, etc. The best outcome was my credibility as an IT professional went through the roof walking about with my high-res PlayBook wireless remote terminal during the talk! Even had to remind a few people to stop straining and staring at my Playbook and start paying attention to what I was saying!!
What free software you will need:
1. Tight VNC - TightVNC: VNC-Compatible Free Remote Control / Remote Desktop Software
2. IMT VNC - Playbook Appworld
3. Connectify.ME - Connectify � Your Hotspot, Your Way
How to set up:
1. Install Tight VNC on the laptop you have your presentation on and which you will connect to your projector. (make sure to use a good secure password as the VNC service doesn't inform you of connections to your laptop and let it make the necessary adjustments to your windows firewall).
2. Install Connectify.me on your laptop. While you can create an Adhoc network on your windows box without this software, your PlayBook wont recognize it as it will be looking for an Access Point which is where Connectify.Me comes in as it gives you this option. Use the software to set up your mobile hotspot on your laptop using Access Point as the Security Mode. Be sure to use a good secure password again for your wifi network..you don't want a clever jack in your audience hacking your machine while you present! Again, make sure you set it up as an access point. I normally choose "No internet sharing" as I found the hotspot timed out while waiting for it.
3. Start your mobile hotspot and make note of the IP address on the adhoc network adapter of your laptop. You will need this to add into the Playbook. EDIT: You can get this by running a command prompt (cmd) on your laptop and typing ipconfig or by right clicking on your adhoc network wireless adapter and looking at the status.
4. Connect your Playbook to the wireless hotspot you just created.
5. Launch IMT VNC on your PlayBook and configure it with the IP address and password of the VNC service on your laptop.
Thats it, start your presentation on your laptop, enter presentation mode, connect with your Playbook and you are all good to go. Practice abit to get the hang of using the left, right and pointer buttons, screen transitions, onscreen drawing, etc and you will soon be impressing the heck out of your audience!!
Last edited by d3adcrab; 09-26-11 at 03:11 AM.
09-24-11 10:45 AM - Not that I'm discounting your cleverness, but I find the Blackberry Presenter works very well for giving presentations using just my phone... I love my Playbook, but the presenter is much smaller to carry around than a laptop and supports vga output along with svideo. Plus, I picked up my presenter for a measly 15 bucks on eBay
So, you might look into it if you don't want to lug a laptop around...09-24-11 02:53 PM
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