There is currently a wealth of information on Renewed Vision’s Website regarding recommended practices for Pro Presenter, along with a bunch of tutorials.
Included here is an account of the way we’re using ProPresenter, how it’s configured, and our experiences with various attempted configurations.
Basic Setup
New Valley only has a need for a single production workstation, so at the moment, we only hold a single license. Anyone who is recruited to collaborate on presentations uses the trial version of ProPresenter to make edits, or uses screen sharing to remotely access the production system.
Workstation
We just upgraded (April 2018) to a 27” iMac to solve USB 2.0 limitations for external video (Stage Display.) Our system is a 2015 model, but it’s more than sufficient for our needs.
Projection
We use two Eiki projectors with a short throw and screen blending for a single wide screen canvas at a 3:1 ratio, approximately 28-30’ wide.
Interfaces
External hardware consists of a Matrox DualHead2Go Digital ME, a j5Create USB2.0 to HDMI adapter, and an external USB3.0 4TB Hard Drive.
Stage Display
The Stage Display is a feature we haven’t yet implemented, but will soon. We have a single Visio display with 2 HDMI Baluns for Cat5 transmission. Plans are to extend that signal to the stage and split it so multiple locations will have it.
Configuration
The following represents the base configuration of ProPresenter, which is required for all of our procedures to work correctly. From the configuration settings in OSX to the preferences in ProPresenter 6, this is how it’s configured.
Display Arrangement
In System Preferences --> Displays --> Arrangement you should see the following:
The center screen is the main iMac display. The left screen is the Stage Display (SD) and the far right wide-screen is the DualHead2Go projection screen, which is actually 2 projectors blended into one desktop.
Mission Control Settings
Mission control has a specific setting that must be unchecked to ensure the menu bar isn’t visible on the projection screen.
In System Preferences --> Mission Control you’ll need to make sure that Displays have separate Spaces is unchecked.
ProPresenter Preferences
In ProPresenter, all of the following settings can be found at ProPresenter 6 --> Preferences...
General
Under General, make sure that the following settings match:
- Library Folder: /Volumes/Blue/ProPresenter/Documents
- Support Files: For All Users at /Users/Shared/Renewed Vision Application Support/ProPresenter6
- Media Repository: Custom Path at /Volumes/Blue/ProPresenter
- Manage Media Automatically should be Checked.
- Search Paths:
- /Volumes/Blue/ProPresenter/Video
- /Volumes/Blue/ProPresenter/Images
- /Volumes/Blue/ProPresenter/Audio
Display
Under Display:
Services
Edge Blend
These settings are critical to ensuring the projectors blend properly.
Resource Management
Collaboration
Methods
As outlined above, the resources used in ProPresenter are in the following locations, which is considered the media repository:
- /Volumes/Blue/ProPresenter/Video
- /Volumes/Blue/ProPresenter/Images
- /Volumes/Blue/ProPresenter/Audio
Since this is a shared folder on the network, other computers that have ProPresenter6 installed are able to be configured to use this location as the media repository. Likewise, the documents and templates are also shared locations. Documents are found in /Volumes/Blue/ProPresenter/Documents.