The first question is one of proximity. How close together are the
computers. If they are close (within a couple of hundred feet), I'd just
use a VGA splitter and loose the second computer completely. This would use
both monitors and avoid the whole sync issue. Perhaps this is the easiest
solution.
However, if there is a more significant distance between the displays, there
are several approaches you can take.
The first would be to use one of the available (off the shelf) softwares
that simply mimic the 'host' screen on a 'remote' computer/monitor. This
keeps the displays correctly synced, but often doesn't react fast enough to
have smooth animation or transition effects on the remote site.
Another solution, as you hinted at, would be to write a very small app that
would pick up on a cue generated by the primary show (in an external text
file or some such) and then fire the corresponding effect on the remote
computer. This is problematic since you would need to account for all
possible changes that could happen to the main show (quite, advance, back
up, jump, change show, etc.).
There are some web based applications (WebEx for instance) that allow the
show to be seen by multiple sites simultaneously and give a wide range of
options for conversations and such.
Could you tell us a bit more about the set-up and operation you have in
mind? Are you just keeping multiple announcement loops together, having a
web-conference, or just what?
--
Bill Dilworth
A proud member of the Microsoft PPT MVP Team
Users helping fellow users.
http://billdilworth.mvps.org
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vestprog2@ Please read the PowerPoint FAQ pages.
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