Remote PowerPoint Seminars

1. The Overview of RPPT

The Remote PowerPoint application, or RPPT, provides a mechanism by which a presenter can control a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation on multiple sites from a single machine. The development of RPPT was inspired by Bob Olson's (ANL Futures Lab) simple but reliable Distributed PowerPoint (DPPT), which has been used widely in AccessGrid community. RPPT, however, was created
intended to fulfill some wishes that AG operators have had for a long time:

  • Allow the use of (some) animated PowerPoint slides
  • Simplify operations on the master side
  • Minimize operations on the client side
  • Easily control on the appearance of a slideshow window
  • Additional presentation features, such as laser pointer, master's identification, etc
The RPPT application has been developed on the latest Win32 platform, Two keystone technologies that RPPT is based on are OLE/COM and group communication on TCP/IP. The entire application was developed with C++.

There are three components to a RPPT session. A RPPT session is initiated by a server. The server is a multi-threaded process that listens to a Socket port, handles connection requests from the master and clients, and establishes message communications between the master and the clients.

RPPT session activities are actually controlled by a master. The master is a Win32 program that invokes PowerPoint through OLE/COM to view a presentation in master mode. During a presentation, the master sends mouse events and
slide-change events to the server, and the server forwards events to the RPPT clients. PowerPoint presentations that are planned for a session are controlled by the program list created by the master.

One or more clients at remote locations invoke PowerPoint to view the presentation, and listen to slideshow events from the master. The client program controls the local PowerPoint to display the same content the master is currently displaying by simulating mouse events and other slideshow events. The client program is also able to display a presenter's laser pointer and the presenter's identity.

2. Basic System Requirements

  • Windows 2000/98/ME/NT. Windows 2000 is recommended.
  • PowerPoint 2002/2000, or 97 with office service pack 1 installed
  • TCP/IP network service available

3. Installation

  • The RPPT package can be downloaded from:
    http://plainsman.engr.ukans.edu/AG/RPPT/rppt.zip
  • Executables and *.dlls must be extracted and placed into the same directory.
  • Note: Filenames contain "_nt" are specific for NT 4 systems
  • Recommend creating shortcuts for executables on your Windows desktop.
  • A sample program list is also included in the zip.

4. Prerequisites for the seminar

  • Every site should have a networked laptop/desktop under attendee's control during the seminars, to join various in-seminar RPPT tests.
  • RPPT should be installed on the display machine before joining the second seminar.

5. Agenda for the 2 seminars

Note: The agenda is tentative, contents and speed can be adjusted during the seminar depending on the progress. Since these on experiment-based seminars, active interaction among all participating sites is important.

The First Seminar (demonstrates basics of RPPT)

  1. Introduction (RPPT compares to DPPT, sample screen shots, etc), < 10 minutes
  2. Installation (download and installation), 5 minutes
  3. Detailed explanations on components of RPPT (the server, master and client), ~ 20 minutes
  4. Test with clients (server connection, screen setup, PPT root directory, program list, laser pointer, etc.), 10 minutes
  5. Questions and comments, 15 minutes

The Second Seminar (demonstrates the power of RPPT)

  1. A quick review, 5 minutes
  2. Setup servers on remote sites, and be ready for a "RPPT party", 5 minutes
  3. Tests with a single master from one or two remote sites, 15 minutes
  4. Tests with multiple masters/servers from remotes sites, 15 minutes
  5. Troubleshoots and some suggestions on using RPPT, 5 minutes
  6. Questions and comments, 15 minutes

6. Production information