Okay - what exactly do you want to accomplish and what is your budget.

Honestly the best way to do this stuff right now is by rendering multiple separate HD video streams (that were edited together to be shown simultaneously) - not really all that hard for just two. Then use a product to sync them across multiple servers that play them on any screens you like… This is what I have done in the past since I am good at final cut.

There are a lot of specialized components that handle the syncing/streaming and control of multiple video streams that have been coordinated and edited as a single presentation. There is sort of a different combination of crap that for everyone that does this commercially. I guess that is what I meant by 500 ways to do it.

The product I linked is a very low end mac thing that you can sort of make work if you are creative… http://www.nasolab.com/arraysync/index.html

There is NUTTY high end stuff like this that takes a life time to master…
http://europe.avstumpfl.com/en/products/multidisplay/wings_platinum_4_mu…

And there are middle ground stuff like this…

http://www.renewedvision.com/propresenter.php with a new beta for Mac…

The same company also has syncro software and multi stream players - PVP and PVS are what they are called if you are looking for them.

If I knew more I could probably point you more specifically.

RB

ooops for got to say that I personally use PVP and PVS. I can say objectively that my results in the past have blow the living crap out of other peoples dog-do at trade shows and such. My 20min multi-screen extravaganza that I ran as a loop at both an indoor and outdoor booth at fetishcon and InterNext a few years ago knocked it out of the park. (
Not in that business anymore)

RB

Oooops one more thought - my brain is like this…

Propresenter is sort of a one stop shop if you don’t use other tools and your needs are simpler - can do really really cool stuff but as soon as you have to start messing with a lot of video it might be easier just to deal with something like finalcut in the first place. If you are not a “video guy” then Propresenter is probably easier to deal with.

If you are a video guy - then what I do is sort of a multi-screen mockup using multiple video tracks and have them all display in one window right next to each other via transforms on each track. I then coordinate between all the tracks. I can use a direct single video output to get all the rough cuts done and collaborated with others.

Finally I will render each track at full res as a separate stream - each is automatically going to have the same exact timecode and synching them is easy with PVS/PVP. You can do anything have crap appear to slide between screens, dissolves between them, instantly transform from what appear to be completely different images on each screen to what appears to be one giant screen shaped anyway you would like, etc, etc, etc.

RB

Crap one other more “mainstream” (read business guy - not media guy) way of doing it is some sort of PowerPoint plug-in. I only know this because someone was using it for a show that I re-did to make it actually good. I forget what the plug-in was called but there are probably a number of them for conference room monkeys that need something like this.

I hate powerpoint so I have never used it.

RB

One mo thing…

The reason I use PVP/PVS is because they do exactly what I need which is to stream multiple video streams to multiple display points in sync. All of the “fancy” stuff is actually done in Final Cut I use no features of the display solution to monkey with transitions between clips, etc.

As I mentioned before there are a million ways to do this from a-z but the Final Cut/PVP/PVS solution allows me to do just about anything anyone else can do but to do it really really really cheap compared to other video multi video solutions that are very specialized. Other solutions can be amazingly costly or very inflexible. I personally do not use Propresenter, the only way I know about it is because it’s the same company that sells PVP which replaced a different solution I was using to do the same thing for far less money.

RB

Last thing - I promise,

If all you have is Aperture and you want to do this on the cheap with no making of the video part etc. Here is a way to do it where you can simulate what the big boys do and it will look fantastic I just did it to make sure it works as I expected.

1) By ArraySnyc from the AppStore for $29.

2) Make 2 completely different slideshows. One for each screen. Timing and sync will have to be considered in terms of the slide durations, fades, etc. It’s actually not to hard to do this as long as all your slides and transitions have the same durations throughout th e slide show. Pretty easy to make each slide and transition on each screen behave you want to.

3) Export each slideshow to a quicktime movie from Aperture 3.

4) Use array sync to play on as many monitors as you would like.

This will actually work for as many machines and monitors as you would like. Array sync is actually very very cool for $29. I could use this to do some AMAZING stuff for no money. Just wish it had a couple more features like the ability to control the client machines remotely vs having to “be there” I guess I could RDP/screenshare them but that’s kinda cheesy. Honestly with just a few simple things added Array sync would allow me to ditch some of my really expensive shite that does not a whole lot for me.

RB

Ps. If you don’t understand this brief explanation I will post a very detailed example step by step on my site when I have a moment to actually do it. Let me know.

Kenny,

The arraysync works very will for one mac. The really cool thing is that it’s only $29 for the “server” that handles the one mac thing and the client version is free so you can display on as many other monitors driven by separate computers as you would like….

Very cool.

RB

Kenny,

Will try to put a post up shortly that demonstrates this. I may have mentioned this but I use FCP for anything remotely complicated. The key to having “perfect sync” is really how the slideshows/video is designed in the first place. In doing things like moving one slide to the other monitor some effects are kind of simple. Like having the image fade out on one monitor and fade in on the other. That would be relatively simple even in making two different Aperture slide shows work together - especially if you want the same effect over and over with the same timings. Other things like making a photo appear to move from one to the other can be more difficult - the key for complicated “synced” sequences is the ability to work on each video/photo stream within the same timeline - hence why I use FCP for things like this and multi screen presentations in general.

Making two different slideshows that are reasonably/attractively coordinated in Aperture, exporting them to HD video and using Array sync to play them in sync is pretty simple - as I said I will try to post an example shortly - hopefully in the couple days.

I will get back to you.

RB