Showing PowerPoint Notes on the OBS+Plus

Question:

I have a person who is trying to use PowerPoint with the One Button Studio. They’d like to have Presenter Tools (with their notes) on the left monitor, while showing the main PowerPoint keyed on the right monitor. Is that possible?

Answer:

There are two ways to accomplish what you want. They both involve using the NDIScanConverter app which launches automatically on the Presentation Mac. Let me know if your app is called “NDIScanConverter Lite” or just “NDIScanConverter”. The latter is the full version, which is what you want. I can send you a license for that if you don’t have it. As of May of 2021, all OBS+Plus and [Pro] systems ship with the full version.

With NDIScanConverter, you can select either an entire monitor, or a cropped portion of a monitor, to send to the Recording Mac. That means you can run PowerPoint in presenter mode and select just the presentation window to send to the Recording Mac.

If you want to go big, you can mount a 50″-55″ TV on the wall above the OBS dual monitors, and use that as a secondary monitor for the Presentation Mac. In that case, one monitor would show the fullscreen presentation, and the other would show the notes. In NDIScanConverter you would select the presentation monitor to capture and send to the Recording Mac.

If you want to go this route, you will need an HDMI adapter like this: https://www.amazon.com/Anker-Aluminum-Pixelbook-Compatible-Thunderbolt/dp/B07THJGZ9Z/ and an HDMI cable like this: https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-High-Speed-HDMI-Cable-1-Pack/dp/B014I8T0YQ

One benefit of a second large monitor is that you can also use it to run a Zoom meeting, and send the output of the OBS into it. A very cool way of presenting live to a group!