Wireless presenters are great if all presenters are at the same physical location. However, with remote presentations, this is not always the case, and a different solution is needed. This is precisely where this project comes to the rescue: it forwards the buttons of a wireless presenter over the internet to the target computer. Consequently, presenters can be all over the world and still advance slides on the presenting machine.
The remote presenter software is implemented in Python and works on Windows and Linux. It requires a publicly-reachable handshake server to allow connections behind firewalls, i.e., any home network.
The server can be run as a docker container. It requires port 9999 to be open. To run the server:
docker-compose up -d
The URL of the server has to be added to both sender.py and receiver.py.
On Linux, the pyautogui is required on the receiver side to inject the buttons.
pyxhook and an X server is required on the sender side to hook the buttons of a wireless presenter.
Both can be installed via pip:
pip3 install pyautogui pyxhook
On Windows, the pyautogui is required on the receiver side to inject the buttons.
pywinhook is required on the sender side to hook the buttons of a wireless presenter.
Both can be installed via pip:
python3 -m pip install --user pyautogui pywinhook
On the receiver machine, i.e., the machine that has the presentation, the receiver.py tool has to be started.
When starting, it displays a 4-letter code required on the sender side to connect to the correct receiver.
Every machine that wants to act as a remote presenter runs the sender.py tool and enters the 4-letter code when asked.
If the code is correct, the machines are paired, and "next" and "previous" presses of a presenter are forwarded to the receiving machine.