Can Mainstage 2 drive Apple Keynote, or other video/slides?

Thanks, Brian! I appreciate the help. I will check that out.

The Keynote Help in Keynote '08 talks about "Using Other Applications During a Presentation":

To use Exposé, Dashboard, or other applications (such as Remote Desktop) while you’re playing a slideshow, you need to set a Keynote preference. Choose Keynote > Preferences, click Slideshow, and select “Allow Exposé, Dashboard, and others to use screen.” Selecting this option may cause your slideshow to run more slowly and animations to display poorly.
Older versions of Keyspan Remote software are not configured to work with Keynote, but you can configure Keyspan Remote yourself.
To configure Keyspan Remote to work with Keynote:

Open the KeySpanDMR application (located in the Applications folder on your hard disk).
Click Configure at the bottom of the window.
Choose KeySpanDMR > Add Application.
Locate Keynote in the Choose dialog, and then click Choose.

I've never used this before. This makes me think I could run other programs concurrently, though...what do you think?

Shawn

Thanks, Brian, I appreciate it. I think you're on to something...I don't think I'll need to actually see Mainstage, or anything else other than Keynote, so it might all work.

To Follow up...

A friend from the Mainstage forum pointed me to Alien Apparatus Show Control application and footswitch. (www.alienapparatus.com). Below is my dialogue with their tech support. I will post again after I've had a chance to try it with Keynote, and/or Mainstage. I think my biggest question now is if Show Controller and Keynote running will work w/Mainstage at the same time (I really want to use it for the guitar rig, I think). Does anyone know if Show Controller will work with Mainstage and Keynote? Could someone test it for me if you have them? I don't have Mainstage 2. Here's the tech support dialogue:

So...here's my questions... Can you tell me:

+1) Can you use Show Controller to control Keynote specifically? Have you done it? Can you program Show Control to trigger the "keystrokes" in Keynote? Are "keystrokes" the same as "hotkeys", or is the a Mac OSX command? Can you email me some documentation/links about this? If not Keynote, is there any other program you can recommend that will play photo slide shows, video, lyrics w/beautiful transitions, that will respond to keystrokes and/or MIDI program changes from Show Controller that I can call up specific scenes from your foot controller with?+

Yes, you can control Keynote with the Hotkeys feature. Just to make sure of this, I just called up Show Controller and Keynote and did it. Yep, it certainly can be done. In fact, you can download the demo of Solo Performer Show Controller from our web site and you can give it a go yourself. Hotkeys are really just keypresses that you can send to other programs. In this case I sent right arrow keypresses to advance the Keynote slides. In the Hotkey editor of Solo Performer Show Controller, there is a field where you type in the keys to send. In this case, I want to send a right-arrow key. This is a "special" key that does not show up when you type in the field, so what you do is type "<right>" into the field. These "special" key commands are documented in both the manual and the online help. If you ever get stuck, just fire an email to me and ask.

+2) Can you run Show Controller on the same computer as Keynote? The Keynote Help in Keynote '08 talks about "Using Other Applications During a Presentation": To use Exposé, Dashboard, or other applications (such as Remote Desktop) while you’re playing a slideshow, you need to set a Keynote preference. Choose Keynote > Preferences, click Slideshow, and select “Allow Exposé, Dashboard, and others to use screen.” Selecting this option may cause your slideshow to run more slowly and animations to display poorly." Have you done this?+

You sure can run Show Controller and Keynote on the same computer. I just did it. One thing that I should point out, though, is that Keynote tries to take over your entire screen. If you have a second screen or projector (as you have indicated that you do), then you should be fine. Otherwise, you will only see Keynote unless muck about with Keynote's preferences as you've pointed out. If you're displaying on a second monitor (or projector), then you don't need to worry about any of this.

+3) Can you run Show Controller to drive Mainstage 2 and/or Logic, to take advantage of all the live audio capabilities (i.e. Pedal Board, real-time fx, soft synths, etc.) Have you done it?+

I've never done it personally. Generally I just run all of my audio form Solo Performer Show Controller. But you very likely can accomplish what you want. Solo Performer Show Controller can send MIDI commands that most audio programs will respond to. You can send MIDI commands to the IAC bus. This is how you send MIDI to programs that are running on your computer; its an "internal" MIDI chain. You just set up the receiving program to watch for MIDI on the IAC bus.

+4) Can Mainstage 2 be used as a slave to Show Controller? Can you run them both on the same mac? Have you done it?+

I've never done this, but I see no reason why it can't be done. Solo Performer Show Controller can send either MIDI or hotkeys out that Mainstage should respond to.

+5) Can you run Show Controller and Mainstage 2 on the same machine, or do you need 2 macs?+

You should be able to do this with one Mac.