About TightProjector, TightInformer and TightReceiver
TightProjector is a software that can broadcast the screen of a particular computer to the Local-Area Network (LAN) it is connected to.
Typical usage examples:
* broadcasting a presentation to multiple computers in the LAN;
* showing a class of students operations performed by a teacher.
TightInformer is a software that allows you to broadcast text information on any computer connected to the Local-Area Network (LAN). TightReceiver can display this information on the client computer in the form of “news ticker”.
This software can be used for sending more information to users. You can use it with TightProjector or separately.
There are three programs in the distribution:
* TightProjector sends the screen contents to the network;
* TightInformer sends the text information from a file to the network as a news ticker;
* TightReceiver shows the data received from TightProjector.
In the traditional client-server model, TightProjector (TightInformer) is the server part and TightReceiver is the client program. Normally, there is one active projector in the network, but there may be any number of receivers.
All programs are very small (about 300 kilobytes each), efficient and very easy to install and use.
TightProjector (TightInformer) uses “multicast” UDP packets for sending screen updates. This means that clients do not need to establish connections to the server, and the server sends just one packet even if there are many receivers. This guarantees that the performance would not degrade with increasing the number of clients in the same network.
TightProjectorPro is advanced version with a few additional features:
* Audio broadcast. TightProjectorPro can broadcast also audio of a particular computer to the LAN.
* Save session to file. Any broadcast session can be stored in a file and later reproduced without any effort
* Extended bandwidth control. It allows the program to work with the slow wi-fi channels.
* Client Deployment tool that performs silent installation of the client part (TightReceiverPro) to computers distributed throughout your network.
Disclaimer and Licensing Information
The software is provided “AS IS”, without warranty of any kind. The source code is not available. For complete End User License Agreement, see the LICENSE.txt document included within the software distribution. DO NOT use or load this software until you have read the End User License Agreement. This is commercial software, available free of charge only for evaluation purposes.
Installation
To install and run the software, you need:
* Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7,8,10
* 32 megabytes of RAM (64 megabytes recommended);
* 2 megabytes of free disk space;
* a video adapter supporting color depths of 16, 24 or 32 bits;
* a local-area network adapter.
Installation is simple: run the TightProjector-Setup.exe (TightPrjPro-Setup.exe) file and navigate through the familiar wizard screen. At a result of the installation, a number of icons will be created in the Start/Programs menu, including shortcuts for TightProjector, TightInformer and TightReceiver programs. To uninstall the software, choose Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select TightProjector in the list of installed software, and press the Add/Remove button.
Registration
Initially, TightProjector’s operating time is limited by 20 minutes. TightInformer’s operating time is limited by 10 minutes. To end the evaluation period and switch to the fully-functional mode, you must purchase an activation code and register the software. The registration procedure is simple, unregistered version will offer registration at startup, just read and follow the instructions.
Getting Started
As noted above, the distribution includes three programs: TightProjector which sends the screen contents to the network, TightInformer sends the text information from a file to the network as a creeping line and TightReceiver which can show received screen data. Typically, you should run no more than one active TightProjector(TightInformer) in a network.
If you run several copies of TightProjector(TightInformer), the programs may conflict with each other if not specifically configured to use different UDP port numbers.
When started, both TightProjector, TightInformer and TightReceiver programs show a small icon in the system tray area (usually, lower right corner of the screen). Right-clicking on such an icon would show up a menu that can be used to control the corresponding program.
TightProjector’s menu includes the following commands that are pretty self explanatory:
- Start Transmission / Stop Transmission
- Pause Transmission
- Send Full-Screen Update
- Play Saved Session (for Pro version)
- Settings…
- Deploy TightReceiver (for Pro version)
- About TightProjector…
- Quit
The command Start/Stop Transmission is the default one for the tray menu. That means it would be executed on double-clicking the tray icon. Also, transmission can be started or paused by using a special keyboard combination which is Alt+F12 by default. Another keyboard shortcut can be used for pausing transmission and it is initially set to Alt-F11. Choose Settings… from the menu to configure keyboard hotkeys and other configurable options.
TightInformer’s menu looks like this:
- Start Transmission / Stop Transmission
- Edit Line
- Settings…
- About TightProjector…
- Quit
The command Start/Stop Transmission also is the default one for the tray menu. Transmission can be started or paused by using a special keyboard combination which is Alt+F12 by default. Another keyboard shortcut can be used for pausing transmission and it is initially set to Alt-F12. After the start of the broadcast TightInformer sends to all clients text from the file “creepingline.txt”. This is a plain text file with a few features. You can define the “style” for each individual message of the creeping line. This text is located at the beginning message and limited signs <>. Its length can’t exceed 30 characters. Message length can’t exceed 300 characters. The message should end with a <CR>. For example, see the file “creepingline.txt” from the installation package.
TightReceiver’s menu:
- Full Screen
- Hide Window / Show Window
- Request Refresh
- Settings…
- About TightReceiver…
- Quit
The default command which is activated on double-clicking the tray icon is one that toggles the full-screen mode. To leave the
full-screen mode, use the Esc key on your keyboard. Also, there is a keyboard combination which can be used to hide or show the window of TightReceiver, and it is assigned to Ctrl+F12 by default. Now here is a simple usage example. Let’s assume that you have a network of three computers A, B and C, and wish to demonstrate the screen of the computer A to the users of other computers, B and C. In this case you should:
Start TightProjector (and/or TightInformer) on the computer A. Start TightReceiver on the computers B and C.
Double-click the TightProjector icon in the system tray (lower right corner of the screen) so that the icon would start rotating. Double-click the TightInformer icon in the system tray so that the letters on the icon will change.
On the computers B and C, a copy of the screen A will appear in a new window. If you wish, you can expand such a window to full screen by double-clicking the tray icon of TightReceiver. Also you will see text message as a creeping line at the bottom of the screen, if TightInformer started broadcasting.
Command-Line Options
TightProjector (tightprj.exe) and TightInformer (tightinformer.exe) supports the following command-line options:
-start Start transmission automatically on program startup.
-port NUM Use UDP port number NUM as the base UDP port for data transmission. If this option was specified, it will be impossible to edit UDP port number in the Settings dialog window.
-interface a.b.c.d Use network interface with a.b.c.d ip-address for data transmission.
TightReceiver (tightrcv.exe) supports the only command-line option:
-port NUM Use UDP port number NUM as the base UDP port for data reception. If this option was specified, it will be impossible to edit UDP port number in the Settings dialog window.
-fullscr Start of the TightReceiver in fullscreen mode
-interface a.b.c.d Use network interface with a.b.c.d ip-address for data receiving.
Note that both TightProjector (TightInformer ) and TightReceiver should use the same base port number in order to interoperate properly.