I seem to have got out of the habit of making posts for each release of Pi Presents, however development has continued. This post give an overview of the many new features since November 2016.
In addition to the major improvements below there are many smaller enhancements. Look at the changelog.txt or the manual for details.
– The Input/Output device drivers have been separated out from the core of Pi Presents and have a defined API so that I/O plugins can be written for new devices. I have coded several I/O plugins to demonstrate the techniques but these may require modification for your own devices:
- keyboard (recode of original)
- gpio (recode of original)
- enhanced keyboard allowing strings to trigger events and be read by track plugins
- Wireless remote controls and other input devices that use evdev
- UART (through USB) for RS232 interface and projector control
- Pimoroni Four Letter Phat via I2C
- Pimorini ScrollHD Phat via I2C
- ADC via I2C
- DAC via I2C
– The counter feature uses Show Control commands to increment the value of counters. These can be read by track plugins and allows interactive quizzes to be implemented. The enhanced keyboard I/O plugin allows strings to be entered so that answers need not be multiple choice.
– Open Sound Control has been rewritten and enhanced and now plays nicely with control applications such as QLab.
– Pause now has a timeout
– Show Control commands to generate events and to power the display
– The Raspberry Pi camera can be used in Pi Presents to display live video and to take pictures. The feature is implemented as a track plugin so details of its use can be varied.
– Pi Presents can now send email alerts when it starts, exits, or detects an error
– Media can now reside inside a profile so that profiles can be made stand alone
– Enhancements to the web based editor and manager, and retirement of the original editor.
– The editor now updates profiles automatically whenever there is a change of profile format. The old profile is backed up.
– Direct linking of GPIO input and output to allow LED indicators on buttons
– Video tracks now has ‘freeze at start’ which give an instant start for video playout applications and an improved ‘magic picture’ application.
– Liveshows can now run specified tracks or shows if the livelist is empty
Pi Presents 
Thanks for the continuing developments.