Presentation Commander — Server

AI-assisted project. This codebase was created with Claude (Anthropic), directed and reviewed by a human author — including architecture, implementation, and documentation. Review it accordingly before relying on it in production.

The master control application for live event production: a real-time NDI video matrix router, layered scene compositor, and presenter-notes hub, built as an Electron + React + TypeScript desktop app.

Pairs with presentation-commander-client, the companion app that runs on each presentation laptop.

What it does

• Source Pool — add/edit/delete NDI and web sources, or pick a real NDI sender discovered live on the network (mDNS _ndi._tcp.local)
• Scenes — layered scene compositor: build scenes from multiple layered sources, drag to reposition, drag a corner to resize, toggle visibility. Layers backed by a real network source show a live video preview rendered from actual received NDI frames, not a placeholder box
• Matrix Inspector — route any physical/stream/stage output to a source or a full composited scene
• Control Deck — live presenter notes and slide position per connected Client Node
• Control Surface — a button-grid control surface: scene recall, blackout, next/previous slide, send-note-to-stage — all backed by the same command path used by the JSON-RPC automation API (:9700), which also powers the Bitfocus Companion module for Stream Deck integration
• Confidence Monitor — a Presenter Notes source type composites live presenter notes over video into one real NDI output (native/ndi-send, the same addon architecture as the Client's NDI send), so a physical stage monitor gets an actual broadcast signal instead of a text box in the operator's own window
• Client Hub (:9800) — WebSocket server that Client Nodes register with; connected clients automatically appear as routable sources, and next/previous-slide commands are forwarded live to the client instead of being simulated locally

Architecture

graph LR
    subgraph laptop["Presentation Laptop (Client Node)"]
        SS["SlideSource<br/>PDF · Keynote · Google Slides"]
        NDIsend["NDI Send<br/>native/ndi-send"]
        ProgOut["Program Out window"]
        SL["serverLink.ts"]
        SS --> NDIsend
        SS --> ProgOut
        SS --> SL
    end

    subgraph browser["Browser (optional)"]
        GSExt["Google Slides<br/>MV3 extension"]
    end
    GSExt -- "ws://localhost:9801" --> SL

    subgraph server["Master Server"]
        Hub["Client Hub<br/>WS :9800"]
        Matrix["NDI Matrix /<br/>Scene Compositor"]
        Auto["Automation API<br/>HTTP :9700"]
        ConfMon["Confidence Monitor<br/>NDI Send"]
        Hub --> Matrix
        Matrix --> ConfMon
        Auto --> Matrix
    end
    SL -- "register / slide-state / command" --> Hub

    NDIsend -- "NDI network" --> Matrix
    ConfMon -- "NDI network" --> Monitor["Physical stage<br/>confidence monitor"]

    Companion["Bitfocus Companion<br/>module"] -- "GET /state, POST /rpc" --> Auto
    Deck["Stream Deck / any<br/>Companion surface"] --> Companion

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What's real vs. mocked

NDI discovery and receive are real, built directly against the official Vizrt NDI SDK via a small native N-API addon (native/ndi-receive) — no third-party NDI wrapper. Source discovery uses mDNS; the scene compositor's layer previews are actual decoded video frames pulled from the network with NDIlib_recv_capture_v3. DeckLink capture cards and other physical broadcast hardware are still out of scope — this project has no way to test against hardware it doesn't have.

Building from source

The native receive addon links against the NDI SDK at build time. Install the NDI SDK first (macOS default: /Library/NDI SDK for Apple; override the location with NDI_SDK_DIR if yours lives elsewhere). npm install rebuilds the addon automatically via @electron/rebuild.

Roadmap / TODO

• Physical capture hardware — DeckLink capture cards and other broadcast I/O are currently out of scope; the project has no way to test against hardware it doesn't have. NDI discovery/receive and the compositor are real (see "What's real vs. mocked" above).

Project Setup

Install

npm install

Development

npm run dev

Build

# Windows
npm run build:win

# macOS
npm run build:mac

# Linux
npm run build:linux

Unsigned builds — macOS Gatekeeper & Windows SmartScreen

The release builds are not code-signed or notarized — that needs paid Apple / Windows developer certificates this project doesn't carry. The app is safe to run; the OS just can't verify a publisher, so it warns you the first time. Here's how to get past that, and how to sign it yourself if you'd rather.

macOS

Delivered as a .dmg/.zip. On first launch macOS says the app "is damaged and can't be opened" or "cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified" — that's Gatekeeper reacting to the missing signature, not an actual problem.

Easiest fix: right-click (Control-click) the app in Applications → Open → Open. You only do this once. If it still says "damaged" (common when the .dmg came through a browser), clear the quarantine flag in Terminal:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine "/Applications/Presentation Commander Server.app"

Windows

The installer is an unsigned .exe, so SmartScreen shows "Windows protected your PC" → click More info → Run anyway. (Right-click → Properties → Unblock also works.)

Linux

.AppImage: chmod +x it and run. .deb: sudo apt install ./<file>.deb. No signing gate.

Signing it yourself (optional)

macOS ad-hoc (local only, not notarized):

codesign --force --deep --sign - "/Applications/Presentation Commander Server.app"

To ship without warnings you need an Apple Developer Program membership ($99/yr) + a Developer ID Application certificate, then sign with the hardened runtime and notarize with xcrun notarytool submit … --wait and xcrun stapler staple. electron-builder does all of this for you if you set CSC_LINK, CSC_KEY_PASSWORD, APPLE_ID, APPLE_APP_SPECIFIC_PASSWORD and APPLE_TEAM_ID. On Windows, clearing SmartScreen needs an Authenticode code-signing certificate (signtool sign, or CSC_LINK/CSC_KEY_PASSWORD for electron-builder).

Recommended IDE Setup

• VSCode + ESLint + Prettier