The firm I work for turns 15 this year. They are planning a big open house for clients consultants etc to celebrate. My bosses came to me and said they want (during the party) all the computer monitors in the office to be in synch with each other and they should be showing off projects we've done.

So using Google I tackled the problem, got a few hints and found a soloution that is completely free. (always a plus with the bosses). I found an open source program called VLC media player. Its a basic media player that can take a file and stream it to other computers or even the whole LAN. I downloaded it, tried it out, and the thing works like a charm. I've only tested it on a few machines simultaneously so far, but since its streaming out live, all the computers are playing in perfect synch.

Check it out, you can find it at http://www.videolan.org/

Now I just have to work on putting together the mpeg file to stream. Luckily Microsoft's Moviemaker that came with the machine seems to be just the ticket.

-Steve G.