'KMS' is the the current stable version of Pi Presents. However it requires the Legacy RPi OS Bullseye which is likely to be end of life in October 2025 and it is not compatible with the RPi Model 5. A newer version, pipresents-gtk, which is in Beta Test, will work on the preferred RPi OS Bookworm and RPi Model 5
KMS has all the features of Gapless/Beep with Omxplayer replaced with MPV and UZBL web browser replaced by Chromium.
Read the 'Installing Pi Presents KMS' section below.
Read the 'Updating Pi Presents from Pi Presents Beep or Pi Presents Gapless' section below.
Pi Presents is a toolkit for producing interactive multimedia applications for museums, visitor centres, and more.
There are a number of Digital Signage solutions for the Raspberry Pi which are generally browser based, limited to slideshows, non-interactive, and driven from a central server enabling the content to be modified frequently.
Pi Presents is different, it is stand alone, multi-media, highly interactive, diverse in it set of control paradigms – slideshow, cursor controlled menu, radio button, and hyperlinked show, and able to interface with users or machines over several types of interface. It is aimed primarly at curated applications in museums, science centres, and visitor centres.
Being so flexible Pi Presents needs to be configured for your application. This is achieved using a simple to use graphical editor and needs no Python programming. There are numerous tutorial examples and a comprehensive manual.
For a detailed list of applications and features see here:
https://pipresents.wordpress.com/features/
See the licence.md file. Pi Presents is Careware to help support a small museum charity http://www.museumoftechnology.org.uk Particularly if you are using Pi Presents in a profit making situation a donation would be appreciated.
The full manual in English is here https://github.com/KenT2/pipresents-kms/blob/master/manual.pdf. It will be downloaded with Pi Presents.
* must use the latest version of RPi OS Bullseye with Desktop (not the Lite version)
* must be run from the PIXEL desktop.
* can be installed and run from any user that is created with RPi OS utilities
* must have Python 3 installed (which RPi OS does)
* should use a clean install of RPi OS, particularly if you intend to use GPIO
Image a SD Card with the Legacy RPi OS Bullseye with desktop (32 Bit) accessed from the Raspberry Pi OS (other) menu item on RPi Imager.
Ensure the OS is up to date:
sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade
sudo apt install python3-pil.imagetk
sudo apt install unclutter
sudo apt install mplayer
sudo pip3 install selenium
sudo apt install chromium-chromedriver
sudo apt install mpv
sudo apt install python3-mpv
python3 -m pip install DRV2605
sudo pip3 install evdev (if you are using the input device I/O plugin)
sudo apt install mpg123 (for .mp3 beeps)
From a terminal window open in your home directory type:
wget https://github.com/KenT2/pipresents-kms/tarball/master -O - | tar xz # -O is a capital Ohhh...
There should now be a directory 'KenT2-pipresents-kms-xxxx' in your /home/pi directory. Copy or rename the directory to pipresents
Run Pi Presents to check the installation is successful. From a terminal window opened in the home directory type:
python3 /home/<username>/pipresents/pipresents.py
You will see a window with an error message which is because you have no profiles.Click OK to exit Pi Presents.
Examples are in the github repository pipresents-kms-examples.
Open a terminal window in your home directory and type:
wget https://github.com/KenT2/pipresents-kms-examples/tarball/master -O - | tar xz
There should now be a directory 'KenT2-pipresents-kms-examples-xxxx' in the /home/ directory. Open the directory and move the 'pp_home' directory and its contents to the home directory /home/.
From the terminal window type:
python3 /home/<username>/pipresents/pipresents.py -p pp_mediashow_1p5
to see a repeating multimedia show
Exit this with CTRL-BREAK or closing the window, then:
python3 /home/<username>/pipresents/pipresents.py -p pp_mediashow_1p5 -f -b
to display full screen and to disable screen blanking
Now read the manual to try other examples.
Backup the directories /home/pi/pipresents and /home/pi/pp_home. You will need to copy some of the files to a new SD card.
Pi Presents KMS requires Raspberry Pi OS Bullseye or later so first install the operating system on a new SD card and then follow the instructions above for a new install of Pi Presents KMS.
Copy any files you have made or changed from old to new /pipresents/pp_io_config directory.
Copy any files you have made or changed from old to new /pipresents/pp_io_plugins directory.
Copy any files you have made or changed from old to new /pipresents/pp_track_plugins directory.
Do not copy across /pipresents/pp_config/pp_editor.cfg
If you have modified it, make the edits to /pipresents/pp_config/pp_web.cfg file. If you are using a username other than pi then edit the appropriate fields.
Copy any other files you have changed in /pipresents/pp_config/ - pp_email.cfg, pp_oscmonitor.cfg, pp_oscremote.cfg
This version requires the legacy camera library. If using the camera run sudo raspi-config and select legacy camera.
For upgrade from Beep:
* If you have modified it, make the edits to the new format /pipresents/pp_config/pp_display.cfg file.
* If you have modified it, make the edits to the new format /pipresents/pp_config/pp_audio.cfg file.For KMS the pulseaudio sink names are different for different models of Pi but I believe do not differ between individual boards. If I am incorrect then please contact me and edit the file as described in the file.
For upgrade from Gapless:
* There is a new /pipresents/pp_config/pp_display.cfg file. This replaces use of the --screensize command line option and allows change to the size of the development window.
* There is a new /pipresents/pp_config/pp_audio.cfg file. This requires editing to allow use USB or Bluetooth devices. For KMS the pulseaudio sink names are different for different models of Pi but I believe do not differ between individual boards. If I am incorrect then please contact me and edit the file as described in the file.
Copy the pp_home directory from your backup to the home directory of your SD card.
When you open a profile using the editor it will be updated from Beep or Gapless versions. You can use the update>update all menu option of the editor to update all profiles in a single directory at once.
You will now need to make the following manual modifications:
* Video tracks using omxplayer are now removed and will be deleted from the profile by the update. Any reference to them will be retained. You will need to create new equivalent tracks using the MPV Video track.
* VLC Video tracks using VLC Player are now removed and will be deleted from the profile by the update. Any reference to them will be retained. You will need to create new equivalent tracks using the MPV Video track.
* Web tracks that used the UZBL browser are now removed and will be deleted from the profile by the update. Any reference to them will be retained. You will need to create new equivalent tracks using the Chrome Web track.
* For Audio tracks the Audio Player volume range is now 0>100 instead of -60>0
* Videoplayout uses a new method compatible with MPV. See manual an pp_videoplayout_1p5 example
To help with replacing the removed tracks there are two features:
* In the Editor, profile>validate will display errors for any track references that are to the removed tracks.
* In the Editor, show>view backup will show the parameters for the show and of all tracks in the associated medialist. This allows identification of removed anonymous tracks. The backup was made wwhen the profile issue was last updated.
* The format of the backup parameters display allows cut and paste of field content, particulary multi-line fields. The data is taken from /pp_home/pp_profiles.bak and uses the internal names for the fields, these are close to the names displayed by the editor except 'controls' which sometimes is displayed as 'links'
I am keen to develop Pi Presents further and would welcome bug reports and ideas for additional features and uses.
Please use the Issues tab on Github https://github.com/KenT2/pipresents-kms/issues or contact me on https://pipresents.wordpress.com/
For more information on how Pi Presents is being used, Hints and Tips on how to use it and all the latest news hop over to the Pi Presents website https://pipresents.wordpress.com/