Announcing MediaGun 2.0 (Beta)

It plays (almost) anything you throw at it.
Instantly.

MediaGun enables the instant viewing of more than 50 file formats and their assembling into playlists in the fastest and most secure possible way.

  • No previous file conversion. Just drag and drop, play and share.
  • No former training required.
  • No ifs, no buts.
Speed: The 60 Second Challenge

We’re Swiss. We can’t help it.

Supported file formats

avi, divx, flv, m1v, m2t, m2ts, m2v, m4v, mkv, mov, mp4, mpe,mpg1/2, mpeg, mts, ogv, rmvb, vob, webm, wmv, xvid

bmp, gif, jpeg/jpg, jfif, pct, png, tga, tif, webp, psd

aac, ac3, aif, ape, flac, mp3, m4a, ogg, opus, ra, wav, wma

sounds

txt, pdf, doc, docx, pptx, ppsx, xls, xlsx

Customisation

Insert your own logo and business card.

Choose among 15 screen transitions.

Jazz up your TEXT files with your own wallpaper, corporate font and colours.

Advantages

It’s empowering

It’s empowering

Instantly view more than fifty file formats in one single window and across five* operating systems. Assemble them into Playlists by Drag and Drop in seconds.
Play them manually or automatically.

* Windows, macOS and Linux now. iOS and Android soon.

It’s fast

It’s fast

Speed is MediaGun’s main advantage, together with your data safety.For example, it will not take you more than a minute to create a playlist containing:
– A couple of PowerPoint slideshows
– Some Excel spreadsheets
– A few PDF documents
– All most popular audio…Read more
It’s safe

It’s safe

MediaGun’s user interface was built with your efficiency, safety and performance
as a constant concern. Its robust, uncompromising source code ensures that you are never let down in front of your audience. So much can go wrong in a presentation! Missing files, missing codecs, broken links…
We are totally aware of this…Read more
It’s portable

It’s portable

Once created, your playlist can be packaged with all its media files as a standalone object, ready for distribution. This is what we call a Portfolio*. Generating a Portfolio by MediaGun is entirely automatic. A Portfolio can be read WHETHER MEDIAGUN IS PRESENT OR NOT on any Windows, macOS or Linux computer.
In the next version, iOS and…Read more

* Portfolios are not avaliable in Beta.

It’s versatile

It’s versatile

What is MediaGun used for?
– Corporate Communication (internal & external)
– Events and Exhibitions
– Trainings, Seminars
– Digital Press Portfolios, Taylor-Made Offers, Sales
– Product & Service launches
– Point of Sale, Point of Information

It’s cost effective

It’s cost effective

A single MediaGun subscription can generate an infinite amount of Portfolios, which can be distributed to an infinite amount of people at no extra cost.

* Portfolios are not avaliable in Beta.

No file conversion needed

File conversion requires time and some expertise. It can also generate quality loss. MediaGun saves you the trouble by playing your source material as is, saving you time and preserving quality.

Exception: MS-Office files are processed to allow their cross-platform viewing. But not to worry! This process is entirely automatic.

We’ve got you covered

MediaGun makes sure you’re never left out in the cold with a missing file or an invalid shortcut. So it warns you of any such embarrassment long before you hit the stage!

Cases

A Professional Media Player built around your needs

Presentations, Training and Instructions

Being able to adapt one’s message to a specific target audience is key. By enabling the selection of the pertinent content in seconds, MediaGun makes the ‘one size fits all’ presentation a thing of the past (See Rolex, IATA, Hermès Communication in Testimonials).

Sales

By supporting file formats as diverse as MS-Office, PDF and everything multimedia, MediaGun is invaluable in the creation of tailor-made commercial offers and quotes.

The added possibility to export a playlist as a Portfolio even to a non MediaGun user whatever their operating system, proves MediaGun to be the logical solution for any commercial endeavour.

Events and Trade Shows

Peace of mind must be the most sought -after commodity in these most exciting but stressful circumstances. The pressure of a live audience, the succession of speakers, each with their specific presentations and file formats can be vastly reduced by using MediaGun. This has been mentioned many times by our end users (See Biosensors, JTI. Tactilmedia and TPCM in Testimonials).

POS/POI

By allowing the export of a Playlist into a standalone ‘Portfolio’ – an entirely automatic process – MediaGun is the ideal solution to feed a screen remotely with self-running media. Whether in a company lobby, a hotel internal TV channel, a shop window or a supermarket chain, these are all natural destinations for MediaGun (See Nestlé, AWC, Pathé and Metropolitan Touring in Testimonials).

Who are we?

Originally called Exponent Software, our company was founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in 2000 to develop and promote original software tools linked to the professional communication market.

It has since moved to Bristol (UK) and now operates under the name MediaGun Ltd.

Our philosophy, “technology made friendly” is present at every decision we make. Because, as we all know, technology is NOT friendly by nature, we see it as a genuine added value to MAKE IT friendly to the public.

This concern is found throughout MediaGun, where every detail is geared to give the user maximum efficiency, safety, and pleasure.

In 2020, we decided to upgrade MediaGun to being cross-platform, cloud-based, to include MS-Office file formats more comprehensively than before, and more. To help us accomplish this ambitious challenge, we appointed Bamboo Agile (bambooagile.eu). We want to thank all the team for their uncompromising attention for detail, genuinely pleasant working atmosphere and…relentless patience 🙂

Daniel Gerchman

Daniel Gerchman
daniel@mediagun.com

Since 1983, Daniel has been involved in more than 3000 projects of all sizes for multinationals, international organisations and NGOs as well as smaller, local companies. (see testimonials)

Today, this know-how is expressed in MediaGun’s interface.

As part of his daily routine, he has also been handling numerous file formats and codecs over a number of years. This is the environment where the initial idea of MediaGun originated.

John Messersmith
john@mediagun.com

After graduating the University of Chicago with a degree in Physics, John moved to Europe where he worked at DESY in Hamburg for a year and then CERN in Geneva for 10 years.

He developed a keen understanding of scientific research and advanced development while working on hundreds of projects at the highest level and among some of the brightest minds.

With a passion for graphics, music and human interfaces John became a highly disciplined software engineer focused on scientific visualization and Graphical User Interfaces.

Testimonials

NESTLE

Our reception staff have mastered your software application with astounding ease. We are fully satisfied with the stability of MediaGun, given that it has been operating faultlessly since the beginning on an average of 10 hours a day, 5 days a week.

(Multi-screen internal communication)

ROLEX

MediaGun enables us to prepare presentations in an extremely easy fashion, with outstanding results.

(Internal training, global high-profile events)

IATA

I wanted to let you know how pleased my colleagues and I have been with the MediaGun software.” Just as important has been the ease with which we can change and customise our presentation materials.

(Training)

JTI

MediaGun is a fantastic tool. I have been using it for many years now, mainly in the context of worldwide conferences. Moving from one presentation to the next, from one speaker to the next has become child’s play, saving me a good deal of time and inconvenience.

(Worldwide high-profile events)

BIOSENSORS

The MediaGun application worked perfectly and was the perfect tool for this congress, as it will be for future ones.

(International trade shows multi-screen presentations)

AWC

We use MediaGun to animate our shop windows at Geneva airport. It has worked faultlessly 7/7 and 24/24 for the past 7 years. The only interruptions have been to change the media, to upgrade the PC and to dust the equipment!

(Point of sale animation)

PATHÉ

We fully trust this software program, a very handy tool to playback PowerPoint slideshows and movie trailers.

(Cinema lobby multi-screen animation, promotions)

HERMES COMMUNICATION

MediaGun is a fantastic tool. It’s really extraordinary to be able to manage such a quantity of text, pictures, soundtracks, PowerPoint presentations and videos in such a simple manner.

(Presentations, sales)

METROPOLITAN TOURING

Keeping staff informed about our activities inside and outside our company is part of our corporative philosophy. MediaGun has become our greatest ally to achieve our communication objectives, it is truly outstanding!!!

(Travel agencies networked promotions)

TPCM

As creators of both still and animated pictures of various types, we are often challenged by very tough deadlines. Moreover, the documents we receive from our clients tend to come from very diverse editing software, resulting in formats often incompatible with each other – and ours. MediaGun enables us to integrate them into presentations extremely fast and with maximum comfort.

(Mixed media output)

TACTILMEDIA

As exhibition booths and displays designers working on an international scale, we are forever pushed by time. Particularly, multimedia content tends to arrive at the last minute. What a relief MediaGun has brought to our daily routine!

(International multiscreen trade shows)

FIND MY SOFT

MediaGun has been reviewed by George Norman. Based on the user interface, features and complexity, Findmysoft has rated MediaGun 5 out of 5 stars, naming it Essential.

(Online IT Magazine)

FAQ

1. What can I use MediaGun for?

MediaGun is the ideal solution when a vast diversity of file formats have to be put together in seconds and displayed immediately. This could be for training, entertaining, selling, teaching, point of sale or point of information animation, etc.

See “Why MediaGun? > Cases” on this website.

2. Why is it called ‘MediaGun’?

Because it shoots media at high speed to targeted audiences!

3. Which file formats are currently supported?

PICTURES

bmp, gif, jfif, jpg/jpeg, png, psd, tga, tif/tiff, webp

 

MOVIES

avi, divx, flv, m1v, m2t, m2ts, m2v, m4v, mkv, mov, mp4, mpe, mpg/mpeg, mts, ogv, rmvb, vob, webm, wmv, xvid

 

SOUNDS

aac, ac3, aif/aiff, aifc, ape, flac, m4a, mp3, mpa, ogg, opus, ra, wav, wma

 

DOCUMENTS

doc, docx, ppsx, pptx, xls, xlsx, txt, pdf

4. What’s the difference between a Media File and an Event?

Media Files are found in the computer’s file explorer and in MediaGun’s Media Boxes. As soon as these are inserted into a Playlist, they become Events. Events can be linked to Music Tracks, their aspect can be modified like in TXT Styles or by a screen transition, etc.

5. How can I preview my files?

On the Backstage, any Media file or Event can be previewed by double-clicking its name.

7. Can a playlist be made of media files residing in the cloud?

Yes. If, for example, Dropbox or Google Drive are installed locally their respective contents can be seen by the file explorer, and so by MediaGun.

8. What is the fastest way to create a Playlist?

Multiple line selection within and across the 4 Media Boxes on the Backstage greatly accelerates the creation of a Playlist. This is done by using standard selecting behaviours on each Operating System supported by MediaGun.

 

Selected lines in the 4 Media Boxes can be added to the Playlist either by clicking the ADD button, or dragged and dropped to the desired position in the Playlist.

9. What should I do if some files are missing from my playlist?

As soon as an Event in a Playlist is spotted as missing, MediaGun notifies the user. Right now, in Beta, missing files can only be restored manually. In the commercial version, it will be possible to automatically download them from the cloud.

Of course the alternative is to remove missing Events from the Playlist.

 

It is impossible to get to the Stage with a Playlist containing a missing file. This is the secret for  a worry-free presentation.

10. What happens if a shortcut/alias in a Playlist is invalid?

A shortcut/alias becomes invalid when its link with the target file is broken. For example when the target is renamed, moved to a different location, or deleted.

 

In every case, MediaGun notifies the user about the issue, so the link between the target and the shortcut/alias can be re-created before entering the Stage.

 

It is impossible to get to the Stage with a Playlist containing an invalid shortcut. This is the secret for  a worry-free presentation.

11. How can I optimise pictures?

Better keep in mind that they are meant to be displayed on a screen, and not to be printed. For best performance, three settings to take into account are the size of the file in pixels which ideally should match the screen resolution (For ex. 1920 x 1080 pixels for a Full HD screen), the colour mode (RGB recommended) and the density, which should not exceed 200 DPI.

12. Can I set TXT styles using my own wallpaper, font and background colour?

Yes. This enables you to use your corporate identity colours and font. Please note that your font may not be supported on all operating systems. “Arial – 24” will be used if the original one is not available.

 

NB: Only one TXT Style per Playlist is possible.

13. Does MediaGun provide screen transitions?

Yes, you can choose among 15 effects.

 

NB: Only one transition per Playlist is possible.

14. What’s the Branding window for?

This window, not editable in Beta, will be user-defined in the commercial version of MediaGun. Available on the Stage, it enables the user to display their brand, their company details, the name and date of a particular conference or trade-show, etc.  The Branding window may control up to two images: the ‘Logo’ is displayed automatically when the Playlist is in Stop mode. A second image, the ‘Contact’ is shown when the Logo is clicked. Either the ‘Contact’ image or both can be deactivated if the user so wishes.

15. How do timings get calculated in Solo mode?

This depends on the type of media:

  • Pictures last 7 seconds (or multiples of 7 seconds).
  • The duration of TXT files is calculated depending on the amount of words per screen portion.
  • In Solo mode, MS-Excel and MS-Word documents are automatically converted into PDF. The duration of every PDF page is calculated depending on the amount of words per page. 
  • PowerPoint presentations must be set in PowerPoint > Slide Show > Rehearse Timings > Save.
  • Video and audio are played entirely.

16. How do I switch from Manual to Solo mode and vice-versa?

By clicking on the Stop button, then using the Solo toggle button.

17. Is it possible to manually control a playlist while in Solo mode?

Yes. Without exiting Solo mode, navigation to another Event or inside the current Event is possible. When the mouse button is released, Solo mode resumes automatically.

18. Why does it take time to see the first page of Word/Excel document or the first slide of PowerPoint?

We have made the choice to upload and process MS-Office files to SharePoint – a completely safe and automatic method – so that all operating systems will be able to play them (Windows, macOS, Linux, and, later, iOS and Android), whether or not MS-Office is installed on the device.

19. How should I set an Excel spreadsheet so it looks its best in MediaGun?

See this short tutorial.

Too complicated? You may prefer to use screenshots or a screen recording.

Note, however, that these workarounds won’t reflect the latest changes in the original.

20. What’s a Portfolio?

Not available in Beta, it’s a package containing all the Events of a playlist and its specific settings. A Portfolio can be played on any device, whether the user is subscribed to MediaGun or not, however a free version of MediaGun will need to be installed.

It will seamlessly support Windows, macOS and Linux.

IOS and Android will follow.so, for example, a Portfolio generated on a Mac will eventually be supported by all five Operating Systems.

21. Can I embed a video in PowerPoint and will it play in the app?

Yes, it will. However, note that there is a 100 MB limit to the size of any video file embedded into a PowerPoint presentation slide. If its size exceeds 100MB, play it instead as a separate Event in your Playlist.

22. Can I use a linked video in PowerPoint and will it play in the app?

Videos can be also linked (i.e. not embedded) to a PowerPoint presentation provided they are uploaded to YouTube and some other services. Please note that linked videos will NOT auto-start in MediaGun, so should be avoided to be used in Solo mode.

To work around this limitation, we recommend you embed them. If their size exceeds 100MB, play them as a separate Event in your Playlist.

23. What’s the best way to use non-video assets in PowerPoint?

Due to the method used to display MS-Office documents, we recommend to embed them rather than accessing them via a hyperlink.

24. Will transitions used in PowerPoint be played in the app?

All MS-Office file formats are automatically uploaded to SharePoint.

But SharePoint PowerPoint transitions are fewer than in the PowerPoint desktop version.

They are: Fade, Shape, Split, Random Bars, Wipe. This list will hopefully be expanded in the future.

25. What else do I have to install to view the supported file formats?

NOTHING. And that’s the beauty of it!

(You do need an Internet connection to view MS-Office files though).

Available soon

Post Beta, MediaGun v. 2.0 will be cloud based. This will enable the automatic backup of media files and playlists.

Synchronisation with the backend will also allow to start building a playlist on one Operating System and to seamlessly continue it on another.

It will also enable a playlist to be exported as a standalone Portfolio, which can then be shared with and played by anyone, with or without a MediaGun subscription. This feature was already present and very popular in version 1.9.

Portfolios can be operated manually by the end-user or play in automatic mode. This is ideal for POS/POI.

Two more operating systems will be added to MS-Windows, macOS and Linux: iOS and Android will be enabled for Portfolio playback.