How do I hook-up a buzzer system to Game Show Presenter? There are two ways, depending on the type of buzzer system you have:
Direct USB connection -- If you have the new USB Buzzers made by Groupics, just plug your buzzers into the USB port on your computer and set the Game Show Presenter buzz-in
option to "Use number keys for buzz-in". Now when you run Game Show Presenter, the Groupics USB buzzers will automatically signal to the software who buzzed in first and that player's
name will appear on the screen. When an answer to the question is entered, the points are credited to the player's score.
No direct connection -- With most vendors of buzzer systems, there is no direct physical connection between the external buzzer system and the computer running Game Show
Presenter. Instead, the buzzer system will indicate (usually with a light) which player or team buzzed in first. All you need to do is press a corresponding key on the computer so Game Show
Presenter will know which player is going to answer. You can choose to use either the number keys 1-0, or the F-keys F1-F10, so you can have up to 10 players or teams in your quiz show!
Here's an example using no direct connection: Game Show Presenter puts a quiz question on screen and the players hit their buzzers. You see that the buzzer light for player
2 is on, which shows player 2 was first to buzz in. So you simply press the 2 key on your computer to let Game Show Presenter know that player 2 is giving this answer. Game Show Presenter
will then let everyone know by putting the name of player 2 on screen. The software also starts a countdown for the player to give an answer. If the player says, "b", you press the
"b" key. Game Show Presenter immediately responds to show whether that answer is right or wrong. And it automatically adjusts the score for player 2. (You have the option in game
show setup to have points deducted for wrong answers.) The animated game show host then introduces the next question.
If you don't want to be in the loop between the buzzer system and the computer, the Groupics USB Buzzers provide a direction
connection to the game show software.
Note: (The publisher of Game Show Presenter software) does not sell or support buzzer hardware, but they do try to design our software so it is compatible with many buzzer
systems. They also provide their software to buzzer system vendors so they can test for compatibility and even pre-configure their products to work with Game Show Presenter software. If you
have technical questions about your specific buzzer hardware, please direct those questions to the hardware vendor. |
