Updated Nov 3 – 5:00 PM
I was fascinated by that blue clicker; it seemed so clunky compared to all the other technology involved in Steve’s keynote; and ridiculously big too, considering that it only had four buttons. Come to think of it, why did it have four buttons? All it needed was ‘forward’ and ‘back’.
Steve likes things with a minimal number of buttons. Just look at how long Apple mice had only one button. Look at the remote for the new iMac.
But that blue clicker really intrigued me. Something about the power that it controlled; how thousands of people were moved when its buttons were pressed.
Steve’s presentations were always technically complex, but designed to seem simple. The stage was always black, the curtains were black, the desk, credenza and demo pedestals were all black. The mechanisms that rolled the demo stations into place, or rise like magic from beneath the stage, were completely hidden, silent and silky smooth. Or so it seemed from the audience’s vantage point.
Steve’s demo desk, which was always at the left side of the stage, looked to the casual observer like a very basic black desk with a monitor and keyboard sitting on top. But there was much more to it. On the backside of the desk was a slide-out shelf which held the demo computer along with the backup computer, both connected to an uninteruptible power supply. There was a KVM switch recessed into the top surface where Steve could easily switch from the main to the backup in case anything went wrong. (This concept is apparently too complex for the guys at Microsoft to figure out, as their demos seem to fail frequently.) During the preparation for a keynote, Steve would work with the product manager for each product he would be showing to fine tune every aspect of the demo. This included deciding on which features to demonstrate, which files or media might be needed (ie QuickTime movies to be imported into iDVD, or CDs to use with iTunes), arranging the files and folders on the Mac’s desktop, and organizing the items in the dock so everything was easy to find and logical. Once this was worked out, it was the job of the product manager and the event team to set up the backup machine so it exactly matched the main machine. This tended to require multiple iterations, as Steve would refine the overall presentation throughout the rehearsals.
…The aforementioned KVM switches were the source of some aggravation at one event. They were perfect for Steve’s needs because they were the first available which could handle ADC monitor signals and USB keyboards. Unfortunately there was a bug somewhere that would occasionally cause the Mac to lock up when switching from one to the other….
For most keynotes, there was a long ‘credenza’ on the right side of the stage with several computers (typically four) which were used for the misc demos that Steve didn’t do himself. The most common was Phil Schiller and Steve doing a speed shoot-out with Phil running the PC and Steve on the Mac. This of course meant that one of the computers had to be a PC. This presented an aesthetic and technical problem, as this was the time of Apple flat panel displays which had ADC inputs; no PC’s could use such a monitor. But it would look awful to have some fugly Dell monitor up there next to three gorgeous Studio displays. So the mad scientists on the event team put their heads together and created a ‘Frankenstein’. They took the guts of a standard 17″ flat panel and custom fit it into a disemboweled Studio display. Lined up on the credenza, it looked like an Apple display. I should mention that this had no impact on what the audience saw during the event, because they were seeing the computer’s video cards feeding the big projectors. The monitors on the credenza where only there so the demo person could see as they ran their demo.
Video projectors extraordinaire
When Steve was doing the dual screen set-up (before he switched to HD) they had six projectors, three on each screen projecting the same image in perfect registration. I heard from one of the crew that they used to use just two on each screen, but if one bulb went out, the image got much too dark to be acceptable. But with three, one burnt out lamp would have much less visible impact. This one-third brightness drop would not be too noticeable to most viewers. The projectors were made by Digital Projection, and if I recall correctly were 13,000 lumens each!
The men behind the curtains
…presentation software before ‘keynote’…Steve used a development version of Keynote for at least a couple of his big presentations. Before that he used QuickTime player to run his slides. It was just a Quicktime movies of still images, manually advanced a frame at a time.
…multiple rehearsals of individual demos in the days leading up to the event, and at least one complete dress rehearsal with all presenters.
…problem with slides changing unpredictably.
…problems with mousing on black lacquered surfaces, and the solution.
…redundant redundency systems
…feeding video from all those computers, tape players, dvd players and hand-held cameras to the big screens…quite challenging given the range of resolutions, frequencies and frame rates.
…at the big venues, they had to deal with the fact that the audio and video would be out of at the rear of the auditorium. This was caused by the long distance the sound had to travel from the stage. They actually had to use digital delay systems so the sound and video being piped to the back would be in sync with the sound radiating from the front.
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Tell us more.. more!! What does the blue thing do? Is it just a light to tell someone else to advance the slide? 4 buttons? What do they do?…
I’m hooked.
That’s funny – I noticed the same thing the first time I saw the clicker in Job’s hands at a keynote. I’m definitely excited to hear more about it.
You are killin’ me. I need to hear “the rest of the story.” I have always wondered abou the hidden complexity of Steve’s keynotes. He gives the most brillant presentations . . . how does he do it. Does the remote control the RDF?
Hmmm…never thought of that…
How are you going to just leave me hangin like that? Ha ha. And all those bullet points. Did you just paint a matte black square on the black laquered desk for mousing? What all did the clicker do? What happend with those slides…. and when did it happen? During the show?
Does he have that clicker made in house? Does he actually use the retail versionn of Keynote for his keynote or does he have a one off piece of software? Lastly, what is his set up like? I’ve always wondered what it’s like to walk into his office. Does he have a couple 30s in there, maybe a projector for meetings. Big office with iPods laying around or something.
I’m a Graphic Designer and have done a bit of Industrial Design. I was wondering, on average, how much time is put into each product before it’s release? Just give examples as I’m sure it all varies. Like, the 1st and the 3rd gen iPods. How long from start to finish did it take? Jonathan Ive… what’s he like. I would love to meet him just to talk about design. What were the rejected designs like? The 3rd Gen was the biggest change to date IMO, so how many and what types of design changes were made along the way to get to the finished product? And on your side, how much of the product did you get to see personally during it’s design? Were you there from start to finish to witness it’s creation or did you find out hours/days/weeks before it’s release?
I know these are a ton of questions, but hey, I just gave you a ton of cannon fodder for writing entries.
Bo – Lots of great questions, but I’m afaid I don’t know the answers to most of them. I worked in the applications group, so was only exposed to small amounts of what went on behind the scenes for hardware. That said, I’ll be filling in a few more details as the book continues. Mike.
hi mike
firsty – great site!
just a quick question – im a RSS newbie…
some of your posts have little reminders for you to add extra stuff – when you do add that extra stuff will the RSS feeds reflect this for the older posts?…
also – i’d love a ‘typical day / meeting’ story… so we can get an inside track on what its like ‘presenting’ at apple – and maybe a start to finish on a product you worked on?
Want my advice? Quit posting incomplete entries. Write more than a paragraph at a time.
Hi Cowherd – the whole point of this site is to see, and participate in, the actual writing of my book. Sorry if you got a different impression. Mike
Maybe it was a gift from someone who ment a lot to him? I don’t know. Just a good guess since he uses it at every Keynote, and almost forgot to give it to Paul Otellini for his part of the Apple/Intel Keynote. Keep up the good work Mike!
I’ve always wondered about that blue clicker! With as slick as everything Apple is it always bothered me that you never knew what type of clicker ‘He’ was using.
Do you by chance know if Steve has ever taken any presentation classes or is he just a natural ?
I’m amazed by how intrigued everyone is by this blue clicker!
Having observing this rampant obsession, I did what any self-respecting web-savvy capitalist would do – I checked to see if the domain name was available. You’ll may be interested to learn that blueclicker.com is already registered. The owner is probably busy making “genuine” Steve Jobs blue clickers to sell on eBay. Look for them just in time for Christmas.
Mike, thanks for answering some questions and bring up some in your revised entry. This is the third time I’ve read it with there being a few revisions now.
A couple more questions. First an off the wall one… When you needed a desk made or something like that, does Apple just have like a shop inhouse that does quirky projects and like that? Does Apple work on projects and release them when they are finished, or will they sand bag on something even if the product is ready to be released just because Steve (or someone else) feels the timing isn’t right? If so, are there products that come to mind that are out now that you know could have been released earlier then they were? Has there ever been a line up of products that were going to be announced at a keynote, but like the headphone jack, just wasn’t ready? But unlike the iPod jack, had to get put on hold and later released? How long do you know about a keynote before the actual date? How long do you proactice the keynote? A week? 2 weeks?
Now on a more personal level… Did you ever have a project that you really considered “your baby?” You know, that one that is probably the one you are really proud of and stands out above the rest. Maybe you played a bigger part in it or something. When you walked into your office, what kind of computer did you sit down to? Did you pretty much have the pick of the litter? I’m just wondering what kind of perks there were to working high up in Apple’s headquarters. I don’t know if I missed it, but why did you leave Apple and what do you do now?
Thanks.
Just a note: Digital delay lines to ensure that sound is as in-sync as it can be throughout the venue are completely standard at every large concert or presentation event.