SGI Presenter 1280

Below was pulled from an SGI hosted site.

n July 26, 1994, Silicon Graphics, Inc.introduced the Indy Presenter(tm) display, the industry’s most advanced color flat panel. Indy Presenter, for the Indy(tm) desktop line, is the first flat panel to offer both a direct view display and overhead projection capability. The flat display enables users to carry a complete Silicon Graphics workstation in a shoulder bag, and to make presentations using the powerful 3D graphics, audio and video capabilities of Indy systems. With Indy Presenter, the Indy line takes another significant step in changing the way people work. Based on a digitally-driven active matrix LCD panel customized for Silicon Graphics by Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, the Indy Presenter display delivers saturated 15-bit color on a flicker-free 1024×768 direct view display. The 12- inch display can also be used with an overhead projector to present information to small or large audiences, with full-screen scalability from four-foot diagonal to 35-foot diagonal projection. Combined with Silicon Graphics’ Indy systems, Indy Presenter delivers a powerful solution for collaborative design reviews and customer presentations.

“Indy Presenter lets users take their best ideas to their audience, whether that audience consists of one or several hundred people,” said Tom Furlong, vice president and general manager of Silicon Graphics’ Digital Sight and Sound Division. “Previously designers or engineers would print out static images of their concepts or models to show to clients, customers or co-workers. Today, they can present, update and change their work interactively using the unique presentation capabilities of Indy Presenter.”
The Indy Presenter display is available immediately from Silicon Graphics. Silicon Graphics is also making available a powerful overhead projector manufactured by Dukane Corporation and optimized for use with Indy Presenter. The projector supplies 6,000 lumens of balanced white output light via custom optics to brilliantly project the flat panel’s rich colors. The Indy Presenter projection solution replaces costly and cumbersome stationary video projection systems traditionally used when making presentations.
An Indy system and Indy Presenter fit easily into IndyBag(tm), a soft-sided shoulder bag that enables users to take the powerful desktop technology of the Indy system anywhere. The Indy desktop line shatters the conventions of personal computing by coupling its own digital color video camera, an engaging user environment and a host of digital media capabilities with the advanced 3D graphics, imaging and compute performance that the world has come to expect from Silicon Graphics. With Indy Presenter, users can show digital media presentations or applications that take full advantage of the power and performance of the Indy system. Indy Presenter works with all 24-bit color Indy systems including the new hardware-accelerated Indy XZ graphics configurations also announced today.

The SGI Presenter was quite a promising release from SGI in the early 90’s as it allowed for presentations and meetings to go easier, as you could take the whole workstation with you. As the years have passed, the Presenter has been harder to find. I managed to luck into one in late 2019 in the San Francisco bay area that had been stored in a storage unit for the last 20 years. So far, its been a fully working model.

Now, the rarity of the machine leaves me to believe they didnt get alot of sales of the Presenter, probably due to price, or lack of product. This also makes for a tough time finding information outside of other owners and 1 solitary TechPub from Silicon Graphics for its use.