Downstage is a launch platform and downstage-monitor manager for Keynote and PowerPoint — line up the decks, launch each one on cue, and run the teleprompter, presenter monitors, and phone remote from one macOS app.
Keynote and PowerPoint keep rendering every slide. Downstage launches them on cue and runs the monitors, prompter, and remote around them.
Line up every deck — Keynote, PowerPoint, PDF — in running order, and launch each one on your cue. No desktop, no Dock, no fumbling in front of a room.
The prompter follows the speaker, not the other way around. On-device speech recognition keeps scroll position matched to what's actually being said.
No conversion, no re-authoring, no re-rendering: Downstage launches the real Keynote and PowerPoint, so builds and animations play exactly as the designer intended.
Pair any phone by scanning a QR code — nothing to install. Advance the show and watch the queue from anywhere in the room.
Presenter view, notes, timers, and overlays on the screens that face the talent. The program screen stays with Keynote and PowerPoint — Downstage runs everything downstage of it.
Continuous crash-recovery autosave. Licenses validate offline — no internet required at the venue. One show file moves the whole rig to the backup machine.
Drop in Keynote and PowerPoint files as they arrive from presenters.
Order the decks, attach scripts to the teleprompter, pair the phone remote.
Launch every deck from one surface — nothing touches the desktop in front of the audience.
Downstage 1.0 will be a one-time perpetual license — no subscription. Beta operators hear first.
No — and that's deliberate. Licensing is verified on the machine itself with a cryptographic signature. Venue networks are locked down, flaky, or absent; Downstage never phones home to let you run a show.
During the beta: install anywhere. A beta key covers your working rig — your main show machine plus a backup, because if you run shows the way we do, the backup isn't optional.
Downstage is a macOS app built for Apple Silicon. It drives Keynote natively and plays PowerPoint decks as delivered.
Email support@downstage.technology and mention what kind of shows you run. Keys come from the developer directly, usually same day. Paste it into Downstage once and the watermark is gone — it validates offline from then on.
Downstage 1.0 becomes a one-time perpetual license — no subscription. Beta operators hear first when that happens, and your show files carry forward as-is.
Free during the beta. Ask for a beta key when you're ready to run real shows without the watermark.
Download the beta