whenever i swap between activities, it automatically turns off the other activity that was previously on, is there a way to keep both on at the same time?

This can be set for each activity to leave unused devices on. You will have to look around. May be under power options for that activity? I can check mine when I get home if you have no luck finding it.

that makes sense, let me try that

This can be set for each activity to leave unused devices on. You will have to look around. May be under power options for that activity? I can check mine when I get home if you have no luck finding it.

I think there are actually a couple of things you can do. You can set the device to be on all the time through the device setup menu. Or, in the activity setup, it asks if you want to keep the power on or the device playing. Within the activity, go to "Customize", then "Change Options." You will see a list of 5 questions. For example, I have a watch DVD activity that used to stop the DVD player when I left it (a real annoyance to the person in my family room if the DVD was being watched upstairs and I wanted to watch something else downstairs). The last question on the change options screen asks if you want to send the stop command upon exit. Checking no allowed the DVD player to keep playing even after I left the activity. The third question on the page asks if you want to turn off unused devices when entering the activity. Checking no for all or your activities should keep all of your devices on when you leave the activities using them. Then, you can turn them off with the all off button (assuming you haven't programmed it to be on all the time in device setup), or you could turn it off in device mode.