WiFi Remotes

Turn an old iPad, a phone or any web browser on your network into a DarkStage display: a record light for the live room, a warning on the studio door, or a bars:beats counter for the string section.

Connect a device

1. Click Enable WIFI under the canvas, or turn on Enable DarkStage Remote in Settings ▸ Remotes Manager.
2. Click QR Connect. On the iPad or phone, scan the QR code, or type the address shown into Safari. Only Safari allows saving of a WebApp to the homescreen.
3. In Safari, choose Share ▸ Add to Home Screen. The display then opens full screen, like an app.
4. The device appears in the device list under the canvas. Select it and switch widgets on.

Design what each device shows

Each connected device has its own layout. Select it in the device list, then switch widgets on from the sidebar just as you would for a wired display.

The tab works like Wired Displays: widgets on the left, the selected device in the middle, settings on the right.

Quick actions under the canvas: Enable WIFI, Clear All, Remote Settings and QR Connect. The preset menu at the top right saves and recalls remote layouts. Press ⌃F13 to jump straight to this tab.

Laying out a remote

The Remote editor works like the Wired Displays editor, and everything you know there applies — but the device is not in front of you, so a few things are worth spelling out.

1. Select the device in the list under the canvas. The canvas becomes a live preview of that device, in its own shape.
2. Switch a widget on from the sidebar. Groups fold exactly as they do on wired displays — see The widget sidebar.
3. Place it by dragging on the canvas, and size it by dragging a corner. The device follows as you work; there is no “apply” step.
4. Configure it on the right. It is the same settings page as the wired version of that widget.
5. Save it with the preset menu at the top right, so you can bring this layout back on any Remote.

• Rotate the device and the layout follows. Each Remote keeps its own layout, so a tablet in the booth and a phone at the kit never fight over one design.
• Reconnecting is automatic. If a device sleeps, drops off the Wi-Fi or you close the page, it picks its layout back up when it returns — nothing to re-pair.
• After a DarkStage update, reload the page on each device (or reopen it from the Home Screen) so it picks up new widgets.

What a remote can and cannot do

Remotes run almost the whole widget set. The honest differences:

Audio widgets on a remote

Remotes can show DarkStage's meters and analysers too, drawn live on the device from data the Mac streams over your network.

• Inputs A–D: each stereo widget has an INPUT switch in its settings, just like on a wired display. Meter Bridges use the multichannel device instead.
• More than one meter: PPM / VU Meters, Needle VU, the Loudness / Dynamics meters and Button Panel can each have up to two instances on a Remote, added with the ＋ chip in the Instance row exactly as on a wired display. A newly added instance is selected for you.
• Live, not recorded: the Mac sends the newest values only, so a slow network skips frames rather than falling behind.
• Light on the network: even a 64-channel Meter Bridge needs only a few kilobytes per second.
• One look is held back on remotes: the DarkStage Neon VU faceplate isn't offered there and draws as Classic. Nixie Tube meters draw as real tubes on a current Remote page; a device still showing an old page draws them as Plasma until it reloads.

Visualisers on a remote

These Visualiser styles draw on a Remote: Oil Slick, Golden Bloom, Night Sky, Event Horizon, Chaos Garden, Lumen Veil, Aurora Field, Reaction Bloom, Magnetic Orchid, Tidal Lotus, Firefly Grove, Murmuration, Moiré Cathedral, Impossible Tunnel and Afterimage Garden. Sacred Mirror, Voronoi Dream and Julia Drift are for wired displays only.

BPM and Key on a remote

BPM Detector and Key Detector are in the Remote sidebar's MUSICAL group, beside the Tuner. They behave exactly as they do on a wired display: the same views (Key, Chord, Key + Chord, History, Compass and Spectrum), the same Key Code and Accidentals settings, the same HOLD behaviour and the same ↺ reset.

• The Mac does all the listening. It works out the tempo, the key and the chord and sends the finished reading to the Remote, so a Remote never asks for microphone access and never analyses anything itself.
• A Remote therefore shows the same values as a wired display watching the same input, and several Remotes share the one analysis.
• The beat pulse is animated on the device between readings, so it stays smooth without a message per beat.
• Both support more than one instance, each with its own settings.

Not on remotes in this beta

• Cutout and Notepad: wired displays only.

Hover Panel

A pop-up panel of Button Panel keys that belongs to the Remote itself, not to its layout, so recalling a preset never changes it. Find it under Controls ▸ Hover Panel and turn on Enable Hover Panel. Set Reveal to Tap the Remote (the default) or Assigned Action Only, choose an Auto-Hide time, and load or save Hover Presets. It works the same way as the wired Hover Panel.

Idle Display

When nobody has touched a Remote for a while, Idle Display can dim it or swap it to a different layout — a bright iPad is a distraction in a dark control room, and a tablet on a music stand can show something calmer between takes. Touch it and your working layout is back at once.

Setting it up

1. Open the WiFi Remotes tab and select the device in the list under the canvas.
2. In the sidebar, open OPTIONS ▸ Idle Display.
3. Set Idle Action to Dim or Show Preset. Off is the default and nothing happens.
4. Set Idle After — 5 seconds to 60 minutes; 5 minutes is the default.
5. For Dim, set Dim To (how dark it goes). For Show Preset, choose the Idle Preset.
6. Fade In sets how gently the idle look arrives.

The Now line on the card says what that Remote is doing at this moment, so you can check the setting without walking over to the device.

How it behaves

• Only a person resets the clock. A touch on the device counts — Hover Panel and Setup included. Meters moving, the counter running or a scene arriving do not, so a Remote nobody is using still goes idle while the music plays.
• The first touch only wakes it. That tap is swallowed, so you cannot set something off by accident reaching for a sleeping Remote.
• Waking is instant. The device keeps your working layout in memory and puts it back without asking the Mac.
• Nothing is recalled and nothing is saved. Show Preset lays the chosen preset over the Remote temporarily; your layout, its widgets and its settings are untouched.
• It survives a preset recall. Recalling a layout onto the Remote replaces its widgets but leaves Idle Display as you set it — like the Hover Panel, it belongs to the device, not the layout.
• One thing shows at a time, so an idle Remote costs no extra meter traffic.

Turning it off

Set Idle Action back to Off. There is no global switch — each Remote has its own setting, so the booth iPad can dim while the client’s phone never does. Forgetting a Remote in Remotes Manager forgets its Idle Display setting too.

Managing remotes

Settings ▸ Remotes Manager lists every Remote that has connected. Forget ones you no longer use, one at a time or several at once, and choose how long inactive Remotes are remembered. Remotes are named from what the device reports; rename one from the Setup panel on the device itself.

Shared Display

The Shared Display row at the top of the device list is one layout that any number of people can watch. Select it and the QR Connect page shows a Broadcast Link, with Watching now, Copy Link and New Join Link. Make a new link to stop old ones working.

Ideas