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Version: 0.5.1

Companion App — Overview & Connecting

The ShowRevue companion app puts the show in your pocket: live cues, timecode, show state, crew chat, note capture and Stage Display messaging on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. It connects over the local network or through the cloud — and switches between the two automatically.

:::info Production tier Hosting the connection (the LAN Live Notes server or a cloud show) requires the Production tier on the Mac. Joining is free for everyone — the app itself costs nothing. :::

Ways to connect​

  • Scan the QR code — open the Connection Guide on the Mac and scan it. Fastest on the venue network.
  • Nearby Macs — the app discovers ShowRevue Macs on the same network automatically. Tap to join; enter the Live Notes PIN if one is set.
  • Cloud show code — sign in with your ShowRevue account (Sign in with Apple supported) and enter the six-letter show code, or pick from your show list. The app jumps straight to a show that's live right now. Works from anywhere.

Your name and role come from your web profile. Your role (from the role picker — Lighting (LX), DSM, Audio 1, …) determines your department everywhere: chat chips, filters, @dept alerts and which note category the composer offers first.

Open any cloud show​

Signed in with your ShowRevue account, the app can open any of your cloud shows directly — no host Mac in the room and no recording needed. Pick a show from your list (or enter its code) and the app runs off its online data: live cues, timecode, show state and chat all arrive over the cloud.

Director tab (iPad only)​

On iPad, the companion adds a Director tab — a full stage-manager calling display that runs a show off online data alone. Open one of your cloud shows and Director tracks it live: NOW / NEXT cue cards and the standby → GO countdown, driven by the incoming LTC mapped onto the show's cue sheet. No recording has to be selected — timecoded cuepoints work without one, because they're show-level beats that belong to the show itself.

The Director tab is removed on iPhone — it doesn't appear there, where the screen is too small for a calling display. iPhone keeps Live Notes, Stage Display messaging and the show monitor; the iPad gets those too, plus Director.

Automatic LAN ⇄ cloud roaming​

Connected via the cloud but standing next to the host Mac? Every ~20 seconds the app looks for the show on the local network and, when it finds the same show, silently upgrades to the direct LAN route — latency drops to milliseconds and the link survives internet loss. If the LAN host later disappears, it falls back to the cloud just as silently. PIN-protected shows roam too once you've entered the PIN once.

The transport badge next to the latency readout always shows which route you're on: green LAN or blue CLOUD. The latency figure beside it is the real measured delay from the Mac to your device.

Offline resilience​

LAN sessions also run a peer-to-peer mesh between every device in the room — iPhones, iPads, Mac Monitors and the host Mac. If the host Mac crashes, or the venue has no internet at all, chat keeps flowing device-to-device and queued notes relay through the mesh to whichever device can still reach a server. Nothing is lost; everything reconciles when the Mac returns.

:::note Venue WiFi Networks with client isolation (common on guest WiFi) block device-to-device discovery. Real production networks are usually fine, and the mesh also works over peer-to-peer WiFi/Bluetooth with no network at all. :::

If the Mac stops sending​

The app tells you loudly rather than showing a frozen page: a warning banner appears within seconds of the host going quiet, and a connecting spinner shows while a link is being established. Detection is based on the Mac's own heartbeat stamps, so a quiet moment in the show is never mistaken for a dead Mac.