Setup and Recording

The Live tab: camera feed with the lighting-cue overlay (cue number, label, and session timer).

Recording: a red border frames the preview, with the REC timer and Stop control in the toolbar.

First launch

At launch, with no show open, ShowRevue shows a Welcome window: the app version, Check for Updates, links to Documentation and Support, and the main actions, Launch New Show, Open Project, Join a Show, and Account & Licence, plus your recent projects.

1. Open ShowRevue.
2. Click Launch New Show. This starts the setup wizard, the single entry point for a new show.
3. Work through the pages: Show details → Acts & schedule → Camera source → Program audio → Lighting console → Media server → Timecode → Cloud & team → Review & create, plus a setup page for each desk, media server or timecode source you pick. Press Skip setup at any point to create the show and set the rest up later.
4. On the last page press Create Show. ShowRevue writes the .srshow project file where you choose and switches on everything you set.
5. The app opens in Live mode with the camera preview in the centre.

The show name appears on the recorded overlay, in Stage Display, and in exported cue lists. You can change it later in Project Settings. See Quick Setup for a walkthrough of each wizard step.

Project and show setup

Click Project Settings in the toolbar to open the show settings sheet. Its tabs are Show, Cloud, Members, Sessions, Consoles, Timing and Notes; every setting is described in Project Settings. The ones you'll touch first:

• Show: show name, venue and logo.
• Sessions: session type names and numbering.
• Consoles: which desk to fire cues back to, and which received cue list or sequence runs the show. ShowRevue records every list the desk sends (as long as Preferences → Lighting Consoles → Sequence is left on All sequences); the one you tick drives act timing, the Director view and stepping through cues in playback.
• Timing: the cue numbers that mark show boundaries for Show State and the session report. See Show State.

These settings travel with the .srshow project file. Network ports stay in Preferences.

Camera setup

1. Open Preferences → Video.
2. Choose the source type: Camera or NDI.
3. If you are using a camera, select your capture device.
4. If you are using NDI, install the NDI SDK if prompted, then choose the NDI source.
5. Set the resolution. 1920×1080 (HD) is recommended.
6. The live view shows a 16:9 preview. Black bars are not recorded.

Any USB or Thunderbolt camera recognised by macOS can be selected here. NDI sources are also supported.

Audio setup

Open Preferences → Audio.

Input tracks

A recording has three input tracks. Each can take its own device and channel.

Track	Default	Typical source
PGM Audio	On	The show mix from the sound desk
Comms	Off	The cans, so you can hear the standby and the go
Aux	Off	Anything else, such as a second mic in the house

The playback waveform comes from PGM Audio, so give it your clearest full-mix signal.

LTC records on an audio track of its own, after the input tracks. Configure its source in Preferences → Timecode, not here.

Each track has filters: a 50 Hz or 60 Hz notch for mains hum, a compressor and a noise gate. There is no EQ. What you hear after the filters is what's recorded. The filters need a Base licence. See Audio preferences.

Outputs

Audio Outputs routes playback audio. Add an output for each place the sound needs to go, then set what each track sends to it. The recorded LTC can go out as well.

• Name each output for operator clarity (for example FOH, Comms, Booth).
• Set the output device and channels per output.
• Use ID to identify that output: ShowRevue plays a tone through it.
• Keep the meter visible while testing to confirm both audio and routing.

Recording

Starting a recording

Before you roll, click Show Ready? in the status bar. The Show-Ready Check covers the camera, timecode, audio, whether the desk has been talking to you, the network pages and free disk on one screen. See Show Ready.

1. Click the chevron next to Record and choose the session type: Off Venue Rehearsal, Tech Rehearsal, Dress Rehearsal or Show. It goes into the file name and the report title.
2. Click Record (⌘R). Recording starts immediately.
3. Setup Sheet… in the same menu opens the New Recording sheet if you want to set things up before the take.
4. Press N (or click Note) to add a note during the run. The note is stamped at the moment you pressed the key.
5. Click Stop when finished. ShowRevue finalises the recording and stays in Live, ready for the next take. The Show complete bar shows the note count and the busiest department, and you can type a label for the take there.

Show sessions are show-safe

A session set to Show behaves differently, on purpose:

• Stop becomes Hold to stop. Hold it for a second; a stray click can't end the recording. Rehearsals still stop on a click.
• No cue commands go to the console while a Show records, as long as Block console output during Show recordings (Preferences → Lighting Consoles) is on. It is on by default.
• The Output Audit Trail logs everything ShowRevue sent and everything it blocked.

See Show Safety.

The end-of-recording report prompt only appears when you Stop from the app. A remote or automatic stop (OSC, DMX or the scheduler) finalises the recording silently; any auto-send or cloud draft you have configured still happens. See Reports.

Recording needs a Base licence. Viewer (no licence) plays recordings and follows shows but doesn't record; a Mac that hasn't had one can start a free 14-day Professional trial from Account & Licence.

Local Live Notes need Professional, and Stage Display and cloud shows need Max. See Licence Tiers.

What the recorded files are

The codec is set in Preferences → Video → Video Codec:

• H.264 records an .mp4 with the cues, notes and timing stored inside the file, so one file carries everything. This is the one for rehearsals.
• ProRes LT records a bigger .mov with a small _cues.json file beside it. Keep the two together so ShowRevue can load the cues.

Either way:

• You can share the files on their own, and they open in normal players such as QuickTime Player or VLC.
• LTC is recorded on its own audio track, named LTC, after the input tracks.
• Open the file again in ShowRevue to get the cues, notes and LTC-aware playback tools back. Without ShowRevue, use the web viewer.

Recording watermark. Recordings made on Base carry the ShowRevue mark (top-right, at 50% opacity). Professional and above remove it.

File naming

ShowRevue auto-names recordings from the show name and session type:

PACA_FROZEN_TechRehearsal_1.mov
PACA_FROZEN_TechRehearsal_1A.mov
PACA_FROZEN-170526-1.mov

• Rehearsal recordings use the session type and a running number.
• If you stop and restart the same rehearsal type within the rollover window, ShowRevue adds a letter suffix such as 1A.
• Show recordings use the show name, the recording date, and a running show number.

Storage indicator

The toolbar shows free disk space and the estimated recording time remaining.

If ShowRevue crashes during a recording

It restarts itself. The app relaunches, reopens your show, and starts a new recording automatically. The whole round trip is about seven seconds. A red banner explains what happened, and the interrupted take's video is salvaged into the library.

Two things to know:

• A force-quit during a recording is treated as a crash, so the app comes back and starts recording again. If you want it to stay down, hit the ✕ on the red banner within a few seconds of the relaunch.
• The automatic restart happens once. If the recovery take crashes too, ShowRevue shows the banner and stops there rather than relaunching in a loop.

Hardware requirements

Item	Requirement
Mac	Apple Silicon (M1 or later) recommended. macOS 14 Sonoma or later required.
RAM	8 GB minimum. 16 GB recommended for long sessions with multitrack audio.
Storage	H.264 uses about 4–12 GB/hr and ProRes LT about 45 GB/hr. ProRes LT needs a fast SSD. Allow 100 GB+ free for a full tech day.
Network	Gigabit LAN recommended for Stage Display. Wi-Fi is fine for monitoring, but wired is preferred for production networking.
Audio	A Core Audio compatible interface is recommended for multitrack and comms capture.
Camera	Any USB or Thunderbolt camera recognised by macOS. NDI sources supported.