Hardware Requirements
| Item | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Mac | Apple Silicon M1 or later, 16 GB RAM minimum. macOS 14 Sonoma or later required. |
| Storage | Recordings are H.264 (about 4–12 GB/hr) or 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 (the NDI runtime must be installed on the Mac). |
| MIDI | Only for MTC timecode or grandMA2 MIDI Show Control. A class-compliant USB-MIDI interface; cheap no-name cables often drop MSC. See MIDI Setup. |
Recommended setup
A reliable, affordable rig that covers most theatre show and rehearsal recording:
- Mac. Apple Silicon M1 (or later) with at least 16 GB RAM. This is the practical minimum for smooth recording with multitrack audio and the live overlay; more RAM/cores help for 4K and long tech days.
- Audio interface. A Focusrite Scarlett Solo (or any class-compliant Core Audio interface) for a clean program-audio feed and an LTC timecode input.
- Cameras. PoE NDI cameras (NDI / NDI|HX over Power-over-Ethernet. PTZ or box cameras). One network cable carries both power and video, and ShowRevue receives them directly with no capture card. Run several on the same wired network.
- Network. A Gigabit PoE switch to power and feed the NDI cameras alongside your Stage Display devices. Keep cameras on wired Ethernet, not Wi-Fi.
Why NDI + PoE
PoE NDI cameras are the simplest multi-camera path on a Mac: no capture hardware, no USB-length limits, and you can place cameras anywhere there's an Ethernet run. ShowRevue can record one as the program feed and show others as Secondary Video Feed (PiP) widgets.