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Live Preview

Live Preview is exactly what you'd hope: hit Play in the editor, the show plays on your real hardware, in real time, while you keep editing.

It's the fastest iteration loop in show control. Edit a control point, hit play, watch the result. Adjust an audio clip's volume, hit play, hear the result. No deploy, no rebuild, no upload.

Starting Live Preview​

Live Preview works on a show that targets a single controller. If your show targets more than one controller, deploy it to test on hardware instead.

Click Live Preview in the timeline editor's toolbar. The controller's status LED blinks orange while Live Preview is active.

Hit Play in the transport. The show plays on the hardware, synchronized with the editor playhead.

What you can do during Live Preview​

Anything you'd do while editing — Live Preview doesn't lock the editor.

  • Edit clips — moves, resizes, splits all apply on the next play.
  • Edit lighting envelopes — the next play loop reflects your changes.
  • Click in the ruler to seek — the playhead jumps and the hardware follows right away.
  • Toggle tracks — track mutes apply.

Audio during Live Preview​

During Live Preview, audio plays from your controller, through the controller's output. On the first play, it may take several minutes for the audio files to be synced to the controller. This is a one time operation and subsequent plays should sync quickly from the draft on each play. We sync the draft show to the controller on every play event to preserve sync for preview but only sync audio files when the controller doesn't have it already on the controller.

Ending Live Preview​

Click Stop Preview. The controller releases its channels and returns to whatever it was doing before — typically the ambient routine.

Live Preview also ends if you close the editor tab, lose your network connection, or change the show's duration.

Good to know​

  • Live Preview syncs the current draft to the controller. This includes audio. On the first run, it may take some time for audio files to download but this is a one time operation.
  • Audio plays back on the controller when in live preview.
  • Live Preview uses the same permissions as Manual Control — you need permission to control your controllers.

Live Preview vs. Manual Control​

Both drive a controller in real time. They're different tools:

  • Manual Control drives channels directly from sliders. No timeline.
  • Live Preview plays a timeline show on the hardware.

Starting one ends the other.

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