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Help Center · Show Clock

Blackout, stage messages, Artist link, OBS and the stage wall

Black out every audience screen at once, send a message to the artist display, give the band a link that shows only their clock, put the countdown into OBS or vMix, and show every stage on one screen.

Open Show Clock

On this page
  1. Blackout
  2. Stage messages
  3. The Artist link
  4. OBS, vMix and other browser sources
  5. Multi-stage wall
  6. Next

Five tools for the screens other people look at — the wedge monitor, the side-fill TV, the band's phones, the stream, the TV at the stage manager's desk.

Everything on this page is the full version of Show Clock. On the free plan these controls stay visible with a small lock, and a free account's links show "The OBS source is part of Show Clock's full version" instead of an OBS source.

Blackout

Blackout turns every audience screen of this timetable black at once: every share link (Producer, Crew, Band and Artist), every lane of a multi-stage wall and the OBS source. A tiny gray "Blackout" in the corner tells a crew member why their clock went dark. Your own operator screen keeps working and shows a red-edged BLACKOUT ON bar at the top with Lift blackout.

  • Click Blackout in the control bar, press B, or send …/blackout/toggle from a Stream Deck (Remote control (Stream Deck, Companion, OSC)). On a phone: ⚙ Settings ▸ Show control · Blackout · Remote….
  • Shared screens follow within about three seconds (the next time they check for news). The OBS source goes empty (transparent) rather than black, so nothing blocks your stream.
  • The blackout belongs to the timetable and the show day: your other devices see it too, another stage's timetable is untouched, and it is lifted by itself when the next show day starts.

Stage messages

Cues and stage messages are sent from one place, Cue the stage: the ✎ Cue button in the control bar, the key C, or Cue the stage in the Show control panel all open it. Pick Who sees it, then a preset or your own text:

  • Every screen — the cue: a banner in capitals on your clock and on every share link (the artist display shows it as a "Cue:" line) and on the wall. Flash on stage makes it pulse. Up to 42 characters.
  • Artist display — the stage message: full width at the top of every Artist link, in the calmer wording ("Wrap up", "Encore OK?", "Last song") or anything up to 140 characters.
  • Artist + crew — the same stage message, also on the crew, producer and band links and the wall lanes (as a bar at the top).

One message is on stage at a time: a new one replaces the one that is up, and changing Who sees it while a message is up moves it there. Your ✎ Cue button reads Cue live while anything is on stage. Clear takes it down — in Cue the stage, in the Show control panel, on the cue banner (✕) or on the "Message on stage" bar at the top of your operator screen.

From a controller: …/cue/WRAP%20UP for every screen, …/message/Two%20more%20songs for the artist display, and …/cue-clear / …/message-clear (Remote control (Stream Deck, Companion, OSC)).

In Share, choose Artist next to Producer, Crew / Tech and Band / Guest. The link then opens the artist display: the act on stage, a big countdown, the time it runs to, the time of day and your stage messages — and nothing else. No running order, no riders, no notes, no contacts. The link does not even carry them: other acts' notes, rider files and phone numbers never leave your device.

  • Whoever is on stage (stage display) (the default): follows whoever is on stage. During a changeover or break it counts down to the next act.
  • One act: under Which act is this link for? pick the act and copy the link. It says "Your set starts in 1:24:00", then counts down the set, then "Your set is done — thank you!". The QR code always opens the stage display.

One share link belongs to one timetable, so choosing Artist changes that link for everyone who has it: a crew phone on the same link shows the artist display too. Wall lanes and the OBS source keep their own compact layout whatever the access level.

OBS, vMix and other browser sources

Every share link works as a browser source: add &obs=1 to the end.

Address Shows
https://squaresmile.de/show-clock/view?s=ID&obs=1 the countdown only
…&obs=now the countdown and "Now: … · Next: …" underneath
…&obs=clock the time of day in the show's time zone
  • The page is transparent — no background, no buttons, no banners, no prompts, no sound. The digits are white with a soft shadow and scale to the source: set the source to the size you want the clock (for example 800 × 200 for a lower third).
  • In OBS: Sources ▸ + ▸ Browser, paste the address, set width and height. Leave Shutdown source when not visible off, so the clock is there at once when you switch to the scene.
  • It is on the show's time, not the streaming PC's clock, and it follows running late, Next / Previous and blackout like every other screen.
  • A Band link has no live clock; its OBS source shows the time the slot runs to instead of a countdown.

Multi-stage wall

A wall puts 2–5 share links side by side on one screen — a projector or a TV at the stage manager's desk, with every stage of the festival in view.

  1. In Share, tap Multi-stage wall ↗ (it opens the wall page in a new tab).
  2. Give the wall a name and fill at least two lanes. A lane can be one of your own shared timetables or any Show Clock share link another operator sent you. (Share a timetable first to pick it here.)
  3. Open the wall link on the screen.

Each lane shows its stage's live slot, a big countdown, what comes next and how far over or under the next fixed time it runs; it goes black with a blackout and shows stage messages marked for crew screens, and a cue. Times are in the stage's time zone. The wall only displays — it stays silent and nobody can drive a show from it; every stage keeps running its own timetable. On the wall page in your account, a lane whose link no longer exists is marked Link not found.

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