• Beta

  • Interested in a simple soundboard like video playback app?

Last week I had 2 gigs with my band where we wanted to use a video projection during some songs. I could not find an app that met out requirements which are:

  • Preview on iPad screen, full screen playback on external display (HDMI or Airplay)
  • Show an image (our band logo) when no video is playing
  • Play a video immediately on a button press
  • Show at least 16 buttons to select different videos
  • Seamless Looping

So I whipped up a simple app that does exactly that:

Very simple: A preview of the video / image on top of the screen and up to 64 buttons in a scroll view below. Current playing video is highlighted with a white outline and a position indicator. A button to select the image when not playing and a button to allow reordering the video buttons. Tap on a video button to start / stop playback of that video or long press to open the video details:

It is possible to mute the audio, select different play modes (loop, stop or advance to next video) and set a color for the button.

That's all we need and as this app worked flawlessly at both gigs, I am curious if any of you would have a use for such an app?

MIDI trigger maybe, but the thing is that only the app in the foreground can use the HDMI output, so no way to run Stage Traxx and that app on the same iPad.

    6 days later

    This is very interesting and something I'd like to play around with. Ideally, I'd want some way to sync it up with ST3 so that I could play a song and trigger the video (even if on another iPad). Would probably need to have some way to compensate for timing if syncing up song videos/lip sync from the original bands (although this may be more work than you're willing to commit to).

    I guess midi over wifi would be an option. That is something that I want to add to Stage Traxx 4 anyway.

    But my time is limited and I don't want ST4 to suffer from this side project. So I will try to add the necessary stuff for a release ready version whenever I have some time to spare and then just start an open beta. But no estimates yet.

    a month later

    I have moved this post into the beta topic as I had a bit of time to polish the app up for a beta release. Here is the link to Testflight to participate in the test:

    https://testflight.apple.com/join/f4J5TwFg

    The app is called Stage Cue. Basically just tap on the big + button to add one or more videos. Then hold one of the video buttons to adjust the settings for that video. The button with the cross symbol switches the board to reordering mode. You can then hold a button and drag it to another position. Videos are automatically played full screen on any external screen whether connected via hdmi or airplay.

    Network midi functionality already works with Stage Traxx. When you run ST3 on another device, that device will show up in Settings > Network Sessions in Stage Cue and once activated all midi commands from ST3 are broadcast over wifi to Stage Cue and can be used to trigger video playback. Of course you need a wifi network for that.

    Let me know what you think about this app.

    Great! added it to my iPad and iPhone. I can see in the iPhone the UI doesn’t resize as of today. Will try creating a demo for a song soon.

    What do you mean by that? On my phone it has the size it should have. Of course you will not see more than 6 buttons at once in portrait mode, but I opted for larger buttons instead of more buttons on the small screen size of a phone.

    But the settings and edit dialog is broken on the iPhone. I can confirm that if that's what you mean.

    15 days later

    Hi Peter

    Is this only available on iOS or is there a Mac version as well ?

    Hi Peter,
    The app seems very useful, however I want to tell you about my experience:

    with my band I use Stage Traxx for the backing tracks and, in the lyrics screen, I inserted the midi commands which (via Midimittr) activate a Mac computer with QLAB. With QLAB I can activate videos, logos, lights, texts, loops..etc.. in short I can do everything without problems, and even project on multiple screens or LED walls.

    If your need is for an app, then QLAB is not good (it doesn't work on iPad). However, if you can bring a PC on stage, then QLAB is the best choice you can make.

    I am aware of Qlab but I don't want to have a laptop on stage and Qlab is way too expensive for what we need.

    Yeah.. I'm lucky that one of my musicians work in a theater, so we can use QLAB for free 😉

    However, I signed up for the beta test phase. The app looks very promising to me! Do you plan to insert some automatic transitions between videos? Like fade in/out.. that would be perfect!

    No, automatic transitions are not on my todo list. That would require too much time which I don't want to invest at the moment. Maybe once Stage Traxx 4 is released.

    7 days later

    Peter, really like this as an add on to what I so with ST3. As you may recall I designed a midi controlled micro controller to control a pc to do this same thing using PowerPoint a few years ago, it works but is clumbersome. This does exactly what I wanted that to do but easily.

    I can certainly see a market among solo acts and small bands tor this so I’ve signed up to the beta.

    I agree though that you prioritise ST4 first but I’ll still test it out and make suggestions where appropriate.

    Brian

    Thanks for your feedback. I will keep the beta rolling until I find some time to release it. So far there seem to be no bugs. So it is basically ready for release. I just lack the time to create a website, make promotion screenshots and write a documentation. So when I need some days off from ST4, I will do those things. Maybe around christmas. Until then I will release small updates here and there to keep the beta from timing out.

    2 months later

    I needed a break from Stage Traxx and have now made Stage Cue compatible with macOS. The new build 56 has been uploaded to Apple and is now waiting for review. I will write here once it is available. You can download it via Testflight on the Mac.

    On Mac the app opens an additional video output window that you can place on whatever screen you like. It is also possible to open multiple video output windows (cmd + n, or Files > New) so that you could output the video in multiple connected screens.

    Everything else is identical. To move your video board from one app to another, just copy the contents of the Stage Cue folder.

    Build 56 of Stage Cue is now available for testing both on iOS and macOS.