演出文件与网络

Licenses (Menu → LICENSES)#

ShowKontrol uses the same ShowKontrol account and licenses as the original ShowKontrol. Open the MENU screen and press the LICENSES tab.

• This Computer: The license this machine runs on: the product name (green = active, amber = needs a check or expired, red = unlicensed), its chips (Active, Lease, Offline), the expiry date, the license number, the computer's name, and when the license was last checked. Check Now asks the server again.
• Account: Log in with your account ID and password. Remember password logs you in by itself the next time you open the page. Log Out ends the session and forgets the remembered password; the license on this computer stays.
• Licenses on this Account: Every license on the account: number, product, expiry (amber = within 14 days, red = expired), the computer it is registered to and its status (Free, In use here, In use, Expired). Click a row: its Register button (free licenses only) or Unregister button appears right of its status (only on the computer the license is registered to, this frees it for another computer).

The license types: ShowKontrol Link, CLUB, LIVE (each also as a Lease) and Enterprise. ShowKontrol Core is not a license: It is the free mode a license falls back to (see below).

ShowKontrol Core mode. When a license expired, its updates ended before this version was made, or it was not checked for 30 days, ShowKontrol runs in ShowKontrol Core mode. This applies to every license, Link included. A message then says that ShowKontrol runs in Core mode and why, with a Check License button. It appears at every start and whenever the reason changes. Your shows and settings are kept, and everything comes back as soon as the license is valid again. Core mode has no Ableton Link: The node stays in the show but does not join the Link session and shows "Not available in ShowKontrol Core". Link and higher licenses have Ableton Link. License check reminders. The This Computer card is dark green while the license is fine and turns dark orange when it must check in with the server within 14 days (connect to the internet). A License check needed box then appears at most once a day, with Check Now and Later: Dark orange within 14 days, dark red with 3 days or less left.

ShowKontrol CLUB vs LIVE. In CLUB one router feeds the outputs: every deck can go into routers, but only one router (the first one you wire on to something that is not a router) may feed other nodes, and output nodes (LTC, MTC, Art-Net, OSC …) take their data from that router only, not straight from a deck. The other routers' output pins turn grey; they can still feed other routers (e.g. A and B into M). TCNet may still take the ProDJ Link source directly. A refused wire is not made and the Patch says why. LIVE has no such limit.

Talking back to the players. In CLUB you can drive the players by hand: the Player Controls drawer (play, pause, cue, beat jumps, MASTER, SYNC) and click-to-seek. Everything else that sends to the players works in LIVE only. That covers scripts, action nodes, Live-Data overrides written back to a deck, CDJ and mixer setting writes, the Playlist drawer and loading tracks onto a player. In CLUB these do nothing and the node or status line says "Needs ShowKontrol LIVE". Core does not control the players at all.

ShowKontrol Link and Core. With a Link license, and in Core mode, the LIVE and MASTER buttons are greyed out (those screens are not part of Core; LAUNCH SHOWKONTROL opens the Viewer), and the Viewer's deck strips show no routing buttons. Every start in Core uses the Core Patch: The ProDJ Link source, a TCNet node and the decks (Players 1–6, Mixer), wired ProDJ Link → TCNet → decks, plus an Ableton Link node on the TCNet node. No routers, no other outputs, no System Clock and no Internal Player. Your own shows are kept and load again with a CLUB or LIVE license. Utility shows no settings for the screens Core does not have (Live, Master, Schedule, Catalog, Set List, Cue List, Cue Editor). The Web Server and the Stream Deck settings (Install Stream Deck Plugin, Pair Plugins on This Mac) are greyed out and stay off in Core. In Core no nodes can be added to the Patch (no Add menus, Paste, Duplicate or Import Patch) and ShowKontrol does not control the players (no play / cue / beat jumps, click-to-seek or loading tracks). The player panels show no Player Controls, Playlist or Triggers drawer in Core.

One network interface. Core and CLUB use one ProDJ Link interface and one TCNet interface. A second ProDJ Link Source on another interface stays off and says so on the node. LIVE and up can use several.

Info panels per screen. Core and CLUB show at most 4 info panels on each screen. LIVE and up show 8. Panels 5 to 8 of a show set up under LIVE are kept and come back with a LIVE licence.

Routing buttons on the Viewer. Utility → Viewer → Show Routing Buttons turns the routing-button column on the Viewer's deck strips on or off; when it is off the column is gone and the waves use the full width. In ShowKontrol Core it is always off and greyed out.

One license per computer. Registering a license frees every other license of the same account that was on this computer (also the one the original ShowKontrol used here), so a computer never holds two.

A license is needed to start. Without a license registered to this computer, ShowKontrol stays on the Menu: Only Licenses, Network and System Info open, and LAUNCH SHOWKONTROL (or any other screen) asks you to register first (Open Licenses). The show itself (engine, outputs) is not started either. As soon as a license is registered on the Licenses page, the show starts, no restart needed. An expired license still counts: it keeps working in ShowKontrol Core mode. A running show is never stopped.

Update required. When a version must be replaced (for example after a serious bug fix), ShowKontrol shows an Update required message with Update (opens the download page) and Quit. A running show keeps running; install the update to continue.

Update available. When a newer version of ShowKontrol is out, the Menu shows an Update available message once per launch. It has three buttons:

• Download opens the installer for your computer in your browser.
• Later closes the message until the next launch.
• Skip This Version stops the message for this version. A later version shows it again.

The Licenses screen shows the same notice in blue, with a Download button. Your current version keeps working, and a running show is not touched. Quit ShowKontrol before you install the update. The notice arrives with the license check, so you need an internet connection to see it.

If the new version needs a newer macOS or Windows than your computer has, there is no message on the Menu. The Licenses screen shows a grey note with the system the new version needs.

Check for updates. Click UPDATE at the top of the Menu to check now. If a newer version is out, the Update available message opens, also for a version you skipped. If not, ShowKontrol shows You are on the latest version. Without an internet connection it shows Could not check for updates.

A license registered to this Mac in the original ShowKontrol is this Mac's license here too. ShowKontrol checks its license in the background; connect to the internet when the reminder asks. Windows computers must be registered again.

Sessions (Menu → SESSION)#

The LAUNCH SHOWKONTROL button on the Menu shows the running session's name under its caption.

Press SESSION on the MENU screen to manage shows ("sessions"):

• Local Sessions lists every session folder in Documents/TC Supply/SESSIONS (by folder name), newest first, with when it was saved and its size. The running session is marked CURRENT (green). A running show that was never saved as a file has its own row; SAVE keeps it.
• OPEN (or double-click a row) switches straight to that session. The running session is first saved into its own file (or, if it was never saved, kept in BACKUPS), so switching never loses work.
• License agreement: The first time a session is used on a computer (LAUNCH SHOWKONTROL (a clean install included), opened, switched to, imported or created (New Session, New Show)) the End User License Agreement comes up. Scroll the agreement to its end, AGREE only works then. CANCEL opens nothing and goes back to the Menu. ShowKontrol remembers the agreement per session and per computer (a hidden .eula file in the session folder), so a session copied to another computer asks once more there.
• + NEW SESSION asks for a name, keeps the running session, then starts a fresh show (the factory Patch) saved in its own folder under that name.

• IMPORT offers two choices:

  • Items from Another Show File… brings tracks (with their cue lists), set lists and parts of the Patch from another session into the running one. See Importing from another show file below.
  • Legacy ShowKontrol (New Session)… makes a new session from the old ShowKontrol's data. See Importing legacy ShowKontrol below.

  Both are also in the top bar's FILE menu.

• BACKUP backs one session up into a .zip wherever you choose (USB stick, cloud folder), its whole folder, show file and MEDIA. BACKUP ALL zips the whole SESSIONS folder: every session plus the automatic backups.
• OPEN SESSION… picks a session folder from anywhere (another drive, a folder copied from another machine) and switches to it, the running session is saved first, like OPEN on a row; FOLDER shows the sessions folder in Finder / Explorer.
• Network Sessions lists the ShowKontrol machines whose Role is Master on the ShowKontrol Network. JOIN FULL mirrors the whole show, JOIN PARTIAL only set lists, tracks and cues, BACKUP mirrors it and takes over if the master goes down (the same adoption as Settings → Network, with its confirmation). A joined session shows JOINED with LEAVE, which offers to restore your own show. While joined, OPEN and NEW SESSION are off.

Importing from another show file#

SESSION → IMPORT → Items from Another Show File… (or FILE → Import from Show File…) copies items from another session into the running one.

1. Pick the other session's folder (in Documents/TC Supply/SESSIONS, or a session folder copied from another computer).
2. Tick what to bring in: Set lists, Tracks and Patch. A set list brings its tracks along.
3. Press Import.

• Tracks keep their cue lists, colours, media and triggers. A track whose name is already taken gets a number added (Intro 2).
• Set lists are added as new sets next to yours.
• Patch opens the patch import next, where you choose the parts (devices, layers, nodes and wires).
• Media that is not on this computer is taken from the other session's MEDIA folder when it has a copy.

Importing legacy ShowKontrol#

Old ShowKontrol executors, set lists and cue lists can be brought into ShowKontrol 2. The import always makes a new session. The running session is saved first and stays as it was.

1. Press IMPORT → Legacy ShowKontrol (New Session)… on the SESSION page (or FILE → New Session from Legacy ShowKontrol…).
2. When old data is in Documents/TC Supply, press Import. Otherwise press Choose Folder… and pick the old TC Supply folder (a copy from the old computer works too).
3. Name the new session.

What it does:

• The setup: The new session starts as a copy of the current session's Patch and settings: the same players, routers, mixer and outputs. Set this up first, then import.
• Executors become Triggers inside the matching node: Player 1 to 6 go to the Device node with that Device ID, A, B and M go to the Routers with those names, and mixer events go to the Mixer device node. Open a node's Triggers drawer to see them. Each trigger is named Old SK with its deck and event.
• Events: Play, Pause and Cue watch the player state. Track Change, BPM Change, Beat, Down Beat, Speed Change and Position Change watch the deck data. Fader Up and Fader Down watch On Air. Fader Position, EQ and Color Filter watch the mixer channel.
• Commands become nodes wired after the trigger:

• Set lists: Every old .set file becomes a set with the same name. Each row becomes a track with its title, colour, timecode start and length. When the old audio file is still on this computer, the track gets it and is analysed in the background.
• Cue lists: Every old .cue file becomes the cue list of the track with that title. A cue keeps its time, name and colour. Its group (1 to 4) picks the layer. Its command is converted like an executor and runs when the cue starts. A cue lasts until the next cue on its layer, at most two seconds.
• The report: Anything without a ShowKontrol 2 match (hot cue events, Track End, 32 Beats, Show Call, phrase and timer executors, Telnet, DMX, JSON and serial commands, old %WILDCARDS% with no data key) is listed with its original text in LEGACY SHOWKONTROL IMPORT.txt in the session folder. The summary at the end opens it.

Check the imported outputs in the Patch before the show: they send to the old targets.

Show files (.skshow)#

FILE in the top bar (every window), or the File menu: New Show (⌘N), Open Show… (⌘O), Save Show (⌘S), Save Show As….

A New Show starts from the factory Patch, the same one a first start gets: ProDJ Link source, Players 1-6 + Mixer, Internal Player, routers A / B → M, System Clock and LTC. Your application settings stay as they are, except Live's top panels: a clean show (Live and Club) starts with none. Add them in Live's Info Panels list.

A .skshow is ONE portable file holding the complete show: the Patch (every node, wire, group and device/router interior), the show's application settings, and all show content, the Track List with every track's cue list and cue action graphs, the Set Lists, the Programme, cue presets and smart cues. Every part is checked, so a damaged file is refused instead of half-loaded. Old patch-only files (.skf, the old .skshow.xml) still open, they replace just the Patch.

• All application settings travel in a show : audio devices, file paths, venue, the web server, the ProDJ Link adapter, window geometry and everything else in Utility, opening the show restores them. Only this machine's own role on the ShowKontrol Network stays with the machine. The licence is never part of a show. Adopting a master over the ShowKontrol Network also keeps this machine's hardware, paths and keys.
• Every session has its own folder : Documents/TC Supply/SESSIONS/<name>/. The folder name is the session name; the show file inside is always called session.skshow. The folder also holds everything the session works with: session.skf (the auto-saved working copy), TIMELINE/ (cue stacks, set lists, schedule, presets …) and MEDIA/. Save As / New Session ask for a name and create that folder in SESSIONS when it is not there yet; Open picks a session folder. Saving copies every media file the show uses (imported audio and video, OSD images, any file a node points at) into MEDIA, only new or changed files, copied in the background (the save and the running show never wait; the status line reports when the copy is done, and BACKUP asks you to try again once it has finished). The show itself keeps using the originals. ShowKontrol's own caches (waveforms, analysis, artwork) are not copied; they are rebuilt on any machine. Programs a setting points at (FFmpeg, helper apps) are not copied either. The old SHOW FILE folder is renamed SESSIONS once, and its shows are sorted into session folders automatically. Opening a loose .skshow from elsewhere takes it in as a new session folder in SESSIONS.
• Moving a show to another machine: Copy its session folder into that machine's SESSIONS folder (or use Menu → SESSION → BACKUP, which zips the whole folder). It shows up straight away in Menu → SESSION, press OPEN (the machine must be licensed). Save first, because the copy carries what was last saved in session.skshow. Any media file that is not at its original path on that machine is linked to its copy in the show's MEDIA folder automatically; the status line says how many were linked or are still missing. Tracks loaded from the players over ProDJ Link need nothing, they come from the players.
• Nothing is ever lost: Before New / Open replaces the running show, it is written to SESSIONS/BACKUPS/<show> <date time>.skshow (newest 30 kept; FILE → Open Backups Folder).
• The working copy still auto-saves continuously into the session's folder (Patch → session.skf, content → TIMELINE/); Save writes the portable session.skshow. A show that was never saved works in SESSIONS/Untitled Show until you save it under a name.
• Settings live with the session: Every application setting is kept live in the session's own settings.json (SESSIONS/<name>/settings.json), so a copied session folder always brings its current settings, even when it was not saved. . BACKUPS stays in the SESSIONS folder.
• File → Import Patch from Show… (Patch window) still merges parts of another show's Patch selectively.

ShowKontrol Network: adoption#

Utility → Network → ShowKontrol Network lists every other ShowKontrol on the network (name, address, role, show). OSC has its own group on the same page.

• Role: Master offers this machine's show; Standalone runs its own show and can adopt a master.
• Adopt Master + ADOPT FULL, this machine mimics the master: Patch, automations, set lists, cues, programme and show settings, kept in sync live, and its windows follow the master's (Utility and the cue editor are never forced).
• ADOPT PARTIAL: Only the show content (set lists, tracks + cue lists, programme, cue presets, smart cues) is taken over and kept live; the Patch, settings and windows stay this machine's own.
• ADOPT BACKUP: A true backup of the master: the complete show is mirrored like FULL (Patch, automations, set lists, cues, programme, show settings; windows and machine lock follow too), but the decks arrive over TCNet (the deck mirror) instead of ProDJ Link, and this machine's TCNet always runs as Auto, its ProDJ Link stays off the network until the master goes down; then it takes over as master and joins ProDJ Link. Backup Outputs chooses what it does while standing by: Normal,

its outputs (LTC, MTC, MIDI, Art-Net, OSC, screens, NDI…) and its automation (cue stacks, smart cues, Cue Editor audio/video lanes, ref tone) stay silent until it takes over; Hot, its outputs run all the time, exactly like the master's (only safe when nothing on the network listens to both machines). Status: BACKUP (Normal, outputs silent) of <master>.

• While adopted, this machine's TCNet runs as a slave whatever its Patch says. If the master goes down the machine that wins the TCNet election (TCNet node in Master / Auto, see TCNet; a Client never takes over; without a TCNet node: one of the machines) becomes master, TCNet master, and it serves the show to the others, who follow it automatically.
• When the old master comes back it sees the take-over, keeps its TCNet slave and shows RECLAIM, pressing it makes it master again and the other machine goes back to following it.
• STOP ADOPTION asks: Restore the show this machine had before it adopted (after a full adoption the whole show; after partial only the content, the Patch was never touched), or Keep the adopted show as this machine's own. An adoption survives a restart.
• Updates send only what changed: a cue edit on the master sends just that track.
• While adopted, TCNet follows the master as a slave; the TCNet node's status reads IN (slave) · <master>. A TCNet node whose interface names a NIC this machine does not have uses this machine's ProDJ Link adapter.
• Parameter-only Patch changes are applied into the running nodes (triggers, scripts and output sockets keep running); a structural change (nodes/wires added or removed) swaps the whole Patch.
• Note: a FULL adopter runs the master's Patch, including its outputs (Art-Net, MIDI, OSC…), both machines send unless those outputs point at different destinations. Interface settings name the master's NICs; on another machine an absent NIC resolves to Any.

Network Monitor#

Utility → Application → Network Monitor (right under Network; also a page of Screens/Utility in Application actions) is a live page, not a settings list. It updates four times a second while it is shown and does nothing while it is hidden. Everything on it is measured, nothing is estimated. Copy Report (top right) puts a plain-text snapshot of the whole page on the clipboard for support.

The same page also opens from the MENU screen: press its NETWORK tab.

• Interfaces Used by ShowKontrol: Only the interfaces the app is set to use: the ProDJ Link adapter and backup, the running ProDJ Link services, the ShowKontrol Network interface, and every interface setting of every node in the Patch whose row is showing (sources, TCNet, Art-Net / sACN / PSN / Art-Net TC outputs, DMX Input, PSN Receiver, Art-Net TC In …). Choices are resolved to the real interface: Default → the active ProDJ Link adapter; Any on an output → the interface whose subnet holds its target IP, else the default route (broadcast 255.255.255.255 and multicast go out of the default route); nodes without an interface setting but with a host / target IP (OSC apps, consoles, Unreal, ATEM, VISCA …) → the interface that reaches that IP; Any on an input (and OSC Input, which listens everywhere) → the interfaces its senders were actually seen on, or a note "listening on every interface" until one is heard. Under each interface, one line per user says what uses it and how it was resolved. Show Unused (N) lists the rest. Per row: state dot (green up · amber no IPv4 / errors · red down, no link or not present), IPv4, MAC, In / Out = the interface's total traffic from all apps, and ShowKontrol in / out = the part of ShowKontrol's own counted traffic that runs on it (sockets bound to that interface, or a protocol set to exactly one interface). Windows: the interface list comes from the app's own table and there is no per-interface throughput.
• ShowKontrol Traffic by Protocol: How much ShowKontrol sends and receives per protocol and a 60-second sparkline (green in, blue out; history starts when the page opens).
• Devices on the Network: What ShowKontrol already knows, grouped: ProDJ Link players and mixers (number, model, type, IP, which of our interfaces, last seen), TCNet master / nodes, other ShowKontrol machines, Art-Net and sACN senders of the universes an input listens to (universe, fps, priority), OSC Input senders, Stream Deck plugins and Unreal plugins. Green = heard in the last 2 s, amber = late, red = offline, grey = idle.
• ProDJ Link Health · Last 60 s: Per player (1-6): how regularly it reports in (average and largest gap), the time since its last report, and the same for its beat reports while a deck plays. A player silent for more than 2 s turns red here and on its device row; a gap over 1 s in the last minute shows amber Gaps. (The incident log's "deck dropped off the network while on air" is unchanged.)

System Monitor#

Press SYSTEM INFO on the MENU screen for the System Monitor: A live page in the Network Monitor's style, about this computer and about ShowKontrol itself. It measures only while it is on screen. Copy Report (top right) puts the whole page on the clipboard as plain text for support.

• This Machine: Model, macOS version, processor and cores, memory, the load average (1 / 5 / 15 min) and the free space on the disk that holds Documents (amber under 20 GB, red under 5 GB: recordings, logs and caches live there).
• ShowKontrol: Version, how long it has been running, its CPU (% of one core, so 200 % = two cores busy; amber from 90 %, red from 150 %), memory, threads, open windows, and graphs of CPU and memory over the last 4 minutes.
• Engine: The engine's tick rate against its target (30 or 60 / s, General → Engine Rate; amber / red when it falls short), the main-thread lag now and its worst over 2 minutes (how long the main thread was busy with other work; amber from 40 ms, red from 150 ms,

timecode and cues suffer in a stall), the Patch size (nodes, connections, bypassed / stopped) and the incidents of the last 10 minutes, with graphs of the lag and the tick rate.

• Services: The web link, the audio recorder and the slow-call recorder, each with a status chip and its own status line.
• Slow Calls · Current Minute: The slow-call recorder's measured parts of the app (calls, average, worst, how many were slow), worst first.

The machine numbers are measured only while the page is open. On Windows the machine section stays empty; the app's own numbers work everywhere.