Technical setup · founding beta

Use one private subnet. Wire every critical position.

This is the conservative production configuration for Control, Main, Backup, and Director. It separates what Show Distro requires from upgrades that only improve file turnaround or add network video capacity.

Rehearsal remains the final qualification for the exact Macs, displays, adapters, network, presentation files, teleprompter controls, and fallback used on the show.

Current beta recommendation

PositionRecommendationImportant limit
Control Current Apple-silicon laptop, 16 GB or more, SSD storage, and wired Ethernet. Control does not need the display capacity of a four-output show machine.
Main + Backup Matched Apple-silicon Macs with 16 GB or more for a standard 1080p show. Match adapters and presentation-app versions as well. Each Mac must natively support every required display. Rehearse 4K, NDI, manual teleprompter control, and concurrent media conversion on the exact system.
Director A separate laptop on wired Ethernet. Open the password-protected Director page served by Control; Show Distro does not need to be installed on that laptop. Control can display Director locally, but a separate wired position is the production recommendation.
Tablet Optional secondary Director view on the private show Wi-Fi. Do not make a wireless tablet the only critical Director position.

Preferred: a dedicated show LAN

Venue internet
optional WAN Show router
DHCP + optional Wi-Fi LAN Ethernet switch
Control · Main · Backup · Director
  • Connect the venue network only to the router’s WAN port. Connect the show switch to a router LAN port. If the show does not need internet, leave WAN disconnected.
  • Connect Control, Main, Backup, and the Director laptop to the switch. Keep them on one private IPv4 subnet.
  • The switch carries show traffic. The router supplies addresses and, when needed, an internet path. Router WAN speed does not determine local deck-transfer speed.
  • Use DHCP reservations for the show Macs. A lease change can invalidate a saved manual address.
  • Turn Wi-Fi off on wired critical Macs after setup, or confirm that the address shown in Show Distro belongs to the wired show subnet.
Most routers already provide the basics.

Standard router mode normally creates a private LAN, assigns addresses, allows outbound internet access, and blocks unsolicited inbound connections. The setup guide separates those common defaults from the few settings to check or configure.

Open the Router & Switch Setup Guide →

Alternative: a managed VLAN with network support

  • Use this only when network support can provide and troubleshoot one dedicated VLAN and subnet with device-to-device traffic allowed.
  • Allow local UDP broadcast for discovery and peer-to-peer UDP for Director confidence video. Do not use client isolation.
  • A manual show-machine IP can bypass blocked discovery. It does not guarantee that WebRTC confidence feeds will cross a routed or filtered network.
  • Put an optional tablet on an SSID mapped to the same VLAN, with wireless-to-wired traffic allowed.
Internet access is allowed.

Show Distro uses normal outbound HTTPS for licensing, updates, and connected content services such as Box. It does not require inbound internet access or router port forwarding; keep its local control ports inside the show LAN or supported VLAN.

Choose link speed for the workload

TrafficShow Distro behaviorRecommendation
Control + status Low-bandwidth commands, timing, notes, and machine state. Wired 1GbE is ample.
Director confidence video Program and Presenter WebRTC feeds target 1280×720 at 12 fps and up to 4 Mbps each. Wired 1GbE is ample; same-subnet connectivity and low packet loss matter more than link speed.
Deck and media distribution Large transfers run at the speed allowed by the source disk, destination disk, and slowest network link. 1GbE works. Prefer 2.5GbE for faster turns; use 10GbE when large media routinely arrives late.
Optional NDI output NDI is separate from core Show Distro control traffic. NDI documents roughly 130–150 Mbps for one 1080p60 High Bandwidth stream. Plan capacity from the number of simultaneous streams. Multiple streams or 4K make 10GbE increasingly defensible.
What faster Ethernet actually changes.

At theoretical line rate, a 10 GB file takes about 80 seconds over 1GbE, 32 seconds over 2.5GbE, or 8 seconds over 10GbE. Real transfers take longer because Show Distro also reads, hashes, packages, writes, and verifies the content.

The full path must support the speed. A 10GbE switch or uplink does not accelerate a Mac connected at 1GbE. See the official NDI bandwidth guidance when NDI is part of the design.

Core and optional traffic

ProtocolPortPurposeRequired?
TCP 3333–3343 Show Distro web/API service: node control, content transfer, Director, Stream Deck, and Companion. The service starts at 3333 and tries the next port if needed; use the address shown in Show Distro. Yes. Password-authenticated; local HTTP/WebSocket, not TLS.
UDP broadcast 3344 Show-machine discovery. Replies return to the originating temporary UDP port. Required for automatic discovery; not required when a node is entered manually.
Dynamic UDP Negotiated Peer-to-peer WebRTC Program and Presenter confidence feeds. Required for live confidence video. There is no fixed media port or TURN relay.
UDP / OSC 3334 default Optional direct text or OSC commands. No. Disabled by default; configurable and token-authenticated.
TCP 3335 default Optional direct text commands. No. Disabled by default; configurable and token-authenticated.
HTTPS 443 outbound Licensing, updates, and optional connected services. Only when those services are used. No inbound WAN rule is required.

On each Mac, allow the signed Show Distro application to accept incoming connections. Do not disable the macOS firewall for the show; use Apple’s application-level firewall settings. On a managed network, permit the listed traffic only within the trusted show VLAN.

Put each show Mac in Show Machine mode

  1. Install the same Show Distro build used by Control.
  2. Open Show Machines → Setup.
  3. Under This Mac, choose Run as Show Machine and confirm the restart.
  4. Confirm the displayed address is on the wired show subnet and note the pairing code.

Enroll from Control

  1. Open Show Machines → Setup → Add Show Machine.
  2. Select the discovered Mac, or enter its address manually, and type its pairing code.
  3. Assign one Main, optionally one Backup, and any Auxiliary machines.
  4. Save Program, Presenter, and Teleprompter displays for each machine, then confirm it reports online.
Targeting and monitoring are separate.

Send commands to selects the machines that act. Monitor from selects the single show machine feeding Director’s Program, Presenter, and Light Table views.

External control

Stream Deck

  1. Start Remote Director on Control and note its address and password.
  2. Install the Show Distro plugin for Stream Deck 7.1 or later.
  3. Enter the Control address and password once, then set each button’s target.

Use 127.0.0.1 only when Stream Deck runs on Control. From another computer, use the wired address shown by Show Distro.

Companion

  1. Open Show Distro’s Companion setup and save the offline module and standard layout.
  2. Import the module, then import the layout for page 1 essentials and the page 2 live sectional map.
  3. Open the imported Show_Distro connection and enter Control host, displayed port, remote password, and polling interval.

The supplied 32-key grid is hardware-dynamic: Stream Deck XL exposes the complete layout, while smaller surfaces start with the upper-left essentials. Point Companion at Control, not a Show Machine. The layout file never contains the remote password.

OSC, UDP, or TCP

  1. Open Show Machines Setup → Direct control inputs.
  2. Enable only the listener you need and leave token authentication on.
  3. Copy the token and displayed port into the sending system, then test every target.

Direct listeners are independent of Stream Deck and Companion. Their tokens authenticate commands but do not encrypt them.

Direct-command syntax and accepted values

Text format

TOKEN [TARGET] COMMAND

TOKEN BOTH NEXT
TOKEN MAIN VIDEO GO
TOKEN BACKUP TIMER SET 300

Send one UTF-8 command per UDP datagram. End every TCP command with a newline. When target is omitted, Show Distro uses the selected target.

FieldAccepted values
TargetLOCAL, MAIN, BACKUP, BOTH, AUX, ALL, SELECTED
TransportNEXT, PREV, GOTO n, START SHOW, STOP SHOW, END SHOW
DeckLOAD entryId, GO entryId
VideoVIDEO GO, VIDEO ABORT, VIDEO RELEASE
TimerTIMER SET seconds, TIMER START, TIMER STOP, TIMER RESET
OutputsPRESENTER ON|OFF, NATIVE PRESENTER ON|OFF, TELEPROMPTER ON|OFF, OUTPUTS CLOSE

OSC format

/downstage/[target]/command

/downstage/both/next
/downstage/main/video-go

Send the control token as the first string argument to the configured UDP/OSC port.

  • 01

    Interfaces — Turn off unused Wi-Fi, confirm every displayed address is on the wired show subnet, and verify the Director laptop receives both confidence feeds.

  • 02

    Roles and displays — Confirm Main, Backup, and monitor source; open Program, Presenter, and Teleprompter on their saved outputs.

  • 03

    Content — Distribute the show, wait for every destination to report ready, and load the verified local copies.

  • 04

    Control — Test Previous, Next, Go To, Start, Stop, End Show, timers, messages, output controls, and every external-control target.

  • 05

    Failure path — Disconnect the venue uplink, Control, and each optional surface in turn. Confirm the presentation keeps running and the intended fallback remains operable.

  • 06

    Freeze — Record addresses, ports, credentials, roles, display routes, versions, cabling, and fallback. Do not change the proven rig before show day.