SPOTLIGHTMAESTRO

How it works

One machine runs the show.
Everyone else just opens a browser.

Spotlight Maestro is followspot cueing software. The cue sheet lives on one computer on the show network. Every spot operator, the caller and the production desk read it, live, from any device with a browser.

Scene 3 · Four steps to no more paper plots
Active 1

Start the app on one machine

A Mac or a Windows PC at the production desk, in the control room, or in a data rack. Double-click, and the plot is on the network. The app carries everything it needs, including its own database.

3

Connect the console

The app listens to the console's own show control output: ETC Eos, grandMA2 and grandMA3 are all supported. When the desk fires a cue, every screen in the venue scrolls itself to the matching spot cue, highlighted and ready. No console? Drive it by hand, by keyboard, by foot pedal or from a Stream Deck.

4

Run the show

Edits made in the plot are on the operators' screens before the next cue lands. Every change is logged against a name and a time, with a written undo history behind it. There is no save button because there is nothing to save: every edit is already in the show file.

The plot, wherever the operator is.

A tablet on a stand carries only that spot's cues, scrolling with the console. Sign in once and the device remembers its operator, its spot and its layout for the run of the season.

Nothing is downloaded to any device. The app serves everything itself, so an iPad or a tablet is show-ready the moment it opens the address.

A tablet on a music stand in the booth, running the tracking view The booth · the tracking layout on the operator's stand

Offline is the whole point.

Theatre networks are fixed and usually cut off from the internet. Spotlight Maestro is designed for exactly this arrangement.

Network · Offline

No internet, ever

Nothing loads from the web while it runs and nothing phones home. Fonts, graphics, the database, the whole app: it all ships in the download and works on a local machine.

Network · Address

One address for every device

The app answers to a short, local network name on Mac, iPad and Windows alike, with numeric addresses and QR codes for anything that needs them. Fixed IPs, DHCP, wired or wireless: it works on the network you already have.

Network · Guard

Two copies? It tells you.

If another copy of the app is answering to the same name on the network, every connected device shows a warning bar. The wrong-computer mistake gets caught before it costs anyone a plot.

Your plot is never one mistake from gone.

Safety · Autosave

Autosave, always

Every edit is written to the show file the moment it is made, and broadcast to every device. Everyone in sync the moment you finish typing.

Safety · Undo

A written undo history

The last twenty changes, each described in plain words with who made it. Open the list, pick a point, and the app tells you exactly what will be undone.

Safety · Log

A change log

Every edit and every login, named and timestamped. When the plot says something surprising, you can find out who changed it and when.

Safety · Backup

One-file backups

The whole production, photographs and all, as a single file you can keep anywhere or carry to another computer. Offered every time you quit.

What you need.

The host machineA Mac running macOS 11 or later, or a PC running Windows 10 or later. One per show.
Operator devicesAnything with a current browser: iPad, laptop, tablet, phone. They just open a page.
The consoleETC Eos family, grandMA2 or grandMA3, with show control output enabled. The app also runs happily with no console at all.
The networkThe network you already have. Wired or wireless, fixed IPs or DHCP, no internet required.
FollowspotsOne to twenty, conventional or automated. If someone follows a person with a light, this is their cuesheet.

Next: tracking the console.

Exactly how the plot follows your Eos, grandMA2 or grandMA3, cue by cue.

Tracking the console Download the demo