The web remote

The web remote lets other people run parts of your show from a browser: a camera operator on a phone, a graphics operator on a tablet, a producer on a laptop. On the same network as your Mac, or anywhere over the internet. Nothing is installed on their devices.

From the web remote, anyone signed in can:

• put a source in Preview;
• take Preview to Program with Cut, Fade 1, Fade 2 or Dip, at the durations your Show uses;
• press any of your Show’s hotkeys, exactly as if the key were pressed on your Mac.

It shows no pictures. To see Preview and Program, watch them on an external display or over NDI.

Switch it on

1. Open Show Settings and choose Remote.
2. Switch on Let other operators switch from a browser.
3. Set a Password. The remote does not listen without one.

The Port is 49722 unless you change it. When it is listening, the settings list the address to open on a device, with Copy beside it, and the top bar of the operator window reads REMOTE with how many remotes are connected.

The first time it listens, macOS may ask whether InterDirector may accept incoming connections. Allow it, or no device can reach it.

The password is saved in your Show, like stream keys, so the Show works on another Mac as it is. Anyone who has the Show file has the password.

Connect a device

The device has to be on the same network as your Mac.

1. Open the address from the settings, such as https://192.168.1.20:49722/, in the device’s browser.
2. The browser warns that the connection is not private. That is expected: InterDirector makes its own certificate on your Mac. Accept it once:
   • Safari on iPhone or iPad: Show Details, then visit this website.
   • Chrome: Advanced, then Proceed.
   • Firefox: Advanced, then Accept the Risk and Continue.
3. Sign in with the password.

The warning comes once per device for each Mac. After that, the connection is encrypted.

Over the internet

A remote can also be somewhere else: a producer at home, or a phone on mobile data instead of the venue’s Wi-Fi.

1. In Show Settings › Remote, switch on Also over the internet. It uses the same password.
2. When the status reads Reachable over the internet, the Show’s own link appears, such as https://remote.interdirector.com/r/…/, with a QR code and Copy.
3. On the device, open the link or point the camera at the QR code, and sign in with the password.

There is no warning to accept: the link has a real certificate.

• The link belongs to the Show. It stays the same every time you use the Show, so your crew can bookmark it, and it goes with the Show to another Mac. New Link… makes a new one, and the old one stops working at once.
• Share it only with your crew. Anyone with the link still needs the password.
• At most four remotes can use the link at once. The network address has no such limit.
• It needs a licence or a trial, and an internet connection on your Mac. The network address keeps working if the venue’s internet drops, so use it for anyone on site.
• If the same Show is open on another Mac, the Mac that connected last has the link. The first says so, with Take It Back.

It goes through InterDirector’s relay at remote.interdirector.com, which passes what the remote and your Mac say to each other and keeps none of it. The Licence window’s privacy note says what goes to it.

Using it

On a phone, Sources and Hotkeys are two tabs, each with its count. On a tablet or a laptop both are shown side by side. Program and Preview, and CUT, FADE 1, FADE 2 and DIP, are always on screen.

• Tap a source to put it in Preview. The source on Program is red and marked PGM; the one in Preview is green and marked PVW.
• Cut, Fade 1, Fade 2 or Dip take Preview to Program, as the buttons on your Mac do.
• Hotkeys carry the name you gave them and their key. One that turns something on and off has a lamp that lights while it is on; one that does something once, such as capturing a replay, has an empty ring.
• A hotkey given a colour in Show Settings › Controls shows in it: dimmed while it is off, in full colour while it is on. See giving a hotkey a colour.

Anything that asks before it happens on your Mac, such as stopping the stream or a recording, or deleting a replay clip, asks on the remote instead, in the same words. If the situation on your Mac changes before the question is answered, the press is refused and the remote shows what is true now.

Commands from every remote are carried out in the order they arrive, together with your own keys and Stream Deck.

If the connection drops

The remote says so in amber, and every button goes off until it is back, so nothing you press is sent late. It tries again every two seconds and signs back in on its own. Over the internet, it also notices within about 25 seconds when your Mac has gone, even if its connection seems fine, and says it is waiting for the Mac. While a phone is signed in, the remote keeps its screen from locking, where the browser allows it.

Who is connected

Show Settings › Remote lists every signed-in remote by its device, such as Safari on iPhone, with when it signed in and whether it is connected now. Disconnect signs one out.

To keep someone out for good, change the password: every remote is signed out and has to sign in with the new one. Switching the remote off, or closing the Show, signs everyone out as well.

After three wrong passwords, each further try waits a little longer, up to 30 seconds.

Your password never leaves the device you type it on. The Mac asks a question only the right password can answer, and the browser answers it, so nothing on the network or over the internet ever carries the password itself.

If a device cannot reach it

• Check the device is on the same network as the Mac. A guest Wi-Fi often keeps its devices from reaching one another; use the main network.
• Check the settings show an address and no problem in red, and that REMOTE shows in the top bar.
• If macOS asked about incoming connections and it was denied, allow InterDirector in System Settings › Network › Firewall › Options.
• If another app uses the port, set another Port in the settings.