Network Sessions
Network Sessions can be used to share the display of a host on multiple iPads. To use this functionality you need to enable WiFi and Bluetooth on all iPads you want to share the lyrics with.
Recommendation
Although it is possible to host a session without a dedicated WiFi network, it is not recommended. A stable connection is needed to ensure that clients are not dropped. The bigger your audience the more mobile devices are in the room and create background noise that will interfere with your session.
Please setup a dedicated WiFi network preferably in the 5GHz range with a dedicated router. Place the router on stage to ensure short distances to all session participants.
Hosting a session
A bandleader can start hosting a session in the Settings tab by enabling the option Host Session:
Once enabled, the host can be found by other participants and will send all actions that change the playback status and the active song to all connected clients.
Note
As long as clients are connected to the host, the network session will keep on running even when the app is switched to the background. If no clients are connected the session will be disabled if the app is switched to the background. This is done to preserve battery life.
Change the Session Name
You can set a custom name for your session that will be displayed when network clients try to connect to your device. Changes will only be visible for network clients after you restart the app.
Send PDF Documents
PDF documents can get quite large when working with scanned documents. Sending large PDF documents over the network to multiple clients can take a lot of time. You can disable sending PDF documents to network clients if you experience slow song switch times on the network clients.
Joining a session
Free version limitation
To join a network session you need to unlock the full version of Stage Traxx as an in app purchase.
Tip
If the clients do not see the host, make sure that Stage Traxx is allowed to access the network on all devices. To do that open iOS settings, scroll down to Stage Traxx 3 and make sure the setting Local Network is enabled.
Once a session is being hosted, other participants can join that session by opening the Settings tab and selecting Join Session. The following screen will be displayed showing a list of all running sessions in your WiFi network.
Tapping on a host will connect into the session and a new screen will open:
The biggest part of the screen will be used for the lyrics. On the top of the screen you can see the current playback status of the host at position 1. At position 2 the title of the current song will be displayed. If you tap on the title, you can close this screen and disconnect from the host. Position 3 is the playback time. By tapping on it you can alternate between elapsed time or remaining time. Directly above the lyrics area you can see the waveform overview and current playback location of the host at position 4. The next song in the queue is displayed in the lower right corner of the screen at position 5.
Lyrics will automatically scroll if you have enabled autoscrolling in the settings. If a song does not contain time coded lyrics, you can adjust the scrolling speed using the buttons at position 6.
On the left hand side you will see a list of up to 20 queued up songs on the host. This list is updated whenever the host changes the playback order. You can hide and show the list with the button on position 7. By holding down the button for 2 seconds you can change the width of the list.
MIDI messages defined in song lyrics are sent by the remote client.
The font size can be changed with a pinch gesture on the lyrics. Stage Traxx will remember a relative size offset for your lyrics. So when you increase the size via the pinch gesture by for example 20%, all song lyrics will be displayed 20% larger than on the host.
Note
Changes to scrolling speed are not stored and will be reset to the default values from the host whenever a song is changed.
Tip
Network clients will show lyrics on a connected screen. You can therefore use a network client as a wireless presentation device.
Display your own lyrics
It is possible to display your own lyrics while connected as a client to a network session. To do so, make sure to enable the setting Show Local Lyrics. If your library contains a song the host has selected, your own lyrics will be displayed. Song matching is done by searching for the song by title and artist in your library. So please make sure that both tags match those of the host.
You can also use this feature to send your custom MIDI messages when the song is playing.