Setup guide

Setup has four sections. In 0.1.1 they are Performance, Data, Network & Redundancy, and System. In Prest and the next release, This Device takes the place of Performance.

The badge at the top right reads Runtime and the connection state.

Private network only

Prest Server has no login: any device that can reach the host can control the show. Connect stage devices only to a network your band controls. See Network and security.

Performance

In 0.1.1, these settings belong to the browser you set them in. Each device chooses its own.

• Lyrics Text Size: Smaller and Larger change the size in steps of 10%, from 80% to 200%. The buttons 90%, 100%, 125%, 150%, and 175% set it directly. Preview shows the result.
• Show “All Songs” in Performance: Limit To Active Setlist removes All Songs from the Performance page’s setlist picker, and Show All Songs brings it back. It is shown until you turn it off.
• Song Timings in Performance Menu: Hide Timings and Show Timings remove or add each song’s length in the song picker. Shown until you turn it off.

This Device

In Prest and the next release. Settings this screen keeps for itself; every device on the rig chooses its own.

• Lock This Device: Lock turns off the transport and song changes on this device, so a stray touch cannot change the show. Unlock turns them back on, as does pressing and holding the lock on the Performance page. It is a safeguard, not a password: any device on the network can still connect.
• Appearance: Skin (Server, Faceplate, Console, or Desktop), Tone (System, Dark, or Light), and High contrast (System, On, or Off). System follows the device’s own setting. The moon button in the top bar switches the tone alone.
• Default View: the view every song shows on this device, unless you choose another for a song on the Performance page. When songs have views of their own, Forget Song Views clears them.
• Text Size: choose a view in View to size, then use Smaller, Larger, or a percentage. Each view keeps its own size, so lyrics can be large while the score stays in proportion.
• Display Lag: how late this screen shows what it is sent. Less and More change it in steps of 5 ms. Leave it at 0 ms unless the playhead trails the music.
• Show “All Songs” in Performance and Song Timings in Performance Menu: as in 0.1.1, above.

Data

These settings belong to the host and apply to every device.

Project Source

The show library: the folder on the host computer that holds the show’s projects.

• Type the folder’s path, or choose Browse Folder. The folder browser lists the host computer’s folders, with how many projects each holds. Up one folder and Show Home and Drives move around, Use This Folder chooses, and Cancel leaves it unchanged.
• A typed path is checked when you leave the field.
• The badge reads Ready when the folder can be used, Invalid when it does not exist or cannot be read, Pending before the check, and Runtime offline when the page is not connected. In Prest and the next release it also reads Checking… during the check and Not set when no folder is set.

In Prest and the next release, while no show library folder is set, Editor and Performance say No show library folder is set, so songs cannot load. with an Open Setup button.

Export Backup and Import Backup

Download Backup saves the songs and setlists as a .rpbak file; its badge counts them. Import Backup adds the songs and setlists of a backup file to the catalog. See Backups and data.

Network & Redundancy

These settings belong to the host you opened, in the address bar. Each host of a rig keeps its own. They take effect when you restart the host: REAPER, Live, or Prest. After Save Network Settings, the badge reads Saved — restart the DAW to apply.

The section’s badge reads Active for the host that leads, or Standby for one that follows another host.

Setting	What it does
Connect From Other Devices	Shows the rig’s address, http://prest.local/, with the port when this page uses one (in Prest and the next release, with the rig name), and the address this page was opened with.
Rig Name	In Prest and the next release. The name devices open the rig by: http://<name>.local/. Letters, digits, and hyphens, up to 63 characters. Give each band’s rig on a shared network its own name, and type the same name on every host of one rig. Empty means prest.
Announce on the Network (mDNS)	Turn Off stops the host announcing prest.local. Devices must then use the IP address. On by default.
Stage Network Interface	Empty chooses automatically. On a computer with several networks, enter the stage network’s interface name (en0) or the computer’s IP address on it.
Redundant Rig Hosts	The addresses of the rig’s other computers, separated by commas, with a port if they do not use 80: 192.168.1.12:8420, 192.168.1.13. See Run a backup computer.
Rig Pairing Key	A word or phrase that identifies the rig. Hosts follow each other only when their keys match. The box always starts empty, because the host never sends the key back; the badge reads Key set or No key — pairs with any host. Type a new key only to replace it.
Server Port	Empty uses port 80. Every host of a rig should use the same port. PREST_PORT overrides it.
Backup Port	On by default. When another program already uses the server port, the host serves on the first free port from 8418 to 8422 instead of not starting, and says which at startup. Devices then need the port in the address, for example http://prest.local:8418/. With it turned off, Prest Server does not start when its port is taken.

The address under Connect From Other Devices is the one you typed. To find the host computer’s IP address, look in its network settings.

Run a backup computer

Two computers can run the same show. One leads and answers to prest.local. The other is a standby: it opens the same song as the leader, and its DAW plays along in time. If the leader stops, the standby takes over and starts answering to prest.local.

Not in 0.1.1

In Prest Server 0.1.1, two computers listed in each other’s Redundant Rig Hosts can both take the lead. Use a backup computer with Prest or with Prest Server’s next release, and update every computer of the rig together: hosts of different versions do not pair.

1. Put the same show library on both computers, with the projects at the same places inside it.
2. Give both the same catalog: Download Backup on one, Import Backup on the other.
3. On each computer, open its own address and, in Network & Redundancy, enter the other computer’s address in Redundant Rig Hosts, the same Rig Pairing Key, and the same Server Port. Choose Save Network Settings.
4. Restart both hosts.
5. Open the stage screens at prest.local, not at an IP address, so they move to the standby when it takes over.
6. Rehearse it: stop the leader in the middle of a song and check that the standby carries on.

Fixed IP addresses for the rig’s computers are recommended. Each computer keeps its own catalog: when you change songs or setlists, change them on both.

Another band’s Prest Server

With Redundant Rig Hosts empty and mDNS on, a host that finds another Prest Server already answering to prest.local becomes its standby and follows it, whoever it belongs to. On a network you share, set a Rig Pairing Key on your hosts, and, in Prest and the next release, a Rig Name of your own.

System

• Onboarding: Re-run Onboarding opens the first-run guide again. The badge reads Complete or Pending.
• Third-Party Notices: In Prest and the next release. Open Notices shows the open-source components Prest Server is built with and their licences.
• Wipe App Data: see below.

Wipe App Data

Destructive

Wipe deletes, on the host, every song, every setlist, the show library folder setting, and the current song, for every device. On the device you wipe from, it also clears its own settings and onboarding progress. Download a backup first.

1. Choose Open Wipe Confirmation.
2. Read Confirm wipe.
3. Choose Wipe Everything, or Cancel.

The page then reads All runtime and browser-owned app data was cleared. The app is back in first-run state. Project files, network settings, and other devices’ screen settings are not touched. Wipe needs a connection to the host; without one, the page says Reconnect the runtime to wipe persisted data from the shared store.