The smart remote turns your phone into a remote for testing fixtures. You stand at the truss with the faders in your hand: highlight a fixture, move its channels, confirm it is alive and correctly addressed. Nothing has to be installed on the phone — it opens an ordinary page in the browser.
A tablet works just as well as a phone. It connects exactly the same way — by QR code, with nothing to install — and the larger screen makes the faders and the buttons easier to hit with a finger. A tablet on a stand next to the computer becomes a separate, third screen: the fixtures and their channels stay at hand without taking up room in the program window.
How to connect
- Open the Smart remote window and press Turn on.
- The first time, Windows asks about network access — press Allow access. Without it the phone will not see the app.
- Point the phone camera at the QR code — the remote page opens.
- The window on the computer shows “Connected devices: 1” and the phone name.
If the camera does not work, open the address printed under the code (for example http://192.168.0.6:9520) and enter the PIN shown in the window.
The one requirement: the same network
The computer and the phone must be on the same Wi-Fi network. Internet is not needed — the phone talks to the computer directly, so the remote works in a venue with no internet at all.
If there is no shared network: turn on the hotspot on your phone, connect the computer to it, and then reopen the Smart remote window — the QR refreshes for the new address. Order matters: connect the computer first, open the code second.
If the phone will not connect although the network is shared:
- make sure you pressed “Allow access” in the firewall dialog;
- look at the Network: row in the window. With a VPN or virtual adapters installed, the app may offer their address — pick the network your phone is on (usually
192.168.x.x). The QR refreshes instantly, nothing needs reconnecting; - guest networks often isolate devices from each other — there only the phone hotspot helps.
Workspaces: your own button layout for the show (PRO)
Everything above is about setting up and checking fixtures. A workspace is something else: your own page of buttons on the phone for running the show. A tile starts a scene, a chase, a playlist or a whole playlist queue; next to them are brightness faders.
How it works. You build the layout in advance at the computer and simply press buttons on the phone at the venue. A phone button presses the same button you would click with the mouse: the program and the phone always show the same thing, and blackout, the master fader and priorities work as usual.
Building a layout:
- Press “+” on the left — a new layout appears (3 columns × 5 rows by default, comfortable for a phone in your hand).
- Give it a clear name: “First act”, “Disco”, “Speeches”.
- For each button choose what it does: Scene, Chase, Playlist, Playlist queue or Action (blackout, stop everything, chase step, next playlist step, stop playlist).
- Optionally add a custom caption (“CHOIR” instead of a long scene name) and pick a colour — a coloured tile is found at a glance in a dark room. With no caption the button shows the live scene name: rename the scene and the button follows.
- At the bottom assign faders: “Master brightness” is the program’s master fader, “Live fader N” is a fader from the LIVE tab. Move it on the phone and it moves on the computer.
The “flash” button. A scene button has a “Flash (while held)” checkbox. A normal button is a switch: press to turn on, press again to turn off. Flash works like a pedal: the scene is lit only while your finger is on the button, and on release the light returns to what it was. It is an accent tool — a hit in the chorus, a flash on a cue line. Two deliberate details: if the scene was already playing before the press, releasing will not kill it (the program only takes back what this button started), and if the phone loses connection while the button is held, the scene is released automatically — the light never sticks. On the phone such a button has a dashed border and a ⌁ mark.
Already built pads in LIVE? The “Fill from a Live bank…” button copies a ready layout of scenes and chases into the workspace in one click. It is a copy: from then on the remote layout and the Live bank live independently.
You can have several layouts — one per act of the evening. On the phone they switch with the strip of tabs at the top.
What it looks like on the phone
A “Show” button appears on the phone (only when layouts exist and the PRO add-on is active). On that screen:
- at the top — the layout switcher and the “Now / Next” line: what is playing and what comes next;
- in the middle — your buttons; the one playing right now is outlined;
- at the bottom — faders and the “Fixtures”, “Lock”, “Blackout” buttons.
Made specifically for a dark room:
- Dangerous buttons need a hold. “Blackout” and “Stop all” fire after about half a second of holding (a bar runs along the tile). A stray touch in your pocket or with an elbow will not kill the show.
- Screen lock. The “Lock” button covers the screen; unlocking also takes a one-second hold. Handy while the phone rides in your pocket between acts.
- The screen never sleeps while the Show screen is open: hunting for the phone and waking it in the dark exactly when a button is needed is the worst thing that can happen.
- A fader does not jump under your finger, even if the value is being changed on the computer at the same moment.
If the phone loses the connection (out of Wi-Fi range, flat battery), everything you started with the buttons keeps playing. That is deliberate: scenes and playlists are ordinary program playback, and killing it because Wi-Fi disappeared is more dangerous than leaving it alone.
What the PRO add-on covers. Building a layout and seeing how it works is possible without PRO — the window opens fully and the buttons can be arranged. The PRO add-on covers saving the layout into the project and using it on the phone: pressing “Save” without PRO tells you so honestly and offers a link to your account, while anything saved earlier stays intact.
Layouts are stored inside the project and travel with it: open the same .smp on another computer and the layouts are there. If a scene or playlist is deleted, its button simply becomes empty — no “dead” buttons that do nothing.
Your own port number
You normally never touch this: the program takes a free “door number” from the 9520–9529 range and puts it into the QR code. The Port field in the remote window helps in three cases:
- the port is taken by another program and the remote will not start;
- the venue network only allows certain ports (a network filter);
- the router forwards one specific number.
Type a number between 1024 and 65535 and press Enter (or simply leave the field) — it is saved. An empty field restores the usual automatic choice. If the remote is on at that moment, it restarts, so the phone has to connect again.
If the port you set is taken, the program does not quietly grab the next one — it names the number to free or change. That is deliberate: the number is written into a venue filter or a router forward, so a silent substitution would leave you with a dead QR code and no visible reason.
The setting belongs to this computer, not to the project: move the show to another laptop and it will have its own port.
What you can do from the phone
Fixture list. Every fixture of the open project with its address, plus search and type filters. Tapping the bulb in a row highlights the fixture: it goes full white so you can spot it by eye. Only one fixture is highlighted at a time, so it is clear which one answered.
Fixture card. Tap a row to get faders for all of its channels — the same colours as in the app, only bigger, made for a finger. Under each fader you see the channel name and its real DMX address, handy for checking against the fixture’s own menu. Quick controls live here too: eight colours and a pad for aiming a moving head.
Address test. The “Addr. test” button in the fixture list. Set universe, address and value — the channel lights up even if the fixture is not in the project yet. The “prev./next address” buttons help when walking a chain: the previous address is cleared automatically.
Blackout is available from every screen of the phone and works exactly like the same button in the app.
Worth knowing
- The remote overrides what the program plays: press highlight in the middle of a show and the fixture answers. Release fixture and Release all hand it back to the show.
- Blackout and the master fader on the computer also kill whatever the phone turned on. Safety beats convenience.
- Everything you do from the phone is visible in the visualizer — both 2D and 3D.
- Faders in the app do not move meanwhile — deliberately: the remote temporarily overrides the light instead of editing the project, so a stray finger cannot overwrite a saved scene.
- If the phone loses the connection (out of Wi-Fi range, screen off), the app releases the held channels by itself — the light will not stay stuck.
- The remote works only while the switch is on, and connecting requires the code from the QR or the PIN. Switch it off or close the app and the door is closed.