CueTimer User Guide

Version 2.5
16. August 2023

0. Introduction

CueTimer is a timer-software for conferences, broadcasting, gameshows, or any event that requires precise timing and planning. Display the timers on a screen connected to the computer, through the local LAN network, or over the Internet. The operator can place the timers in a Cue List and use simple shortcuts to move forward during the event. CueTimer is available for Mac and PC.

0.1 About this User Guide- Mac and PC versions
This guide should cover all you need to know to use CueTimer. Starting from v.2.3, we use one user-guide for both the Mac and PC version. All screenshots in this guide are taken from the Mac-version, but unless it is noted, it should look familiar in the PC version. In the event that there are differences between the platform-versions, we try to show this. Note that there still might be some small differences between the versions that is not covered by this guide.

0.2 Terminology
Below are some important expressions that will be used throughout in this user-guide:

The application CueTimer creates a list of Timers in what we refer to as the Cue List. From this list, one of the timers can be chosen for the Main Output. Only one timer can be chosen at the same time. We refer to this timer as the Main Timer. To display the Main Output for an audience, you can connect to the the physical Output Windows.

On the top of the application-window you find the Command Bar. Here you will find most of the commands that you can do in the application. On Windows, this Command Bar is divided into several tabs.

1. Requirements

1.1 Computer

A Mac with Mojave, Catalina, Big Sur, Monterey or Ventura OS. Both Intel and Apple Silicon CPUs are supported natively.

64-bit PC with windows 8.1, 10 or 11 
.Net 4.8 or later installed. 

1.2 Connections
CueTimer provides several ways to view timers on external devices

Monitor output

Connect the computer to a monitor and put the monitor as extended screen. Now you can display the Main Output on the external monitor

NDI

With NDI you can send the Main Output to another device on the same LAN network. This requires that the mac with CueTimer and the receiving device are on the same network.

Webpage

If you have internet-connection you can send the Main Output and info from the Cue List to a webpage that is hosted by our webserver.

1.3 Remote control

CueTimer is compatible with Bitfocus Companion v.2 and above.

2. Getting started

Let us walk through how to set up CueTimer to display the countdown-page on an external monitor, with a list of 3 timers. This could be for a conference where you have a monitor on the stage showing a countdown for each presenter.

2.1 Connect the equipment
In our example we have the HDMI output connected directly to the external monitor, or through an HDMI extender like shown below

The idea is to control CueTimer from your main display, and have a second window on the extended display where the presenter sees how much time they have left of their speech.

After connecting the equipment, make sure that your pc/mac sees the connected display as an external monitor. In Mac, open System Settings – Displays, and set the connected monitor as extended (not mirrored)

2.2 Install the software and activate the licence
After you have bought the licence and downloaded CueTimer from this webpage, run the installer.

Open CueTimer, push “Activate”, and paste the activation-code that was sent to you when buying the licence.

2.3 Create a list of timers
The main CueTimer interface looks like this:

Start by inserting new timers into the list. The “New” buttons will open the New Timer menu

Now you will have a list of timers that are ready to start in the Cue List

2.4 Activate the fullscreen
The next step is to activate the fullscreen-output on the external monitor. In most cases, this will be handled automatically by CueTimer, so that when you connect your display, the fullscreen-output will end up here. If necessary, you can change the screen used for fullscreen output..
– Windows: Go to the “outputs” tab in the command-bar, and push the “fullscreen monitor” buton
– In Mac, go to the “Options” tab in the top menu bar and find the selection for “Fullscreen monitor”

Now you can push the fullscreen-button to see the countdown-page on the external monitor

On Mac, this button is on the main command bar.
On Windows, you find these button under the “Output” tab above the command-bar.

You should now be able to see the first countdown on the external monitor. Before a countdown-timer has started, the total duration of the timer will be shown.

2.5 Start the timers
To start the first countdown, push the “Start” button

The first timer in the list has changed its color to red. This means that this timer is running and sent to the Main Output. Push Fire again to start the next timer in the list, or push Cue Next if you want to move forward without starting a new timer.

3. Displaying the Output-Windows

3.1 Turning on the output-buttons

The output-buttons can be found to the right on the commands-bar. On Windows these are placed in a similar position, but under the tab “Outputs”. On Mac you can also access these buttons from the top menu bar.

3.2 Local Outputs

Fullscreen
This will display the Main Output on the external monitor. If you want to manually assign the monitor on which the Main Output will display, do this from the “Fullscreen Monitor” dropdown menu.

Preview
This is a free-floating window that is a copy of what is shown in the Fullscreen-Monitor. It can be scaled and placed anywhere you like. Use this as a monitor to see what is happening on the fullscreen.

NDI
Activate the NDI output

“Preview”, “Fullscreen” and “NDI” are referred to as Local Outputs because the graphic displayed here is generated from within the CueTimer application. With the “Webpage”, the graphics is generated on the local browser where the window is displayed. This difference becomes more important when setting the style for the outputs, (chapter 12) because you can set different style for the local outputs and the web display.

3.3 Web display
Push the “Webpage” button to open this menu:

From the Web Display menu push “Generate new link” to create a new webpage. The link shown here will display the web-version of the Main Output. Distribute this address to those you would like to gain access to the page.

You can always delete this page and create a new. We recommend that you do this for each event with new groups of people. Pages that are deleted will no longer receive data from the CueTimer application.

3.4 Web-Schedule

The web-schedule will display the name, start-time and duration as an ordered list starting with the timer set to fire next. When hovering over this page with the mouse, a button top right of the page will let you toggle between the counter and the schedule page. It is synced to the CueTimer app so that every change in the Cue list is automatically updated in the web-schedule.
You can turn on and off the schedule from the preferences-menu. If the schedule is turned off, the button for toggling between the counter and the schedule page will be hidden.

4. Create new timers

You need at least one timer in the list to display a running timer. In CueTimer, we have two ways of inserting new timers:
1. Through the New Timer window
2. Quick Timers – insert new empty timers directly into the list (New in v. 2.5!)

4.1 New Timer menu

The New Timer menu can be opened from the command-bar, or with shortcut Command + N (Mac), Control + N (Windows.)
From this menu, you can set all the options you need for the new timer(s)

To toggle through the different options, push “tab”, or select what you want to edit with the mouse. Push “enter” or hit the green button to complete.

4.2 Quick Timers

You dont need to go through a separate menu to insert new timers into the list. With the Quick Timers, introduced in version 2.5, you can insert empty timers into the list with keyboard-shortcuts or buttons. Then you can edit the timer directly from the list.

The buttons for quick-timers can be found from the “New Timers” tab in the top menu bar (Mac) or the “Insert” tab in the command bar (PC).

For a more efficient workflow, we recommend using keyboard-shortcuts for the most used timer types, like Countdown. Note that Mac always use “Command” with these shortcuts, while PC uses “control”. Below is a list of the shortcuts for the quick timers, which includes all of our available timer-types:

Command/Ctrl + 1: Countdown
Command/Ctrl + 2: Countup
Command/Ctrl + 3: End Time
Command/Ctrl + 4: Stopwatch
Command/Ctrl + 5: Clock
Command/Ctrl + 6: Empty
Command/Ctrl + 7: Spacer

4.3 Default values for new timers

When inserting quick-timers, some of cells are already populated according to the default values for new timers. These default values are used when timers are changed or created and the values for these cells are not previously known.
Note that the speed always defaults to 100%.

The default timer-settings can be found in the Timer LIst tab in the Preferences menu.

4.4 Timer options

You can set the options for the timer both from the new timer menu, or directly into the list.

Below are all the available options we have for timers:

ID
An unique identifier for the timer. This is usually reserved for triggering through Companion.

Name
Name or description of the timer

Start
Start-time of the timer. If this number is in red, it means that the timer will start at this time of the day. (see the section about automation) If it is in italic, it means that it is used as a tentative value. (normally part of a schedule)
While the timer is running (the background is red) the start-time shows the exact time the timer started.

Duration
For countup an countup timer-types, this is the set duration of the timer.

End Time
For end-time timer types, the End Time shows the exact time the timer will end, regardless of when it will started. If the number is in italic, it means that it is used as a tentative value. (same the start)
While the timer is running (the background is red) the End Time shows the exact time the timer will end.

4.4 Timer-types

There are 7 different timer types you can choose from:

Countdown – Timer will count down from the time set on “duration”
Count Up – Timer will start at 0 and count up to the set duration
End Time – Timer will count down to the time of the day set in «End Time”
Stopwatch – Timer will count up from 0 with no set duration
Clock – Timer will display clock
Empty – Timer will display nothing
Spacer – This will insert 1 row of space in the list

Warning

For countdown, countup and end-time timer types, set the threshold for when warning-style will begin. 

End action

For countdown, countup and end-time type timers, choose what will happen when time has run out.
Stop – Timer will stop at 0

Overtime- Timer will continue. (+ 00:00:01)

Repeat- Timer will repeat (same as pushing “repeat” button)

Fire Next – “Start” command (same as pushing “Start” button)
Cue Next – “Stop command (same as pushing “cue next” button)

Set as the new default
The next time this menu opens, the same settings will be used.

4.5 Timer-types
In Cue Timer we have 6 different timer-types to choose from:

Countdown – Timer will count down from the time set on “duration”
Count Up – Timer will start at 0 and count up to the set duration
End Time – Timer will count down to the time of the day set in «End Time”
Stopwatch – Timer will count up from 0 with no set duration
Clock – Timer will display clock
Empty – Timer will display nothing

You can also add a Spacer which adds one row of space into the list.

Warning

For countdown, countup and end-time timer types, set the threshold for when the warning-style will begin. (see chapter about style)

End action

For countdown, countup and end-time type timers, choose what will happen when the timer reaches the End Time.

Overtime– Timer will continue. (+ 00:00:01)

Hold – Timer will freeze when it reaches the end-time. (For countdowns, this value is always 0)

Repeat– Timer will repeat (same as pushing “repeat” button)

Start Next – “Start” command (same as pushing “Start” button)

Stop – “Stop” command (same as pushing “cue next” button)

5. Using CueTimer – Starting and stopping timers

5.1 Colors in the Cue List
Timers in the Cue List can have different colors attached to them depending on what their status is:

Green/cyan color means that the timer is next in line to be started

Red color means that this countdown has started and is the Main Timer.

5.2 Rules for what is the Main Timer
This is the timer that will be displayed in the Output-Windows
The timer in red will always be the Main Timer. If there is no red timer, the green timer will be displayed. If the «Blackout» or «clock» button is enabled, then this will override what is in the Cue List.

5.3 Using the commands
The buttons to the left in the top menu-bar are explained below. They will only affect the Main Timer.

“Start” button (shortcut: spacebar)This starts the next timer. The timer previously in green/cyan will now change color to red.

Single Timer Mode
When turned on, the behavior of the fire-button and command changes: the next timer will stay the same. The next time the “Stop” button is pushed, the current timer will reset and be ready to run again. This mode is great for repeating the same timer many times, or in situations where there is no chronological list of timers that you want to play.
You can verify that Single Timer Mode is on by looking at the Fire Next icon: it will then have a repeat-icon in the middle.

Mac: Single Timer Mode can be toggled on/off from the top menu bar

PC: Single Timer Mode can be toggled on/off rom the Options tab in the commands bar

“Stop” button
Shortcut Mac: command + enter
Shortcut PC: control + enter
When the first presenter/act is done, you can push button “cue next”. This will display the next timer but not start it. Next time you push “Start” this timer will start. The use of “Stop” is optional, you could also just use the start-button to start the next timer without cueing it first.

Holding down SHIFT-key while pushing the “Stop” button will reset and cue the current timer in red without starting it. It is an easy way of repeating the same timer instead of moving forward in the list.
(Shortcut: SHIFT + Command + Enter)

“Up/Down” buttons
Change the assignment of the next timer to play

“Pause” button
Shortcut Mac: Command + p
Shortcut PC: Control + p
This will pause the Main Timer

“Restart” button
Shortcut Mac: Command + r
Shortcut PC: Control + r
This will restart the Main Timer

“Undo” button
Undo operations in the timer-list. Holding down the SHIFT button will change this into a redo-button.

6. Create an automated list of timers

You don’t need to manually start the timers with the start-button: By automating the timer-list, the timers will start without user-interaction. There are two ways to get timers start automatically:

1. Force start timers
Activate Force Start by right-clicking on the start-cell and push the button, or with the shortcut ctrl + F (PC), command + F (Mac). When force-start is activated, the start-time will have red color.

Force-start means that the timer will start automatically when the start-time is reached. By using the Auto-Schedule feature, you can easily create a list of auto-starting timers

2. Set End-Action to Start Next
When the timer ends, the next timer will start automatically. Use this option to chain timers together, without being bound to a specific time of the day.

7. Changing the time of the main timer

We have some commands that will only change the timer that is currently shown in the main output. This can be done with dedicated buttons in the command-bar, or by editing the cue-list.

7.1 Command bar buttons

+ and – buttons
This will add or subtract 1 minute to the Main Timer.

100% field
Changing this number will increase or decrease the speed of the Main Timer by this percentage.

7.2 Changing the main timer from the cue-list

The same commands for changing the main timer are also available from the cue-list. By changing the timer that is currently the main timer, you also change what is displayed in the output-windows.
When a timer has started the main timer gets red background-color. The start-cell will display the exact time the timer was started. Then start + duration = end. By editing any of these cells, the other values will change accordingly. For example, if you add 1 minute to the duration, the end-time will get the same change.
By changing the start-time, duration will remain the same, but end-time will follow. This can be a useful feature if for some reason the timer starts to late, and you want to change as if the timer was started earlier.
The Speed-cell is for the main timer is also linked to the same command in the command-bar.

8. Speed

The idea behind “speed” is that the operator can manipulate the time left without the change being visible to the speaker. In the example above, speed has been changed to 120% for the main timer. This has shortened the total duration and pushed “End Time” forward, but the only change in the visible countdown is that the countdown will go slightly faster. We recommend using this feature with caution, and not to go below 80% or above 120% as going outside these numbers can make the speed-change too obvious in the Output Windows.

9. Messages

It is possible to display short messages in the Output Windows. Push the edit message button to open the message-menu. Use the text-field to write your message. Push “Show” to display it. The button will turn orange. Push this button again to hide message. “Clear” button will clear the text-field.

10. View-buttons

These buttons will override data from the Cue List and take over what is shown in the Output Windows.

“Blackout”
! In the PC version this button is called Hide
This will hide all info except the background key colour. See chapter 12 for more info

“Clock”
Display the clock

11. Editing the Cue List

Our goal with the Cue List has been to create a spreadsheet for timers that you can edit in a flexible way. For faster editing, we recommend using the keyboard as much as possible. All editing-operations can be done with the keyboard, except moving timers which can only be done by dragging with the mouse.

11.1 Selecting timers and cells for edit
When you click on a timer, you both select the whole timer and the specific cell you click on. The whole timer-selection is shown with the blue/cyan color around all the cells, while cell-selection is shown with the black border-colour.

To select multiple timers and cells, mouse-click while holding down the shift-button, or shift-click with the arrows.

11.2 Editing cells

To edit cell-values, double-click with the mouse, or push enter.

The Tab-button will move to the cell below the current. Use this to toggle through the list for faster editing.

11.3 Moving timers
You can move timers with drag & drop. Select timers with the mouse and hold down the button, then move them to a new position and release the button.

11.4 Clearing timers
Instead of deleting timers completely, you can clear the content of the cells. Select the cells you want to clear, then right to access the clear command. Or use shortcut shift + command + enter (Mac), shift + control + enter (PC)

11.5 Link edit and cue selections
By default, the selection for timer-editing and starting timers are separated. This means that you can edit a timer far down in the list without changing the order of which the timers will be started. After enabling the option “Link edit and cue selections”, edit-selections will follow the assignment of the next timer to start. In the video below, the next timer is marked with the grey background-colour of the timers.

The setting for setting for “Link edit and cue selections” can be toggled on/off from the top menu bar (mac), or the option-tab in the command bar (PC)

11.6 Using the edit-buttons

“New“ button
shortcut Mac: command + n
shortcut PC: control + n
Opens the New Timer menu from where you can create new timers

Delete” button
shortcut Mac: command + backspace
shortcut PC: delete button
Delete the currently timer(s). Exception: It is not possible to delete a timer in red.

“Copy” button
shortcut Mac: command + c
shortcut PC: control + c
Copy the selected timer(s)

“Paste” button
shortcut Mac: command + v
shortcut PC: control + v
Paste the timer(s) that have been copied. The timer(s) will paste below the selected cell.

12. Auto schedule

The auto-schedule adds rules for how the timers are linked when they are not in red (not playing)
For individual timers, start + duration equals end-time

The end-time of one timer equals the start-time of the timer below

12.1 Turn on and off the auto-schedule

You can turn on this feature from the Preferences menu, or the button in the top-menu bar (mac) and options-tab in the command bar (PC)
When the auto-schedule is off, the timers are no longer linked, and the end-time is not shown except for end-time timers.

12.2 Creating the auto-schedule

The values for auto-schedule are automatically calculated as you fill in the list. From an empty list, you can plot in the start-times, and the duration and end will follow.

Or, you can type in the duration first, and then populate any of the start or end-time cells:

12.3 Clearing start-times with auto-schedule
An easy way to bypass the auto-schedule is shown in the video above: by clearing one of the start-time cells, all connected start and end-times are cleared. If you regret this decision, you can always push the “undo” button, or populate any of the start or end-cells again.

12.4 Breaking the chain of linked timers
By inserting other timer-types than Countdown and Countup, you can “break the chain” and create a new selection of linked timers. The video shows you can create a new section after inserting a spacer:

12.5 Editing the auto-schedule

Whenever you change something with the connected timers, the rest of the section follows according to the rules of the auto-schedule. For example, if Jane needs to finish 10 minutes earlier, then Junes start and end times will advance with 10 minutes. In the video, notice that the bottom section won’t change because it belongs to a new section after the spacer.

12.6 Starting and stopping timers in the auto-schedule
When a timer is started, the start and end-times are temporarily changed to the actual start and end-time of the running timer. When the timer is stopped, the start and end-times are reverted back to how they are in the auto-schedule.

13 Import and export timer-lists

In CueTimer we have two ways of importing and exporting the timer-lists:

Import Cue List includes all the internal data with list-information, including the state of the main timer. As of now, this option is mostly used for internal debugging.

From v.2.5 we introduce import/export of CSV files. This opens up the possibility of copying importing data from Excel, Google Sheets and other spreadsheet-applications.

The options for import and export of lists can be find in the top menu-bar (mac) or the file-tab in the command-bar (Windows)

13.1 Export list as CSV
Export the current cue list with all columns as a CSV file.

13.2 Import list as CSV
This button will open Import CSV window. From here you can import spreadsheet-data into the CueTimer timer-list.

The different parts of the menu are explained below:

1. Select file
   Open a CSV or TSV file
   
2. Paste
   Paste data from spreadsheet-apps like Excel and Google Chrome
   
3. Import
   Import the finalised spreadsheet-data into the CueTimer cue-list
   
4. Remove current timers
   The old timers will be removed before importing the new list. If not checked, the new timers will appear on the bottom of the list.
   
5. No header row
   Use this option if you are just pasting/importing raw spreadsheet-data without a header-row. When checked, data will be imported from the top row of the list.
   
6. Start from line
   If you have empty rows on the top of your list, you can skip these top rows.
   
7. Autodetect delimiter
   Spreadsheet-data can use different delimiter to separate the columns. When on, CueTimer will try to detect which delimiter is being used on the data you want to import
   
8. Delimiter
   If the auto-detector is off, you can manually select the delimiter from here. Choose from the 4 most common delimiter types
   
9. Custom
   For edge-cases where you import spreadsheet-data with unusual delimiters, you can manually select here.
   
10. Default values
    When you import a spreadsheet, there are usually some CueTimer columns where you don’t import any data. For the Timer Type, Warning and End Action, you can decide what will be the default values if these columns are empty in the imported data.
    
11. Columns
    Here you can shuffle the spreadsheet-columns around to match the corresponding columns in CueTimer. Use drag and drop to place the columns where you want them. By shift-clicking on multiple cells, you can select many cells at once.
    
12. Preview
    See what data you will import into the main timer-list. The preview is updated when you do changes in the menu.

Below is an example of how the import-process can happen:
1. Paste a spreadsheet from Excel
2. Choose the columns you need
3. Import into CueTimer

14. Preferences menu

Here you can customize how CueTimer looks and behaves.

Mac: The Preferences-menu can be accessed from the top menu-bar.
PC: The preferences-menu can be found from the Options tab above the command bar.

The menu is divided into 4 sections:
1. Style
Configure the style and behaviour for the output-windows. This is where the timer will be shown for the audience
2. Timer list
Options for the timer list (cue list)
3. NDI
Options for the NDI outputs
4. Triggers
Options for network-control (Companion/OSC)

14.1 Style
You can customize how the Output Windows appear from the Style settings. This is divided into 6 horizontal tabs. To the left you find the General settings. The options for “display hours” and “display seconds” are useful for making the counter and the clock take less space in the Output Windows.
The settings for Date Options are taken from the general settings of your computer. To customise this further, open the date&clock preferences on the computer.

14.2 Local monitor
Here you can set the size, location and font of the content in the Preview, Fullscreen and NDI windows. They will have identical properties except size and the NDI-output is always 16:9.
New in v.2.3: New options for Clock, Date, Border, Logo, Background Image and Shadow. To show an element, push the ON button.

The Crop & Scale settings will make the content only use part of the screen. This is useful for Picture in Picture settings. The background key color will set color for the area that is outside of the content. For chroma-keying, you would normally set this color to green. This colour also has transparency which translates to an alpha-channel on the NDI-output and transparency for the Fullscreen output.
The Background Key Colour chooses what will be shown when the Blackout/Hide button is on, or if the regular background is made transparent. The same option can be set from the Colour & Animations menu.

14.3 Web display
You get separate options for size and positions for the web-display. The content will react dynamically to changes in the browser-size so that it should look good on any device.
On the bottom you find settings specific to the schedule-page.

14.4 Progress bar
Here you set the style for the progress-bar which is available for the local monitor outputs.

14.5 Images
Choose the images for background and logo. The background-image has some additional options: With Opacity you can blend the image with the background color. The “stretch” option will stretch the image to fit the screen when the aspect-ratio of the image and the output don’t match.

14.6 Colors & Animations

In the Color & Animation menu, you can set the colors and animations for the elements in the Output Windows. We have 4 different submenus:
Normal, Pause/Cue Next, Warning and Overtime.
This lets you set a different color-style depending on the state of the countdown.

Below is an example with the standard template shown the first time you open the CueTimer application, using a countdown with 10 minutes duration:

When paused, or before the timer has started:

10:00 – Text/Numbers are a little greyed out with black background

When the countdown is running in NORMAL, before warning is reached:

09:55 – Text/Numbers are white with black background

When the timer reaches the warning-treshold:

00:40 – The text is white with orange background.

When the timer has run out (Overtime):

00:00 – The text is white with red background.

The Default button forces the style to always follow NORMAL for that element. For example, from the standard template just shown, if the Default button is pushed for the Background, the background will always stay black.

14.7 Layers explained
In CueTimer it is possible to stack different elements on top of each other. For example, the countdown is always on top of the background-color. By using Opacity, it is possible to blend elements of different layers together. For example, if you are using a background-image and give this an opacity of 50%, you can use the background-color as a filter on the image.

Below is an overview of how the elements are sorted in layers, starting from top to bottom. The top layer will always cover the bottom.

TOP
Text & numbers
Progress bar
Border
Logo
Background image
Background color (for the different timer-states)
Bottom layer key color
BOTTOM

14.8 Transparency

When the opacity is set to 0 for the background and key color, the background will be transparent. The output-windws display transparency differently:

FULLSCREEN
The desktop-background will be shown

NDI
Transparency = alpha channel.

WEBPAGE
The page will have no background-color. In most browsers this will result in a white background. If you embed the page into other pages or programs, the background should be transparent.

Tip: If you embed the webpage with transparent background in a video-software like OBS or Vmix, you can blend the countdown directly with the video.

14.9 Bottom layer key color

If you don’t want to show complete transparency, you can use the bottom layer key color instead. These options can be found in 2 places:
– On the bottom of the Colour & Animations menu
– The same colour-picker can be found in the Local Monitor and Webpage tab.
! Note that this is the only part of the color & animations menu which has different options for the Local Monitor and the webpage. For example, this lets you use a chroma key-color for the Fullscreen-output, while using a regular black background for the webpage.

14.10 Timer List options

Set the options for how the Timer List (Cue List) behaves.
We have covered these options elsewhere in this user-guide:
Link edit and cue selections
Single Timer Mode
Auto-Schedule

Note that the Timer list options also can be accessed from the top menu bar (Mac) or the options tab in the command bar (PC).

14.11 Settings for NDI

Here you can set the resolution and framerate for the NDI output. By default the NDI will use the “Public” NDI which means that it is easy to discover this signal for other NDI-devices on the network. With custom groups you can control where you want the NDI- video to be discovered. Then the receiving device has to look for this same group in order to recieve ndi-video sent from CueTimer.
!Note that CueTimer will disregard the settings of the software Access Manager. Access Manager does not control the group-settings of CueTimer. At the moment it is not possible to use CueTimer with NDI Discovery servers on Windows and Linux computers.

! Use the “Apply Changes” button in the bottom right corner to view the changes

14.12 Triggers- Configure OSC-commands sent from CueTimer
The second tab in Preferences-menu sets the OSC-commands sent from CueTimer.
OSC-commands can be sent from CueTimer on 5 events:
– when a new timer is fired
– when the current timer reaches the overtime-treshold
– when the current timer ends
– Cue Next command is performed
– end time of the current counter sent as an OSC-string. The OSC-commands and addresses can be user-defined from the menu

! Use the “Apply Changes” button in the bottom right corner to view the changes

14.13 Export, import and reset settings
On the top of the menu you will find buttons which are explained below

Export

Saves the current settings as a file that can be imported again.

Load

Loads a file of previous settings

Reset

Puts menu back to initial state

15. Trigger CueTimer with OSC commands

You can trigger commands in CueTimer through OSC. This allows you to start and control timers from external devices and software like Qlab, Resolume and Mitti. OSC can be sent over the local LAN-network.

Port and IP-adress
4779 is the port used for incoming OSC. Make sure that this port is not blocked by a firewall. The OSC-message sent to CueTimer must use this port along with the IP-address of the computer using CueTimer. If you want to send OSC from another software on the same machine, then use the Localhost address 127.0.0.

15.1 Global commands
The show-control buttons can be triggered with OSC, except the move up/down.

The OSC-adresses for the global commands are shown below. These commands can have any type or argument, they will still work. For simplicity we still recommend that you use string, float, or integer type commands.

15.2 Individual timer-commands
You can also fire and cue individual timers in the Cue list. To do this you first have to use the ID-field in the CueTimer Cue list to set a unique ID for the timer you want to trigger. Then you will use this same ID in the OSC-path to trigger this timer.

There are two actions you can trigger with individual timers:

Start
The timer will start from the beginning. (If you send the command twice the timer will restart.)

Cue
The timer will be set as the next to fire the next time the fire-button is pushed.
In the example below, if we receive an osc-command to fire the timer with ID 1:

Then:

From the first image, If we instead use the command /timer/cue/1, then: 

Below are the OSC-addresses used for triggering individual timers. Replace {id} with the ID used in the ID-field in CueTimer

!CueTimer will not accept # in the id-field. If the sign # is used as a part of the argument and ID, the OSC-message will simply not work. Also, the OSC-protocol does not allow spaces in the argument-field. So instead of having an ID called “keynote speaker”, you could name it “keynote_speaker”.

16. Control CueTimer with Companion

Companion is an open-source software that lets you control multiple devices through the local network. It is possible to connect a Stream Deck box with buttons for better hands-on operation, or you can use a web-browser. For more info and download-links, please go here: www.bitfocus.io

16.1 Companion compatibility
CueTimer is compatible with the latest v.3 of Companion. V.2 is also supported. If you are using earlier versions of Companion, note that some of the features may be missing.

16.2 Connect Companion and CueTimer
Make sure that CueTimer and the Companion software are on the same LAN-network.
1. Open Companion and CueTimer. (Which order doesn’t matter)
2. Go to Companion settings and add the CueTimer module. The easiest is to use the search-field. If the module can’t be found it means that you need a newer version of Companion.

3. Set the correct IP-adress for CueTimer
If CueTimer is on the same computer as Companion, then you can use the Localhost address 127.0.0.1. If they are on separate machines you will need to find the IP-address of the Mac running CueTimer and plot this into the Target IP.
CueTimer uses port 4778 for communicating with Companion. Always use the default target-port.

4. Check connection
If CueTimer is open and connection between the apps then the status will be OK.

Troubleshooting: If status is not OK, or commands cannot be sent, you can check:
– LAN connection between CueTimer and Companion
– Firewall settings. Port 4778 must not be blocked.

16.3 Add buttons
We have made presets that you can drag and drop to the button layout-page. All commands and feedback are available from here.

You can also import the commands and customize through the regular button-menu

16.4 Use the commands

When everything is set up you can view the counter and execute all of the commands from the button-bar in CueTimer using the Companion web-emulator or a Stream Deck device.

When everything is set up you can view the counter and execute all of the commands from the button-bar in CueTimer using the Companion web-emulator or a Stream Deck device.

We also included buttons for activating outputs and select Single Timer Mode. From the Preset-menu these buttons will lit yellow when they are on:

Some new commands are only available through Companion:

Move up and down
This will move the assignment of the next(green) timer.

Trigger individual timers

The “Fire” and “Cue” presets will let you trigger individual timers to start or set as next. This works very similar to OSC-triggering mentioned earlier in this chapter.

From the Companion menu, set the ID of the timer that you want to trigger. Then this must correspond to a timer in CueTimer with identical ID.

After pushing this button in Companion, the timer with ID “1” will start.

Feedback on ID-buttons
When using the presets the buttons will have background-color depending on the status of the timer, and name of the timer on top. So, when the timer is running it will look like this:

From the button-menu you can also change so that you see the duration of the timer instead of the name. Then the button will look like this:

16.5 Feedback for main timer buttons
Along with the commands you can also have buttons that only shows the status of CueTimer. These can be chosen from the feedback-page in the presets or selected manually from the button-menu. The top row in the feedback presets shows info for the timer that is currently displayed in the counter-windows.

The counter and name will use the same text and background-color as the main counter-window. (Except name-color follows counter-color). These colors can be set using the Preferences menu in CueTimer
We also have feedback for what is the the next/green timer.

17. Licences & User Account

To use CueTimer without restrictions, you need a licence. Licences can be bought from our Store page.

17.1 Activating the licence on a new computer
After you buy a licence, this will be e-mailed to you. When you open CueTimer, you will first see this menu:

! This process requires Internet-connection, and your computer must be able to contact our server which is placed on the domain www.presentationtools.com. Make sure that no firewall on your computer prevents the CueTimer application from contacting our server.

17.2 Using the licence
The licence can only be activated on one computer at a time. The licence-key is stored in the user-data on your computer. This means that if you change the user, you will have to repeat the activation-process, or use another licence.
After you have activated the licence to your computer, you can use CueTimer also while not connected to the Internet.

17.3 User-account on PresentationTools.com
If you have a yearly subscription for your licence, you can monitor and release your CueTimer licences from our webpage. To do this you need a user-account using the same email-address registered to your licences. Accounts can be created from this page. You must verify your Email-address to complete the process. After the user has been created, you can go to the Dashboard-page and manage your licences from there.
To access your licences, push the “Keys” button for your subscription.

17.4 Switching the licence to a new computer
From the image above you can see that the CueTimer licence is “In Use”. This means that this licence is now activated on a computer. To use the same licence on a different computer, you first need to deactivate the licence from your current computer. You can do this by pushing the Release button. The licence will now be free to use on a different computer. The old computer with the licence does not need to be online for this process to work.
The second way to release the licence is directly from the user-interface in the application. From the top menu-bar, go to Activation, then push the Release button. This process requires Internet connection.

! Note that uninstalling the application itself does not de-activate the licence, since this process does not involve our web-server. It is possible to have a licence registered to the computer also when CueTimer is not installed on the machine.

To activate the licence on a new machine, repeat the steps from 15.1

17.5 Computer tag

18. Other resources

On our youtube-page you will find video-tutorials on using CueTimer.
We will also reply to mails as fast as we can. Our email address is info@presentationtool.com
To start using CueTimer, go to this page, download the software, and have fun!