Power it on. Point a browser at it. Doors.
Professional timer appliances for live events — built like broadcast gear, made by crew who actually run the show.
The show timer gets its own box, and your laptop's ports get to do their actual job.
The heart of the system. Runs the show clock, serves timer views to every browser in the building, and drives two displays straight from its own HDMI outputs.
A small box that turns any screen into a show display. Point it at your Downstage One, pick a view, mount it behind the TV, and forget it exists.
No app to install, no account to make, no cloud to depend on. Everything runs in the room, on your network — or on no network at all.
Plug into the venue network — or don't. With no network around, the unit broadcasts its own WiFi and the front panel shows you where to connect.
The front panel shows the unit's address — like
downstage-0001.local:8080. Open it from anything with a screen.
Build your rundown, route your displays, set your views.
Confidence monitor at the podium, clock backstage, schedule in the lobby. Add five minutes of delay and every screen in the building updates at once.
Everything here exists because something went wrong at a real gig once.
If the timer server ever drops, displays switch to a clean holding screen — and restore themselves when it returns. The audience never sees an error page.
No venue WiFi? Each unit broadcasts its own network with per-unit credentials printed on the quick-start card.
One button checks for and installs Downstage OS updates — with an automatic rollback if anything goes wrong. A bad update can't brick a unit.
Start, pause, next, add time, send messages — from hardware buttons via Bitfocus Companion.
Every output to black, one press, from any phone on the network. Resume just as fast.
Clock battery keeps time through power cuts. Timers, views, and control all run locally. The internet is optional equipment.
When Downstage OS ships, you'll be able to buy just the image. Supply your own Raspberry Pi, flash it, and run the exact same software the finished units run — no subscription, no phone-home, yours to keep.
A short, tested parts list — nothing exotic, all off the shelf:
The full Downstage OS golden image — the same one on every finished unit:
A build-your-own unit is yours to run and yours to maintain:
Not available yet — it ships alongside the first public Downstage OS release. Tell us you're interested and we'll let you know.
Downstage appliances are built on Ontime, free open-source software (GPL v3) — source code here. Stream Deck support is powered by Bitfocus Companion. Our own operating system, Downstage OS, is public too — see it on GitHub. We publish our manuals before you buy, and we credit the foundations we build on.