Output screen behavior

Output screens are designed to stay open and stay in sync without anyone babysitting them. Here's what the connection model looks like and what to do if something goes wrong.

Connection indicator

The header of every output screen shows a connection indicator:

• Green dot + "Online" — socket connection is active, the screen is receiving live updates.
• Amber pulsing dot + "Reconnecting" — the socket dropped and is trying to re-establish. The screen shows the last known state while it reconnects.

Auto-reconnect

Socket.IO handles reconnection automatically using exponential backoff. If the connection drops — briefly or for several seconds — the library retries on its own. You don't need to refresh, and you don't need to tell anyone to refresh.

When the socket reconnects, the screen re-syncs:

• Current cue, timer, and session state come back via a session_state event
• Solo assignments re-fetch for the active and next cue
• Team notes re-sync on reconnect
• Q&A state re-fetches immediately

The result: a brief flicker of "Reconnecting" in the header, then everything is current again.

What recovers automatically

• Brief Wi-Fi flickers and dropped packets
• Backstage router restarts (as long as the device keeps its IP)
• The director switching shows, jumping cues, or starting/stopping sessions
• Network handoffs between Wi-Fi access points

What may need a manual refresh

• A device that went to sleep for an extended period (30+ minutes) and the OS terminated the background socket connection
• A browser tab that was backgrounded for hours and the browser suspended it to save memory
• Any case where the amber "Reconnecting" indicator has been showing for more than a minute with no recovery

Network requirements

What this means in practice: your backstage devices and the projection computer don't need to be on your venue's internal network. The only requirement is internet access.

The clock

The wall clock in the output screen header shows browser local time — whatever timezone the device is configured to. This is intentional: a screen in one timezone shows local time for whoever is watching it.

If you're running a distributed or remote event and have screens in multiple timezones, each screen shows its own local time. Keep that in mind if you're coordinating across locations.

Best practices for show day

Set up your output screens before the first rehearsal:

1. Open each URL on the device that uses it
2. Confirm the connection indicator shows green "Online"
3. Bookmark the tab — if the device restarts, you're one click away
4. Put the browser in full-screen mode for projection screens (F11 on most browsers)

During the show, leave the tabs open and in the foreground. Backgrounded or minimized tabs are more likely to be throttled by the browser, which can delay reconnection after a network hiccup.