openrcs
Modern control for Analog Way switchers
What it does
openrcs is a modern control surface for Analog Way Midra and LiveCore series video processors, replacing control software that depends on runtimes today's browsers no longer support.
At its centre is the Workspace: a single working page with the source palette (inputs and stills) on the left, every active screen editable side by side in the middle, and the device's memories along the bottom. Show program, preview or both at once, arrange layers with drag/resize or one-click presets, and take — with the previews growing to fill the window so nothing is a scroll away.
A small bridge server holds one connection to the processor and serves a web UI to any number of browsers: recall and store screen and master memories, arrange layers on a graphical canvas, run preview-to-program takes, and reach every device parameter through an inspector.
For operators who never want to touch a command line, a menu-bar tray launcher (macOS, Windows and Linux) bundles the server: enter the switcher's IP, pick the model, click Start, and Open the control surface — nothing else to install.
There is also a browser demo of the control surface. It is the real UI, unmodified, running against a device that exists only in the page — seeded from a recording of a real LiveCore session, so the variable table and the state it starts in are genuine. It cannot reach hardware and does not pretend to: a browser has no raw TCP socket, so the demo replaces the transport and keeps the app. Takes and memory save and recall are modelled; everything else echoes, and the footer says exactly what it cannot show.
- Workspace working page — sources, every screen editable side by side, and memories on one window-filling page
- No-CLI tray launcher (macOS, Windows, Linux) — enter the switcher's IP and go
- Show program, preview or both at once; per-screen visibility and one-click layout presets (Fill / 2-up / Quad / PiP)
- Inputs and Stills tabs — place a frame-store still just like a live input (LiveCore)
- Graphical layer editor — drag and resize sources on the screen
- Master and screen memory grids — recall, load-and-take and save
- Preview-to-program take with a transition time
- Destinations — take, cut and T-bar whole screen groups as one destination
- Wall — place each screen at its real output position; a big-target Show mode for front-of-house
- Shows — capture the device's whole state to a portable file and restore it; instant Confidence undo
- Plan mode — build a look offline with no device attached, then push it on connect
- Cues that chain — per-cue autofollow with a hold, plus one-tap macro Keys
- Multiviewer / confidence-output and soft-edge designers, EDID writer, input/output/screen/stills setup
- Inspector over every device variable, plus a raw-protocol console
- A Bitfocus Companion module drives the same protocol from a control surface
- Dependency-light: a Rust bridge server and a no-build web UI
Where it stands
Validated against real hardware — a NeXtage 16 (LiveCore) and a Pulse2 (Midra). Latest server release: v0.4.0 (prebuilt for macOS, Linux and Windows), plus a tray launcher for a no-command-line install and a Companion module for control surfaces.
Help wanted
Help test it on real hardware
openrcs is built against device behaviour and a simulator; the most useful thing right now is time on real switchers.
The protocol reference the framing and every variable, documented
Watch it running
Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play.Watch it there instead