Showbook user guide

Showbook is a desktop show file library for video switchers. It keeps every show for your Barco Event Master (E2, S3-4K, EX, Encore3) and Analog Way LivePremier (Aquilon) — and reads Midra 4K and Alta 4K — with a version history; it draws the patch, the screens, the layers and the presets; it writes PDF documentation, test patterns, multiviewer layouts and Bitfocus Companion pages; it converts a show between platforms with a report of what carried, what was adapted and what was dropped; and it pulls from and pushes to the live hardware.

Before you rely on this: every driver was built against the vendors’ own simulators — Barco’s Event Master Toolset simulator (E2 9.2, Encore3 10.0) and Analog Way’s LivePremier, Midra 4K and Alta 4K simulators — and their published protocol guides. The parsers, the library, the history, the conversion, the PDF and the Companion export are covered by tests on captures from those simulators, and the desktop app has pulled a show from the LivePremier simulator and written the PDF for it.

But nothing here has been run against a physical switcher, the Barco simulators do not serve the JSON-RPC API so the Event Master live path has never answered a request, no Event Master preset or cue file has ever been seen (the simulators never had one saved), and an .awc has been uploaded to a simulator but never applied — that step reboots the device. See What has been checked before trusting a pull, a push or a preset read from a backup. Status: in development.

This codebase was created with AI assistance, directed and reviewed by a human author.

What a show is

Showbook keeps one brand-neutral model and reads each vendor’s own file into it. A show has:

• a platform and a model — which family of switcher it belongs to (Event Master, LivePremier, Midra 4K, Alta 4K, LiveCore, PDS-4K, PixelHue, or generic) and which frame;
• the system: firmware, device name, native rate, genlock, and the chassis — every frame, slot, card and connector;
• inputs and outputs, each on a connector with a format; sources built on inputs, stills, multiviewers or auxes, with an area of interest;
• screens (and auxiliary screens): a canvas size, the outputs tiled onto it, the layers it has and their capacity, and the transition;
• presets — for each screen they target, the background and every layer’s source, rectangle, crop, opacity and border — and master presets that recall one preset per screen;
• cues, multiviewers with their layouts and windows, and stills;
• the vendor files the show came from (an Event Master backup archive, a LivePremier .awc), kept opaque and byte-exact; and notes — everything the importer could not place, so nothing is silently dropped.

Each vendor’s spelling is kept where it matters: an Event Master preset is pre:<id> in the frame’s own numbering, an Aquilon memory is pre:<slot>, layers are layer:<n>, and a LivePremier screen remembers which preset letter was on program when it was captured.

The library

A library is a folder of plain files:

shows/<id>/show.json                   the current version of each show
shows/<id>/history/index.json          its version list
shows/<id>/history/<sha256>.json.gz    every saved version, content-addressed
vendor/<sha256><ext>                   the vendor files, once each

Nothing is a database and nothing is hidden. Copy the folder and you have copied the library.

Settings → Library → Folder chooses it. The default is Showbook in your Documents folder. Put it inside a folder that Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive’s desktop client carries and the whole library follows you between machines — or use the Sync page to mirror it over the drives’ own APIs.

Settings → Your name is recorded on every version you save.

Settings themselves live in settings.json in the app’s configuration folder — on macOS ~/Library/Application Support/com.allansargeant.showbook, on Windows %APPDATA%\com.allansargeant.showbook, on Linux ~/.config/com.allansargeant.showbook. The path is shown under Settings → About.

Getting a show in

Import a file

Library → Import file… takes:

An Event Master archive is unpacked and settings.xml is read with everything beside it — presets/, cues/, userkey/, hwconfig.xml on an Encore3 — and the archive itself is kept as a vendor file. An .awc is read for its manifest (the device, its modules, the firmware) and kept whole; its payload is encrypted and Showbook does not look inside it. The show’s configuration comes from the device store, not from the .awc — pull it from the device, or import a saved store.

Import a folder

Library → Import folder… takes the frame’s xml/ folder (the one holding settings.xml) or any folder that holds it, such as an unpacked backup.

Pull from a device

See Devices. A pull creates a new show, or updates an existing one and records a version.

Start from nothing

Library → New show asks for a name, a platform and a model, and opens an empty show. Add inputs, outputs, screens and layers on the Patch and Screens tabs; the chassis fills in when the show is first pulled from a device or converted from one that has one.

The show window

The title is editable. Beside it: the platform, the model and the firmware. On the right:

• a commit message and Save version. Every save is a version — see History. The button reads Saved when nothing has changed. Enter in the message field saves too.
• Duplicate copies the show, with a new name, into a new entry with no history.
• Delete removes the show and its whole history from the library. It asks first, and there is no undo.
• Close returns to the library and drops unsaved edits — save a version first. The sidebar shows a dot beside the show while it has unsaved edits.

The tabs:

Overview

System — platform, model (a list of the models Showbook knows for that platform), firmware, device name, native rate, genlock; tags; free-text show notes.

At a glance — the counts: inputs, outputs, screens, aux, presets, masters, cues, multiviewers, stills, mixer layers.

Chassis — every frame, slot and card, and every connector with what is on it: the input or output it carries, its label, its format, and which screen or multiviewer it feeds. Empty connectors are drawn empty. The PDF prints the same facts as a table per frame.

Patch

Three tables — Inputs, Outputs, Sources — with the label, the connector, the format and, for outputs, the role (screen, aux, multiviewer, test) and what the output feeds. Labels and formats are editable; type a format as 1920x1080p60 (or 1920x1080i50, 3840x2160p59.94). A source shows what it is built on (an input, a still, a multiviewer) and its area of interest.

Screens

The list on the left holds every screen and aux. For the selected one: label, canvas width and height, kind, transition time; the outputs on this screen with each output’s rectangle on the canvas; the layers the screen has, with their kind (mixer, background, DSK) and capacity (SL, DL, 4K). Add and remove screens, outputs and layers here.

The canvas on the right draws the screen to scale with its outputs and, on top, the layers of one state:

• Program as captured (and, on a LivePremier, Preview as captured, with the preset letter that was at that end of the T-bar) — what the device was showing when the show was pulled or imported. Read-only.
• any preset that targets this screen — editable. Drag a layer to move it, drag the corner handle to resize it. The table under the canvas has the same rectangles as numbers, plus source, visibility, opacity and border, and the background.

A screen that has no captured state and is targeted by no preset draws nothing; pick a preset on the Presets tab and add the screen to it.

Presets

Presets lists every preset (Event Master) or screen memory (Analog Way) with the screens it targets. For the selected one: number, label, notes, and the targets — one block per screen, each with its background and its layers. Add a screen to a preset, remove one, or edit the layers here or on the Screens canvas.

Master presets are recalled as a set: one preset per screen. On an Event Master a preset that targets several destinations is shown as one preset; on a LivePremier a master memory is one of these.

Recall on a device. When a device of the show’s platform is known (see Devices), the selected preset can be recalled on it: Recall on recalls it on every screen it targets, Recall → on one; to program puts it straight on air instead of into preview; TAKE transitions every screen. A master preset has its own Recall. Each of these writes to a live device and says so in the toast.

Multiviewers

Every multiviewer output, with its layouts. For the selected multiviewer: label and output. For each layout: label, size, and the windows. Make grid fills a layout with an even grid of windows; Set active marks the layout the device should show. Click a window on the canvas to edit its source and UMD label; drag to move it, the corner handle to resize.

Cues

An Event Master keeps cues on the frame and they come in with the backup. A LivePremier has no cue list — its sequencing lives in Companion or a timeline tool. A cue is a list of steps: Recall preset, Recall master, Take, Wait, Other, each with a delay in milliseconds and, where it applies, the preset or master it recalls. Cues are documented in the PDF and exported to Companion; they are not played from Showbook.

Documents & export

PDF documentation — cover; the chassis and the patch tables; one page per screen with its outputs and its captured layers; every preset drawn to scale; multiviewer layouts; cues; a glossary of what the settings mean; the notes the importer left; and the version history. Tick what to include, name who it is prepared for, Save PDF…. Unsaved edits are included; the history table shows saved versions only.

Test patterns — one PNG per output at the output’s own raster, labelled with the output, its connector, the screen it belongs to and its position on the canvas, with arrows pointing at its neighbours; and one PNG per screen showing the whole canvas with every output’s region. Three patterns: Alignment (grid, centre, safe areas), Grid, and 75% bars over grid. Render PNGs to a folder… and play them from a media server or a laptop to prove the patch before content arrives.

Companion page — see Companion.

Showbook JSON — the show as one file, for another Showbook or for a script.

Vendor files

The files the show came from, byte-exact: an Event Master backup archive, a LivePremier .awc, a saved device store. Each is listed with its kind, size, hash and when it was captured, and can be exported. Restoring an Event Master backup onto a frame is done from the Event Master Toolset (Configuration → Restore) with the archive exported from here.

History

Every version, newest first, with its message, author, time and a summary. Select one to see what changed against the version before it — added, removed and changed entries, keyed by what they are. Restore makes any version the current one; the restore is itself a new version, so nothing is lost.

Devices

Devices holds the switchers Showbook can talk to. Add one with a name, its platform and its address:

• Event Master — the frame’s IP. The JSON-RPC API is on port 9999.
• LivePremier, Midra 4K, Alta 4K — the Web RCS host, with a port if it is not 80 (the simulators use 3000, 3010 and 3021). AWJ is assumed on port 10606 of the same host.

Probe asks the device who it is and shows the answer.

Pull the show from the device reads the running configuration into a new show, or into an existing show of the same platform as a new version.

• keep the vendor file also downloads the .awc (LivePremier) or the backup archive (Encore3) and keeps it with the show.
• deep capture memory layers (Analog Way) recalls every memory into the preview of every screen in turn to read its layers, because the device store carries a memory’s name and not its content. This writes to the device’s preview buffers. It asks before it starts; do not run it during a show.

Push a show to the device — LivePremier, Midra 4K and Alta 4K only:

• labels writes the screen, input, output and memory labels over AWJ.
• restore the .awc uploads the show’s .awc, has the device extract it, and applies it. The device reboots. The push asks before it starts, and the log under the button shows each step.

An Event Master has no API for writing configuration. Recall presets and cues from the Presets tab; restore a backup archive from the Event Master Toolset.

Convert

Convert makes a show for a different switcher. Pick the source show, the target platform and the model. Preview the report shows what would happen without writing anything; Convert and save creates the converted show in the library, with the report kept in its notes; Open the converted show takes you to it.

The panel on the right shows what the target model holds — screens, auxes, inputs, outputs, layers in 4K-equivalents, multiviewers — and what the show needs. The report has three levels:

• carried — came across as it was;
• adapted — came across in the nearest form the target has: an Event Master preset that targets three destinations becomes three screen memories and a master memory on a LivePremier, and three memories with a master become one multi-destination preset going the other way; layer capacities are re-costed (a 4K layer is two DL or four SL); ids are re-spelled in the target’s own numbering; test patterns are reset because the pattern names differ;
• dropped — has no home on the target: screens beyond the model’s count, layers beyond its capacity, multiviewers it does not have, the source vendor file.

The chassis, cards and connectors are the target model’s. Inputs and outputs keep their labels and formats and need patching to the target’s connectors on the Patch tab.

Sync

Sync mirrors the library with somewhere else. It is a two-way mirror that never deletes: a file that is newer on one side is copied to the other, and a file missing on one side is copied there.

• A folder — any folder: the Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive desktop client’s folder, a NAS, a USB stick. No account needed.
• Dropbox / Google Drive / OneDrive (API) — over the drive’s own API, for a machine without the desktop client. Each needs an app registration of your own — a Dropbox App Console app, a Google Cloud OAuth client of type Desktop, or a Microsoft Entra app with a public client and the loopback redirect — whose client id (and, for Google, client secret) go in the fields. Connect opens the provider’s sign-in page in your browser and waits for it to return to http://127.0.0.1:<port>/callback. Tokens are kept in the settings file; Refresh token renews them when the provider’s expire.

Sync both ways, Push only and Pull only run it, and the toast reports what moved.

Companion

Documents & export → Companion page writes a Bitfocus Companion page: a TAKE per screen and one button per preset (and master memory on Analog Way, cue on Event Master), wired to the barco-eventmaster or analogway-awj module. Fill in the connection label and the device address the module will use, tick what to include, and Export page….

In Companion: Import / Export → Import, choose the file, pick the page to put it on. Companion offers to create the connection the page names or to map it onto one you already have; set its address on the Connections page if you did not fill it in here.

Read a page back… reads a page exported from Companion and checks which of its buttons still match this show — a preset that was renumbered, a cue that no longer exists — so a page built for last year’s show can be checked against this year’s.

What has been checked

Running it from source

npm install
npm run app          # tauri dev
npm run app:build    # release bundle for this platform

npm run dev alone serves the front end to a browser tab with two simulator captures in memory — every screen works, but files and devices need the desktop app.