Stagehand Help

Getting started

Install the beta

Stagehand is in beta on Apple TestFlight. Join the beta, then press Accept and Install. Use the same link on each device you want it on.

Choose where your shows live (Mac)

The first time you open Stagehand on a Mac, it asks "Where should Stagehand keep your shows?"

• Use This Mac makes a Stagehand Library folder in your Documents folder.
• Choose Folder… puts the Library on a drive or another folder. Choose an existing Library to open it.

Each show (a production) is saved in the Library as one .stagehand file. Stagehand saves by itself. It keeps a copy of each save inside that file (the newest 200), but there is no page to open an old copy yet. To take back a change on the Mac, press ⌘Z. If you need an old copy, email Dan.

Open an example

The examples are the fastest way to learn. Each one is a complete show, saved with your own shows. Look around, change things, then throw it away.

• Mac: in the sidebar under Productions, click All productions (it says New production… when you have none). Then click Examples and choose one. If a production is open, click Back to all at the top of the sidebar first. The Help menu has the examples too.
• iPad and iPhone: on the home screen, tap Open an Example and choose one.

Getting around

• Everything is in the sidebar on the left. To change its order, use View › Customize Sidebar…
• An open production takes the top of the sidebar. The other headings fold: click one to open it. Click Back to all to close the production.
• To see the welcome screen again, use Help › Welcome to Stagehand.
• Press ⌘Z to undo a change, and ⇧⌘Z to redo.

Find Anything (⌘K)

Press ⌘K, or click Find in a production. Type a few words to jump to:

• a page, production, stage, show day or act (Jobs and Logs are not in Find: use the sidebar)
• a patch line (type ch 12 to find channel 12, or type its mic), an output, an IEM or a backline item
• an action: Add Act, Add DJ, the PDF exports and the examples

Every word you type must be in the result, so fewer words find more. Acts and patch lines come from the open production.

Settings

On the Mac, open Stagehand › Settings (⌘,).

• General: the look (Dark, Light or Match macOS), the typing cursor colour, and Spacing. Compact fits more on each screen. Printed sheets and Stage View stay the same.
• Library: change or show your Library, and choose what Stagehand offers when you plug in a USB stick or a drive.
• Productions: three cards.
  • Productions: how things look for you, for example box colours on the patch. These do not change the files you share.
  • Starting points: what a new stage and a new act on an event start as. You can still change them on the show.
  • Your lists: your own backline, mics and DIs, consoles and racks, contact roles, wireless systems and stand types, added to Stagehand's lists. Also the wording of the advance email. They stay on this Mac.
• Labels & Printing: your label printer and label style.
• USB Check: how serious each finding is on each desk.
• Documents & AI: your house style for PDFs (logo, paper, colour), and how documents are read.
• iPhone & iPad: pairing and sync. See iPad and iPhone.
• Advanced: where Stagehand finds its engine. Leave these empty.

On iPad and iPhone, the settings (look, spacing, ruler size, opening animation) are in the iOS Settings app, under Stagehand.

Help inside the app

• On the Mac, Help › Stagehand Help (⌘?) opens this guide in its own window. It works with no internet.
• Every page has a small ? button at the top right. It opens the guide at the part for that page.
• Hold the mouse still on a button or a column heading for about a second. A short note says what it does and where its values come from.
• On iPad and iPhone, the home screen has a Help card. Inside a show, iPad has Help at the foot of the left column and iPhone has a ? in the top bar. Both open this guide at the part for the page you are on.

Productions: shows, tours and festivals

A production is one show, one tour or one festival. It holds each act's patch, stage boxes, outputs and plot, and the schedule for every show day.

• Show: a one-off show at one venue. It has no stages.
• Tour: one band, many nights. Each city can change the band's patch just for that night.
• Festival: it has stages, and many acts on each stage.

Make a new one

• Mac: in the sidebar under Productions, click All productions (it says New production… if you have none yet). If a production is open, click Back to all first. Click New Show, choose One-off show, Tour or Festival, type a name, and click Create.
• iPad: tap New Show on the home screen, choose Show, Tour or Festival, type a name, and tap Create.
• iPhone: you cannot make a new production on the iPhone. Make it on the Mac, then tap Get from a Mac. Or tap Open from Files to open a production file.

Only the name is needed. The sheet also asks for the days, the consoles or stages, and the line up. Fill These Days (Fill these days on the iPad) adds a run of dates. Turn on Add later for Technical or Line up if you do not know them yet. The line at the bottom says what Create will make.

To rename a production on the Mac, open it and type over its name at the top of the page. On the Productions page, each card shows how many things are still to advance, such as missing riders, contacts and set times. Each act's Info page lists them.

Bring in your spreadsheets

Click Import Spreadsheets and choose one or more .xlsx files. Stagehand knows these layouts:

• a single-artist patch sheet with tabs such as INFORMATION, INPUT PATCH, STAGE BOXES, FOH OUTPUTS and MON OUTPUTS
• a schedule sheet with Inputs and Running Order tabs
• a festival patch sheet with a Festival Input Patch tab

Other layouts are refused with a message. A patch sheet or a schedule sheet comes in as a tour. A festival patch sheet comes in as a festival, with its stages, house patch, acts and running orders.

Revisions

A new production says Rev 0 · Draft. When you send paperwork out, issue a revision on the iPad or iPhone: tap Issue Revision… and add a short note about what changed. On the iPad it is at the bottom of the left column. On the iPhone it is at the top of the production's first screen. Then sync, so the Mac has the same revision. Every sheet Stagehand makes as a PDF then shows the revision at the bottom of the page, for example Rev 5 · K7Q. The three-character code is different for each issue, so two copies of "Rev 5" can be told apart on paper.

If you change something after you issue a revision, the iPad and iPhone show "+ changes since this issue", and PDFs print Rev 5 · K7Q + changes. Tap the revision label to see the history.

Stagehand also checks your revision against the Mac. "Old copy" means the Mac has a newer revision: sync now. "Two Rev 5s" means two people issued the same number: sync, then issue a new revision.

Delete a production

On the Mac, point at its card on the Productions page and click the × in the top-right corner (or right-click and choose Move to Trash…). Stagehand asks first. It goes to the Finder's Trash with its riders and saved versions: to get it back, open the Trash and choose Put Back, until the Trash is emptied.

On iPad and iPhone, touch and hold a production under Opened from Files and tap Forget to take it off the list. The file itself is not deleted. Productions under On this iPad or On this iPhone cannot be deleted in Stagehand yet.

Acts

An act is a band or a DJ. Each act has its own pages:

DJ Setup · Patch · Stage Boxes · Stage Plot · Outputs · IEMs · RF · Backline · Info

DJ Setup is for DJs. iPad and iPhone list it only for a DJ. On the Mac it can show under a band too.

On a festival, the Mac tags the pages of each act that is on a stage HOUSE or TOURING: on the festival's console and racks, or its own. Set it under The rig on the Info page.

Add an act

• Mac: click Add act in the sidebar. To put it straight on a stage, open the stage's Overview and click Add Act.
• Mac, a DJ: click Add DJ in the sidebar, under Add act. It opens on the DJ Setup page.
• iPad: tap Add Act in the left column.
• iPad, a DJ: tap Add Act, then turn on This act is a DJ on its Info page.

Rename, copy or remove

Right-click an act in the sidebar for Rename…, Duplicate, On the Bill and Remove…. Removing an act also removes its patch, outputs, plot, IEMs, RF and backline, and clears its place in the running order.

Tour nights

On a tour, each city is listed in the sidebar. A city's pages start as the band's standard setup. To change it only for that night, right-click a patch line and choose Change Just for… or Drop for…. Reset … to the Band's undoes a change. Put Back for… undoes a drop. Add for… above the patch adds a line only that night has.

Right-click a city to copy its changes to another night or to clear them.

iPad and iPhone: the night picker shows Band standard or one night. A night is view only. Change it on the Mac.

Patch (input list)

The patch is the act's input list. Each line is one channel.

Useful buttons (Mac)

• Add Input and Remove.
• Renumber numbers the channels 1, 2, 3… in the order they are listed.
• Boxes from Colours puts each channel in the stage box that matches its colour dot.
• From the Boxes lays out the patch from the act's stage boxes.
• Suggest… gives a starting input list. Check it with the band.
• Place on Split puts the act on the festival split.

On the Mac, tick several lines to change their box, mic, stand, colour or 48V in one go. Shift-click ticks a run of lines. Drag lines to reorder them.

On the Mac, a line tagged GUESSED was worked out by Stagehand, not read from the rider. Click the tag to accept it.

On iPad and iPhone you change one line at a time. On iPad, change Ch and Box from Stage Plot: tap the input, then Edit Input.

Stage boxes

Each stage box has a colour, a letter, a number of inputs and returns. Stagehand draws it to scale and shows which inputs are used.

• On the Mac, the page opens on All boxes: every box on one page, with what is on each input. Click a box to open it.
• Use + under the box list to add a box. You add boxes on the Mac. On iPad and iPhone you can change a box and print its label, but you cannot add one.
• Pick a Box type, or choose Custom to set the inputs and rows. You can set the returns on any box.
• If you change a box's colour, the patch follows. For example, R1 becomes Y1.
• Save This Box as a Type… keeps your own box for next time.
• On the Mac, right-click a box for Colour, Returns, Duplicate and Remove. Shift-click to tick several boxes and change them together. The palette button under the list has Recolour All Boxes…: every box takes the next colour in your order, and the patch follows.

Where it lands

Tell Stagehand how the box reaches the consoles: Split to two racks (FOH and MON each have a rack), Shared rack, or turn on FOH mixes monitors too for one console. Console show files use this.

For a Shared rack, Preamp gain says which console sets the gain. The other console uses trim.

Labels

The Label (Brother P-touch) card prints a label that lines up with the XLRs on the box. See Printing and labels.

Outputs, IEMs, backline and counts

Outputs

The FOH outputs and MON outputs are separate lists: wedges, IEMs, fills, subs, mains, records and more.

• Mac: Quick Add adds common sets. On the MON list it also offers the stage's own wedges, if the stage has them set up.
• Mac: From the Rig makes one numbered row for each output socket on your console and racks, ready to name. It needs a console on the Info page, or a rack on Stage Boxes.
• Mac: Add Break adds a heading row, for example WEDGES. Lands on and Socket are the console or rack output a line uses. Box is the stage box return it comes out of, for example Y3. A warning shows if a return is used twice or does not exist.
• iPad: tap Add and type in the row. To remove a line, use the Mac or iPhone.
• iPhone: tap Add an output. Touch and hold a line for Edit or Remove.

IEMs

One line per pack: name on the pack, mix, who wears it, system, band and frequency.

• Mac: Add from MON Outputs makes packs from your IEM mixes. Right-click a pack to add a spare.
• Mac: point at a column heading to see what it is and where its values come from. You do not type the Frequency: it comes from the pack's transmitter on the RF page. Who wears it offers the names from the Info page and the stage plot.
• Mac: if the mix does not exist yet, give the pack a name or a wearer, then open its Mix menu and choose Make a Mix for ….
• iPad: tap Add Pack and type in the row. To remove a pack or make a spare, use the Mac or iPhone.
• iPhone: tap Add a pack. Touch and hold a pack for Edit or Remove. To make a spare, edit the pack and turn on A spare.

The Labels panel prints pack labels on the Mac and iPad.

Backline

List what each act needs, who brings it (Artist, Hire, House or Shared) and its status.

• Mac: Hire List collects everything to hire. Request… makes an email draft for your supplier. You check it and send it yourself.
• iPad: tap Add Item and type in the row. To remove an item, use the Mac.
• iPhone: the backline list is view only.

Counts

The Counts page is one sheet for the whole show. Mics, DIs, stands, clips, wireless, packages and batteries are sections inside the same table, each with its own total.

• Take is the number that matters: what you put on the truck. It is the patch plus the spares, and it runs straight down the page.
• From the patch is counted from every act's patch. At a festival it is the most needed at once, worked out from the running order.
• Spares are set for everything at the top, or for one item: click that row's spares and type a number.
• Gear the artist brings stays in its section with an ARTIST tag, and has no Take.
• A column for each act, and Coming, Total and House, show up only when they say something the Take column does not.
• The tabs at the top cut the sheet down: Mics & DIs, Stands & Clips, Wireless & Packages, Cables & Power and What's Coming.
• PDF… saves the list. Mic List per Act shows which mic each act gets, line by line, with any swaps.
• Send to the hire list puts what you supply on the Backline hire list.

On iPad and iPhone, Counts shows the totals for mics and DIs, stands and clips, and wireless and IEM. It shows what the artists bring and what is short. You can set Spares there too. Cables, the list of what is coming and the PDF are on the Mac.

Stage plot

The plot is drawn on a 1 m grid, with the audience at the bottom. To set the stage size, click the empty stage and type the width and depth under Stage on the right. At a festival, the size in the stage's Overview sets it for every act on that stage.

• Click an item in Add (musicians, mics, amps, wedges, DJ setup…) or Risers to put it on the stage. Then drag it into place.
• Drag to move. Drag the round handle to turn. Hold Option to turn by single degrees. To select several items, Shift-click them or drag a box on the empty stage.
• Add from Patch puts the act's mics and DIs on the plot.
• Layers (Mac and iPad) turns groups of things on and off, such as people, mics, wedges and stage boxes. Prints show only what is on.
• Templates saves and reuses plots.
• Import a Plot… puts the band's own plot (a PDF page or a picture) underneath, so you can copy it. If it is sideways, click the empty stage and use Turn Left or Turn Right. Then Read the Plot places the icons for you. Check the highlighted ones. To print their plot and not your drawing, click the empty stage and turn on Print their plot, not ours.

Shortcuts: ⌘D duplicate, ⌘⌫ delete, ⌘[ / ⌘] turn 15°.

On iPad, the plot shows what you drew on the Mac. Tap a marker to see its mic and stage box input. Tap Move mics to drag things to where they really are. If no plot is drawn yet, the iPad lays one out roughly from the patch.

Festival stages and splits

In a festival, each stage is in the sidebar. Click a stage to open its pages for the whole stage:

• Overview: the stage's name, console and racks, size, house PA, wedges, power, house backline and festival crew. Create House Show… makes the house console's show (dLive or X32/M32), with a scene for each act.
• Running Order: who plays when, and what comes off and goes on at each changeover. Stage View opens from here.
• Whole Patch, Whole Outputs, Whole IEMs, Whole Backline, Whole Plots, Whole Boxes: every act on the stage, side by side. At once on Whole Backline is how many must be on the stage at the same time, including the gear on all the DJ rigs. All but Whole Boxes have a Print menu: This sheet, or The stage pack with every sheet and the changeovers in one PDF.
• DJ Rigs: every DJ rig on the stage, with who plays on it. It shows only on a stage with DJs or DJ rigs. See DJ sets.
• House Patch and House Boxes: the festival's own lines, such as MC mics and ambient mics, and its own boxes.
• Split Panels: the number of panels, channels per panel, and a 2-way or 3-way split. In the panel view, turn on What changes to see what needs re-plugging between acts.
• Split Matrix: a read-only table of what is on each split input, for each act.

You name the stages when you make a festival. To add one later, open any page of a stage and click + beside the stage's name at the top. − removes the stage. Its acts stay in the show, with no stage.

To make a running order, open the stage's Running Order page and click Make a Running Order. It makes a show day from the acts on that stage, so put at least one act on the stage first. Then set the times on the Schedule page.

On iPad and iPhone, the Stages page shows each stage's consoles, size, house PA, wedges, power and acts, and you can add a stage there. Split panels under a stage's name opens its panel view. The Whole pages and the House Patch are on the Mac.

Schedule and show days

Each show day has a running order. Set the Advertised start and the Curfew, add acts and changeovers, and Stagehand works out the times.

The tabs

• Running Order: the list of lines: doors, sets, changeovers, crew calls, curfew.
• Timeline: the day as blocks. Drag a block to fix its time.
• All Days: every show day in one table.
• Calls by Person: put names in the Who column, and each person's calls show here, ready to text or email.

How the times work

• Sets fit backwards from the curfew, inside each act's minimum and maximum set length.
• Click Set lengths at the top right to type each act's shortest and longest set, in minutes. Day details has the date, venue, city, country and address.
• A grey time is automatic. Type a time to fix it. Clear it to go back to automatic.
• A warning shows if a set is too short or too long, or the show runs past curfew.

Add a day

Use the Day menu: add a copy of this day, start from a template, save a template, or copy this day to other days.

Add lines

• Add Line › Usual has the common lines, such as Load in, Soundcheck and Doors.
• Click a line's type and choose New Type… to make your own type with its own colour.
• Day › Import a Schedule… reads someone else's schedule from a spreadsheet, PDF, Word file, photo or pasted text. Check the lines, then replace the running order or add them to the end.

On a festival stage

In an event, each stage in the sidebar has a Running Order page. It shows who plays when, and the changeovers. Edit Times opens the Schedule, Print… saves the changeover sheet as a PDF, and Stage View opens Stage View for that day.

Running late

On the Mac, use Push show late (+1, +5, +10) in the Stage View Operator. On iPad and iPhone, use the Schedule's Running Late menu on the show day: 5, 10, 15, 20 or 30 minutes. The act on now gets longer, and everything after it moves later. The curfew does not move, so watch for the past-curfew warning.

On iPad and iPhone, Undo Last Change puts the times back. If the device is paired and can reach the Mac, the new times go to the Mac by themselves.

On iPad and iPhone

On the show day, Lock Screen puts now, next and the countdown on the Lock Screen. On iPad, Add Show Day adds the next day with the same running order.

Stage View

Stage View puts a big clock, now and next, and time left on any screen side of stage. You run it from the Mac at front of house.

Open it

On the Schedule page, click Stage View. Two windows open: Stage View (the screen) and the Stage View Operator (your controls). Stage View is also under each city in a tour's sidebar, and on each stage's Running Order page in an event.

To check the screen at another time on the show day, click Live in the Stage View window and choose Preview another time. On any other day, Stage View previews by itself and the button reads Preview and the time, for example Preview 8pm. Click the button to change the time: pick one under Jump to, or use 15 minutes earlier and 15 minutes later.

Send a message

1. Choose how it shows: Banner, Full Screen or Flashing, and Normal or Urgent.
2. Choose how long it stays (Clear) and which screens get it (Send to).
3. Click a one-tap button, for example 5 minutes or Wrap it up. It sends straight away. Or type your own and click Send Now (⌘↩).

The Clear button (Esc) takes the message off. Edit Buttons… changes the one-tap messages.

Timer and lateness

Under Set Timer, type the minutes and click Start (⌘T) to run your own countdown. Back to Schedule goes back to the running order. Push show late (+1, +5 or +10 minutes) moves the show later.

Lock (⌘L), bottom right of the Operator, stops every control there except STOP THE SHOW.

Screens

• Main Screen is the Stage View window. Put it on a second monitor or a TV.
• New Window adds another screen with its own look.
• Each screen can have a Layout (Stage, Dressing Room, FOH, Monitor World), a text size, and the parts you want: clock, current act, next act, curfew, set list and more.
• For the set list, click Edit… next to Set List and type the songs. Next Song steps through them.
• Each screen also has Blackout and Test Pattern, and you set when its countdown turns amber and red. For a window, Move To picks the monitor and Full Screen fills it.
• Free Layout lets you drag the parts where you want them. You can save layouts.
• Performer Clock in the Stage View window opens a clock with only the time left in the set, for a screen facing the band.

On an iPad or iPhone

Pair the device with the Mac first (see iPad and iPhone). Then open Stagehand on the device, tap Stage Screen on the home screen and choose your Mac. The Mac must have Stage View open. To leave, double-tap the screen and tap Exit, or press Esc on a keyboard.

In any browser

In the Stage View window, click Share… › Share on This Wi-Fi. Scan the QR code, or open the address on any phone, tablet or laptop on the same Wi-Fi. For the band shows only band in, doors, sets, highlights (such as Meet & greet) and the curfew. The link stops after 12 hours, or when you click Stop Sharing or close Stage View.

Wireless (RF)

Each act has an RF page. On the Mac, the Wireless page shows every channel on the site. The RF page has four tabs: Coordinate, Devices, Monitor and Scans and TV.

Coordinate

1. Choose the Country. Stagehand keeps frequencies inside that country's legal ranges. A show day can use a different country (Schedule › Day details).
2. Add channels with Add Channel, or Add From the patch's wireless lines, the IEM mixes or the devices on the network.
3. Click Coordinate…. Choose Robust, Standard or More Frequencies, then Use These.
4. Lock the channels you want to keep. To redo the rest, click Coordinate… again and choose Redo every channel that isn't locked. To redo a few, select two or more and click Recalculate….

iPad and iPhone: tap Fill from patch, Fill from IEMs or Add channel. Choose Robust, Standard or More Frequencies, then tap Coordinate. The frequencies are set straight away. Re-coordinate all redoes every unlocked channel. To redo a few, tap Select, tick them and tap Recalculate. Set the country on the Mac.

Scans

Add a scan from RF Explorer, Wireless Workbench or Sennheiser WSM (CSV, TXT or TSV). Or connect an RF Explorer or tinySA over USB for a live spectrum. Tick TV channels and add exclusions for ranges you must not use. An iPad can show a paired Mac's live scanner. On iPad and iPhone, tap Load venue scan on the Coordinate tab to add a scan file (CSV or TXT).

Send to receivers

Send to Devices… (iPad and iPhone: Send to devices) links each channel to the receiver channel with the same name and sends the new frequencies to it. If the names differ, choose the device in the list. A mic or pack on the old frequency loses its link until you change it too.

RF Network

The RF Network page shows every receiver on your network, for any show. It is in the Mac sidebar under Show Files, and on the iPad and iPhone home screen.

Stagehand finds Sennheiser EW-DX, EW-D, Digital 6000 and G3/G4, and Shure digital and UHF-R, by itself. It keeps looking while the page is open, or click Scan. If a G3/G4 does not show, switch it off and on with the page open. If a Shure or G3/G4 unit still does not show, add it with Add by IP.

Click a channel to rename or retune it. On most units you can also mute it, set the gain, and flash the unit with Identify this unit. A Sennheiser G3/G4 receiver has no mute or gain here. A G3/G4 IEM transmitter adds RF mute, sensitivity and RF power.

Coordinate › Check for clashes checks the live frequencies. Coordinate & push… finds clean frequencies, shows the plan, and sends them when you click Push.

DJ sets

A DJ act has a DJ Setup page. Open the DJ Night example to see one.

Set up a DJ

1. Add the DJ (Mac: Add DJ in the sidebar). Any act can be a DJ: open its Info page and turn on This act is a DJ, and the DJ Setup page shows for that act. On iPad, tap Add Act, then turn this on.
2. Choose a preset: 4 Players and Mixer, 2 Players and Mixer, 2 Turntables and Mixer, Laptop and Controller or Hybrid Live. The Setup Layout draws the gear from above.
3. Change the DJ Gear if you need to. Each row is a list of common DJ gear (players, mixers, turntables, controllers and more), each drawn to its real size. Not on the list? Choose Type Your Own…. The gear also goes on the Backline page and the hire list. Stagehand warns you in orange if the setup has more players and turntables than the mixer has channels.
4. Choose the monitoring: Booth Monitors, IEMs, Booth and IEMs, or Headphones Only. The Outputs and IEMs pages update for you.
5. Check the patch. Choosing a preset puts four lines at the top of the patch: DJ Main L, DJ Main R, DJ Booth L and DJ Booth R. If the DJ wants a mic, turn on DJ Mic in the Patch card. It goes in after the four.

Back-to-back (B2B): click Add DJ on the DJ Setup page to add a row for each DJ in the set.

The setup

• Table: pick a common size, shown in metres and feet: a 4 ft, 6 ft or 8 ft table, or a staging deck. Or choose Custom and type the size. There is no one standard: 6 ft is the usual pro setup, and the working height is about 0.85–1 m.
• Monitors (each side): Wedge, Wedge on a Sub, Texas Headphones (a small line array on a sub), Texas Headphones + Extra Sub (the same, with a second sub behind), or None. The stage plot draws what you pick.

A and B rigs

Under Rigs On This Stage, click Add Rig to make Rig A, Rig B and so on. With two rigs, the next DJ sets up while the last one plays. With Plays On set to Auto Roll, each DJ takes the next rig in the running order. Stagehand tells you if a rig is missing gear the DJ needs.

Each rig has a type. A Fixed Rig stays the same all night, a Swap Rig keeps extra gear beside it (turntables or another mixer) to swap in for the DJs who need it, and a Live Table is a small rolling table for a live or controller set (Auto Roll puts a DJ whose format is Controller or Hybrid Live on it). Copy Gear From This DJ fills a rig with the open DJ's gear, except what they bring themselves. The DJ Rigs page and the changeover notes say what to swap in for each DJ.

A rig can travel to other stages (Moves To). Stagehand warns you if it is needed in two places at once.

How the rigs change over

Under Rigs On This Stage, choose a Changeover for the stage:

• Side by Side: both setups stay put, and the next DJ walks to the other one.
• Two Rolling Tables: each setup is on its own rolling table. The next one is set in the wing, then rolls to centre as the last one rolls off.
• One Table on a Roller: both setups sit on one long table, which slides so the next setup is centre.

The stage plot, the changeover notes and the DJ Rigs page all follow this choice. With rolling tables or a roller, the live setup is always centre, with one pair of booth monitors fixed there.

From the stage: tie lines and show control

On the DJ page, From the Stage counts the lines the DJ needs run from the stage: Line (XLR), SDI (video) and Cat5 / Cat6 (network), with notes. Turn on Uses show control if the DJ syncs lighting or video, and say how, for example "Pro DJ Link to the lighting desk".

DJ rigs on the stage plot

On the Mac, a DJ's Stage Plot draws the rigs on the stage for you, as they are now: this DJ's own setup on the rig they play, the other rig's kit, the booth monitors, and how the table rolls. It redraws itself when you open the plot after a rig, the changeover or the DJ's gear has changed; anything you drew by hand stays. Redraw DJ Rigs does it on demand.

iPad and iPhone show the plot as the Mac last drew it. They do not redraw the rigs. If you change a rig or the DJ's gear, open the DJ's Stage Plot on the Mac, then sync.

On the stage's Whole Plots page (Mac), every DJ shows their setup, drawn with the real gear on each setup, even if nothing has been drawn yet. When the stage rolls between rigs, a big A or B in the corner says which rig the DJ plays. A line under each DJ's name says what changes for them: gear to swap in (for example a different mixer), what they bring, their tie lines and show control. If one setup is shared all night, it shows one table with its gear and no letter.

See the whole night: DJ Rigs

Each stage with DJs has a DJ Rigs page (Mac: under the stage in the sidebar. iPad: in the left column. iPhone: in the stage's list). It shows every rig side by side: its gear drawn from above, and the DJs who play on it, in time order, with set times. A travelling rig shows on each stage it visits. Missing gear and clashes show in orange. On the Mac and iPad, click or tap a DJ to open their DJ Setup. On the iPhone, go back to the stage's list, tap the DJ, then tap DJ Setup.

If the stage runs for more than one day, pick the day at the top right (Mac and iPad). The iPhone shows the stage's first show day only. A pin beside a DJ means they are set to that rig on their DJ Setup page. DJs with no rig show in a No rig column.

Where DJs show up

• The running order and changeover notes say which rig to roll to.
• Stage View can show a Next DJ Rig tile on crew screens.
• The stage plot gets a DJ setup.
• The stage's Whole Backline page counts the gear on the DJ rigs as well as each DJ's own gear (Mac).
• Export DJ Sheet… makes a PDF of the setup (Mac).

Reading riders and documents

In a production, click Read a Document… and choose a file: PDF (scanned is fine), Word, text, a picture, or a spreadsheet.

1. Stagehand works out what it is (rider, stage plot, schedule or hire quote) and which act it is for. Change these if they are wrong.
2. For a rider, click Read It. It reads with Stagehand's built-in reader on your Mac. If you turn it on in Settings, it can also use Claude with your own Anthropic account.
3. Check what it found: it can be wrong. You can edit the inputs and backline before they are used. For an existing act, choose to update only what changed, replace the patch, or add after it.
4. The built-in agent can also find outputs, wireless, IEM mixes, contacts, band members and hospitality notes. Untick Add to the Outputs tab or Also add to leave them out. It lists anything it was not sure about at the top. Lines it worked out are tagged GUESSED on the patch: click the tag to accept the line.
5. Click Use These. The rider file is kept with the production.

A stage plot picture goes under the act's plot, so you can trace it: click Put Under the Stage Plot. For a PDF, click the page with the plot, turn it if you need to, then click Use This Page. When you check a rider PDF, Take the Stage Plot Page… does the same.

Sharing, PDFs and printing

PDFs and exports (Mac)

In a production, open Share & Show Files. You can export everything as one PDF, or just the patch, stage plot, backline, schedule or day sheets. Export This Day's Packs… puts every band on the day in one PDF. Export Pack with Their Rider… puts the band's own rider PDF at the back of the pack. You can also export a spreadsheet, add the schedule to your calendar, and make FOH and MON console show files.

House Style… adds your logo, paper size and colour to every PDF. Design Documents… and Design Labels… change how the sheets and labels look, with a live preview.

Live Google Sheet… keeps a spreadsheet of the production in your Google Drive folder on the Mac and updates it after every change. Share it once from Google Drive. The link stays the same and always shows the latest.

Advance packs (iPad and iPhone)

On iPhone, open an act and tap the Share button at the top right:

• Advance pack: a PDF of every sheet, or only the sheets you choose.
• Share as web page: one file the venue opens in any browser, with no login and no app. You choose which contacts are on it. Anyone who gets the file can see those contacts and can send it on. To update it, send a new file.
• One sheet: the patch, backline or day sheet on its own, or the stage box and in-ear labels as a PDF.
• Hand Over by QR Code… shows a code. Someone on the same Wi-Fi points a phone camera at it and gets the day sheet.

On the Schedule page, the share button at the top right makes one PDF for the whole day, with every band in it.

Label printers

What you can print:

• Stage box labels that line up with the XLRs. On the Mac, open the Stage Boxes page and click a box. The Label card is at the bottom of the box's page. The page opens on All boxes, which has no label buttons. Reprint Changed shows after you change a name you have already printed, and prints only those labels. On iPad and iPhone, choose a box and tap Print label.
• IEM pack labels (IEMs page, Labels panel).
• Console labels: a strip of fader names as one tape (Console Labels). On iPad it can fill from the patch.

No label printer? Use Save as PDF… and print from Brother P-touch Editor.

Console Labels (Mac)

In the sidebar, open Console Labels, under Show Files. While a production is open that group is folded: click its heading to open it. The page makes one long tape of names for the console's fader strip. It is not part of a production, so you type the names yourself.

• Choose the Tape width (6, 12, 18 or 24 mm) and the Cell height. A cell keeps its size whatever you type in it.
• Click Add Cell for each name. A cell can have more than one line, each with its own size, bold and font.
• Print sends the strip to a P-touch on USB, or to the label printer set up in macOS. Save PDF… saves it as a PDF you can print from Brother P-touch Editor.
• Templates › Save This Strip… keeps a strip so you can load it again.

iPad and iPhone

Build the show on the Mac. Then carry it on the iPad and iPhone at the gig. Sync uses your local Wi-Fi. There is no account, no cloud and no internet needed, and the sync is encrypted.

Pair once

1. On the Mac: Settings › iPhone & iPad, turn on Share on this Wi-Fi. A QR code shows.
2. On the iPad or iPhone: tap Get from a Mac, choose your Mac, and scan the code.
3. Choose a production to get.

Both devices must be on the same Wi-Fi, and Stagehand must be open on the Mac. If you click New Code on the Mac, every device must scan again.

Cannot scan? Click Copy Pairing Text on the Mac and send it to the device. There, paste it into Or paste the pairing text and tap Pair.

The Mac lists each device under Paired devices, with when it was last seen. Remove makes that one device scan the code again.

Send changes back

Tap Sync with … in the production (on iPhone it is the round arrows button at the top), or pull down on the home list to sync everything. Your changes go back to the Mac on every page: patch, stage boxes, outputs, IEMs, wireless, backline, the stage plot, the schedule, act info, DJ setups, stages and each night's own changes. New acts and show days come across too. You get the Mac's latest back at the same time.

If the Mac changed the same thing since you synced, the Mac's version stays. The one exception is a patch line: there your edit wins. Something you deleted is only deleted on the Mac if nobody changed it there meanwhile.

The production shows Last synced and how long ago, so you know how old your copy is.

What works where

You can also open a .stagehand file from iCloud Drive or AirDrop with Open from Files.

Windows

Stagehand for Windows is the same app, page for page, for Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit). It is in beta.

Install

1. Download the zip from the Windows button on the beta page.
2. Right-click it, choose Extract All, open the Stagehand folder and double-click Stagehand.exe.
3. If Windows says it protected your PC, press More info then Run anyway. The app is not signed yet.
4. Press Install. It goes in the Start menu and on the desktop. Run a newer zip the same way and press Update.

Shows are kept in Documents\Stagehand\Productions. To remove the app: Settings › Apps › Installed apps › Stagehand › Uninstall. Your shows stay.

Get shows from a Mac

As on the iPad: on the Mac turn on Settings › iPhone & iPad › Share on this Wi-Fi and press Copy Pairing Text. On Windows choose File › Get from a Mac…, paste the text, find your Mac and get a show. Windows may ask about the firewall: allow it.

A show from a Mac has Sync with … at the top. Send Changes sends your edits back the way the iPad does (see Send changes back). Get the Mac's Copy takes the Mac's version. You can also open a .stagehand folder or a zip of one with File › Open a Show File….

Not on Windows yet

PDFs, label printing, console show files, reading riders and hosting iPhones and iPads. Use the Mac for those for now.

USB sticks and console show files

USB Check

Is a stick safe to plug into the desk? Choose the stick and the desk, then click Check Stick. The answer is Good to go, Check first or Don't plug in. Export Report… saves the result, and Make a Clean Copy… copies just the show files to one of your own sticks or a folder.

Show Files

Finds show files from Allen & Heath, grandMA, DiGiCo, Yamaha and Avid S6L on a stick or in a folder. Bring In files them by act, console and date in your Library, and every version is kept. Put on USB… writes one back.

Convert Show (beta)

Turns a show file from one console into another, for example SQ to dLive. Your original is never changed.

Save a verified copy… keeps a checked backup of the original before you start. Choose the desk to convert to, and start from a new show or from one of your own shows. DiGiCo to DiGiCo carries the whole session, not only the channels.

Tour Backup

Copies show recordings from a tour drive into your Library, and checks every copy. The tour drive is not changed.

Open Tour Backup in the sidebar and choose the Tour drive. Stagehand looks for the shows on it. If the right drive is already chosen, click Find Shows. Check the date and venue of each show, fill in Artist and Tour, then click Back Up.

Jobs

Jobs in the sidebar shows the copy that is running, for example a tour backup or show files coming in. You can Pause it, Skip this file or Stop after this file.

When nothing is running, it lists what was copied into your Library, newest first. Review Originals… shows what is still on the drive a job came from, so you can move the originals to the Trash. Log opens the job's log.

Logs

Every job and check writes a log into your Library. Logs in the sidebar lists them. Double-click one to open its log, or right-click it and choose Show Log in Finder. The logs live on the Library's drive, so connect it first.

Common questions

Where is my data?

On your own devices. Stagehand has no account and no server. See the Privacy Policy.

My iPad cannot find my Mac.

• Check both are on the same Wi-Fi, and that Share on this Wi-Fi is on in the Mac's Settings.
• Allow Local Network for Stagehand on the iPad (iPad Settings › Privacy & Security › Local Network).
• Some venue and hotel Wi-Fi blocks devices from seeing each other. Try a phone hotspot or your own router.

I changed something on my iPhone, but the Mac does not have it.

Sync first. Tap Sync with … in the production, or pull down on the home list. Changes on every page go back to the Mac (see Send changes back).

An edit to a patch line goes across even if the Mac changed the same line. It does not if the Mac deleted that line, and a new box letter does not if the stage boxes were changed on both devices. For anything else, if the Mac changed the same thing since your last sync, the Mac's version is kept. The sync message names a stage plot that was kept. It does not name other things, so check after the sync and make the change again if you need to.

The past-curfew warning showed after I pushed the show late.

That is correct. Pushing late keeps the curfew where it is. Shorten a set or a changeover to fit.

How do I undo?

Press ⌘Z on the Mac. Stagehand also keeps a copy of the production every time it saves.

How do I give feedback or report a bug?

In the TestFlight app, choose Stagehand and send feedback with a screenshot. Or email Dan.