TimeKeeper: Controlling timers through a web UI and stream deck

One of my first projects I shared on this blog over 5 years ago was TimeKeeper – something we use to help manage countdowns to service start times, various production elements, etc. 5 years later, it’s still running strong and we use it every week.

I recently decided to give some effort toward creating a UI that would allow us to add and edit timers from the web interface, so that we could retire the Ross Dashboard custom panel that I created for it. We still use Dashboard, but for this, it was actually more work for our volunteers to use two tools rather than one – one for adding/editing, and one for viewing.

The new UI is simple – you can add a new timer directly from the page or edit an existing one. For now, I haven’t bothered with any permissions because our needs are very simple.

Editing a timer is just as easy.

I also created a Companion 3.0 module for us that allows us to create and modify timers and view them there as well. Now we can easily bump a timer and add 30 seconds if needed just by quickly pressing a button.

If you use TimeKeeper, go check out the new version along with the Companion module!

Notify production team members remotely using open source software and low cost USB busy lights

At my church, we have a couple of these:

They’re great. Expensive, but they work well.

The problem for us is that anytime anyone presses the Call light on the intercom party line, any flashers on that party line will light up. This means we can really only have 1 unique flasher per line.

Sometimes, we want or need to get a specific person/position’s attention.

I created some software to help with this. It’s called beacon.

It’s a small app that runs in the system tray and hosts a network API so you can signal a USB busy light, such as the Luxafor Flag or Thingm blink(1). Or, if you don’t have or want a physical signal light, you can also have an on-screen dot that you can use.

I’ve designed this to work in tandem with a custom module for Bitfocus Companion, but since it does have a full API, you can implement any third-party integrations that you like. All of the documentation is on the Github repository: https://github.com/josephdadams/beacon

You can set a beacon to stay a solid color, fade to a new color, flash a color, and more. You can send custom notifications to the user’s window as well as play tones and sounds.

Here’s a video of the project in action to show you how you can use it:

Go check it out today!

https://github.com/josephdadams/beacon