The backstage board

The backstage board is a screen for the people behind the stage: the stage manager, the crew who collect each speaker from the green room, the producer in the wings. It shows who is on stage now, who is next and when they go on, and whether the room is running late. It is read-only, and it is drawn from the room’s live programme, so when a session runs over, what it says moves with it.

Pro and up

The speaker’s screen is not the place for this. A speaker needs the time left in their slot. The crew needs the next speaker’s name and when they go on, and has no use for wrap-up warnings.

Open the board

1. Open the room’s controller and choose Links. It opens Share a screen.
2. Choose the Backstage card, marked For the green room.
3. Copy its link, or open it in a new tab. Put the link on any browser: a laptop in the green room, a tablet on a stand, a TV in the wings.

The board is public to anyone with the link, like the room’s other screens, and it needs no account. If the room has a password for its screens, the board asks for it too. On a plan without the backstage board, the card is still listed, marked as part of Pro, and the page says the board is part of that plan. It names no price, since the person looking at it may be a speaker and not the account holder.

To put it on a TV you manage from one place, pair the TV and choose Backstage under Show…. See Pair screens and switch what they show.

What it shows

On now. The session on stage, who gives it, when it started (the corner says Paused in place of Started and the clock while it is paused), and its real time left, or how long it has run over, with a bar of how far through it is. A session with a time warp shows the real time left, not the speaker’s.

Up next. The next session: its speaker in large letters with the title under it, or the title alone in large letters when there is no speaker. Its printed start, when it has one, is the Scheduled time in the corner. Under On stage, it shows when the session will really start, as a clock with the whole minutes beside it, such as “in 6 min” or “in under a minute”. Two cases show words instead of a time:

• While the session on now is over time, running or paused, it says When this one ends when the projected start is missing or under a minute away. A printed start that is still a minute or more ahead keeps its clock.
• When nothing is running and nothing will start the next session on its own, it says When the operator starts it. That is the case when it has no printed start, or that start is due or past. A paused session is still on stage, so the next one keeps its projected time.

After that. The two sessions that follow, at their projected starts. When a session has moved by a minute or more, its printed start is shown beside the new one.

How the room runs. A line says On time, Running N min late, or N min ahead. It compares the next session’s projected start with its printed start or, when there is no next session or it has no printed start, how late the session on now began if that session has a printed start. Under a minute either way reads On time; beyond that the minutes are rounded. When neither comparison exists, the line is left out.

Before the day’s first session, the board says nothing is on stage yet and, while that session’s printed start is still ahead, when it starts.

The board follows the day of the timer the room holds, when that timer has a day. Otherwise it follows the next programme day on or after today, or the last day when every day is past. An undated timer on stage stays on that day. The header names the day when it is not today.

What it leaves out

• No warnings. Green marks only the session on now. There is no yellow or red, since those are for the speaker, and lateness is said in words.
• No messages, notes, or labels. A crew screen on a public link never shows what the operator keeps private.
• No theme. It is always dark, like the stage, so it reads on a screen in a dim room. Your logo shows as on every other screen.

Screens and the room’s limits

The board is one of the room’s screens, as any open view is: it takes one of the room’s places, and a full room says so. A plan without the board closes its connection, so it takes none. See the plans for what each allows.