Cloud Player

The Cloud Player is a show source that runs entirely in the cloud: upload your soundtrack, then start playback from the dashboard. There is no plugin to install and no hardware on site, which makes it a good fit for drone shows, fireworks, and one-off events — or for trying out PulseMesh before your show player is set up.

Like any show source, the Cloud Player sets the clock. Every connected device locks to it the same way it would to an FPP, xSchedule, or Light-O-Rama local player — within ±10ms of the source.

Adding a Cloud Player

A Cloud Player is one of two source types — the other being a local player, driven by the PulseMesh Connector on your own hardware:

1. Go to the Devices page and click Add device at the top right, or use the Add a device card
2. Choose Cloud Player, enter a name, and click Add Cloud Player
3. Once added, the source appears in the Show source card, and a Cloud Player entry appears in the dashboard sidebar whenever that display is selected — it opens the Show Control page, where you upload media and run shows

Source limits from your subscription plan apply to Cloud Players like any other source.

Uploading media

Media lives in the display's media library. On the Show Control page, click Open library at the top, or Manage media on the Shows card.

1. Click Upload audio and drag and drop an audio file, or click to browse. The maximum file size is 200 MB.
2. Optionally fill in the song title and artist — this is what viewers see in the app while the song plays, and you can edit it later from the library.
3. After the upload completes, the file is transcoded for playback. Its status shows Processing until it's done and Ready once it can be played.

From the library you can also edit a song's title and artist, and remove media you no longer need. Media that a saved show still uses can't be removed until you take it out of that show.

Building a show

A show is a saved playlist for your display: one song, or a whole set of them placed on a single show timeline. Open the Cloud Player from the dashboard sidebar (or Open Show Control on the Devices page), then click New show on the Shows card.

1. Name the show.

2. Pick the first song. Only audio and video from this display's library can be used.

3. Add more songs with Add song. A show can hold up to 100 songs.

4. Place each song. From the second song on, choose how it starts:

   • After previous — it starts when the song before it ends, plus an optional Gap (for example 0:05 for five seconds of silence between songs).
   • At — it starts at a fixed time on the show timeline, such as 12:30 or 1:02:00.

   Each row shows where the song lands (start → end), so you can check the running order at a glance.

5. Reorder songs by dragging the handle on the left of a row, or focus the handle and use the up and down arrow keys. Each row's menu also has Move up, Move down, Snap to the previous song, Duplicate, and Remove.

6. Loop a song (optional) with its own loop control: Once, ×N, or ∞. Only the last song can loop forever — it then plays until you stop the show.

7. Repeat the whole show (optional) with Repeat: Once, a number of Times, or ∞ to play the full running order again and again. The summary next to it shows the song count, the length of one pass, and the total running time.

8. Click Save show.

A show with just one song has a single loop control, and it repeats the song. The editor flags anything it can't play — overlapping songs, songs out of order, a song whose length isn't known yet — before you save.

If you edit a show while it's on air, your changes take effect the next time it starts.

Running a show

1. Load the show. Click Load next to it on the Shows card. Loading stages the show on this display: the songs are sent to connected viewers' devices ahead of time, so every phone is buffered and ready before the first beat. With more than 10 different songs in a show, the first 10 are staged before the start and the rest download during the show.
2. Check the preflight. The preflight strip shows whether the show is ready — media transcoded, show staged, live view connected. Start show stays disabled while the verdict is Not ready, and the button says what is still missing.
3. Start the show. Start show begins playback on every connected device, locked to the shared clock. Or use Schedule start to pick when it should begin. Viewers who connect mid-show join in sync at the current position.

While the show runs, the Transport card shows which song is playing (for example Song 2 of 5), which pass of a repeating show you're on, and the playback position. In a gap between songs it shows which song starts next and when. The Audience card shows how many phones are in sync.

During a multi-song show you can also:

• Next — skip to the next song. In a gap between songs, it starts the next song now.
• Previous — restart the current song, or go back to the previous song if you press it within the first few seconds of a song.
• Stop when this song ends — let the current song finish, then stop. It isn't available in a gap between songs; use Stop now there.
• Stop at end of this pass — for a repeating show, finish the current pass, then stop.
• Clear stop — cancel a song-end or pass-end stop before it happens.
• Stop now — end playback for all viewers immediately.

If your dashboard loses its internet connection while a show is running, the show keeps playing for viewers — playback is driven from the cloud, not from your browser.

If a Timecode Bridge is armed with a locked-chase output (such as for a drone show), Next and Previous are unavailable, and the show can't repeat or end with a song that loops forever. A Free run output has none of these limits.

Older Cloud Players

Cloud Players added before the v2 release open the original player page, which plays one song at a time from its Now Playing tab. To build multi-song shows, click Upgrade to v2 next to the Cloud Player in the Show source card on the Devices page — after that, its page is Show Control.

How viewers connect

Exactly like any other display: by geo-radius, QR code, or display code, using the mobile app or web player.

Tips

• Upload early. Transcoding takes time after upload — get every song to Ready status well before showtime.
• Load the show early. A staged audience starts in perfect sync from the very first beat.
• Do a dry run. Connect a phone or two, load the show, and run it through at least one song change before the real event.

Related Topics

• The PulseMesh Connector - The software behind local players
• Subscription Plans & Limits - Source limits by plan
• Song Metadata - How title and artist appear to viewers