I’m going to be running sound cues on a low budget show where several smartphones need to go off in rapid succession. The thing is, we were planning to have the cast use their own phones. Will StageCaller work for us? We don’t have the budget to buy a separate license for each phone.
Certainly - but your actors would need to change the id on the devices to match the id that bought the license, which would mean they couldn’t use their phones as their own - no access to their music or aps.
I will say - if you haven’t got the $10 per device - do you have the $ to buy a super stable router? If not, please know you’ll have reliability issues…
so, you could purchase through the apple volume purchase program and then use whatever tools apple provides to distribute to each actors phone - I know very little about how apple handles such things, I just know they do allow for it
RobK’s method of changing each device to use the same apple account (id) that purchased stagecaller will work for a maximum of 5 devices (I think, I could be wrong) - I personally think it’s a pain in the ass to do, but it should work
as far as triggering cues in rapid succession on multiple devices - you’ll need to make sure you’ve got a good stable wifi - do not try to use an ad-hoc wifi network (network provided by a computer) - it’s usually hit or miss depending on your installed os - regardless, you’ll probably have MIDI issues if you try it… so, make sure you have a good wifi router - OSC usually works better anyway for a faster response
whatever router you use make sure you installed the latest firmware on it (this is crucial for netgear routers) - also make sure you use static IP addresses (not DHCP) for each device as well as the control host running QLab
I would advise against using actor’s phones for anything - I have no actual theater experience outside of grade school & college, but it seems that it would be a nightmare prop-wise - if you’re going to do it anyway make sure you follow some of the guidelines listed below (and described above)
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good network hardware - I recommend buying an apple airport, but you can get away with cheaper stuff, just be ready for disappointment
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make sure your network hardware is up to date
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static IP addresses for ALL devices on your network (do not use DHCP)
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use OSC rather than MIDI
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you’ll need to make sure each device is setup correctly prior to each show - do not underestimate the ability of an individual to screw up their own phone - that’s a good amount of time you (or your propmaster) will need to spend before each show
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always have a backup - your wifi could go down right before the show, or an actor forgot their phone, or replaced their phone and shows up 5 minutes before curtain saying “oh, yeah, I got a new phone… can you set it up now?” - so make sure you’ve got a sound cued up over the PA or some guy backstage ready to yell “brrring”