Time-shift: clips and the match on the bench tablets
Send clips, or the match a few seconds behind, to the staff's tablets over the local network while you record in Studio.
On this page
Time-shift puts what you are recording in front of the staff on the bench while the match is still on: the clips you tag, or the whole match a few seconds behind. It works over the local network of the computer you record on, with no internet at the venue. The tablets open a link in their browser: nothing to install on them.
Time-shift is available to organizations with access enabled. If you don't see the Time-shift chip while recording in Studio, ask support.
What you need
- The computer you record on, with the tablets on the same network: the bench access point or the venue wifi, with mobile data off on the tablets.
- In the browser, the cliply agent: a small program for macOS that receives the recording, cuts the clips and serves them to the tablets. You install it once (below). The desktop app has Time-shift built in and needs no agent.
- ffmpeg: the installer uses the one you have, or installs it for the agent.
Install and start the agent
Install it once
Open Terminal and paste:
curl -fsSL https://cliply.video/install-agent.sh | sh
It installs for your user only, without asking for an administrator password, and refuses any download whose checksum doesn't match the one cliply.video publishes. The agent is not notarized by Apple yet. Running the same command again updates it.
Start it before each match
~/.cliply/agent/cliply-agent
Keep that Terminal window open for the whole match. Closing it (or Ctrl+C) closes the room and deletes the clips. To try the tablet page first, start it with --demo: the room fills with sample clips and a delayed test feed.
Allow the local network
The first time, the browser asks for permission to reach devices on your local network. Allow it, then press Retry on the Agent row.
Link this browser
For security, the agent only answers browsers you linked at that computer. The first time, the Time-shift panel shows Link this computer:
- Press Get a code. The agent prints a 6-digit code in its Terminal window. It expires in 2 minutes.
- Type it and press Link. The browser stays linked from then on.
You can ask for a new code once every 10 seconds. After five wrong codes, linking pauses for 30 seconds, and the pause doubles with every five more wrong codes, up to an hour; the agent's window counts the failed attempts. If that happens and you didn't type them, someone else is trying to link: close the agent.
To unlink every browser, run ~/.cliply/agent/cliply-agent --unpair. The agent keeps only a fingerprint of each link, never the key itself.
Send clips to the tablets
While recording in Studio, open the Time-shift chip and press Open room. A QR code and a link appear: on each tablet, join the network and scan the code with the camera. The panel shows how many tablets are connected.
- Send to Time-shift on a clip's row, or Cmd + Shift + Enter for the focused row (or the last clip), sends it. A clip still running goes when it ends.
- Send every clip sends each clip you tag from then on, as soon as it ends.
- A clip from before the room opened can't be sent: it has no footage on the agent.
New link revokes the old one: the tablets have to scan the QR again.
Stream the match on a delay
Instead of clips, the bench can watch the match itself a few seconds behind. Under Match, pick the Delay (10 s, 30 s, 1 min or 2 min) and the Duration (5, 10, 20 or 30 minutes), then press Stream the match. The tablets see it once the delay has passed, and the stream stops on its own when the time is up. It needs a recording in progress.
Privacy
Clips and the stream stay on your computer while the room is open, and only the tablets with the link reach them. Closing the room, starting a new recording or restarting the agent deletes them. Nothing goes through cliply's servers.
When something doesn't work
- "It isn't running on this computer": start the agent, or check the browser allowed the local network, then press Retry.
- The tablet can't open the link: same network as the computer, mobile data off, no VPN on either. If the computer has more than one network, pick the bench one under Network. If the macOS firewall is on, allow incoming connections for cliply-agent.
- No router on the access point: give each device a fixed IP. The panel's help, No router: manual IPs, lists the addresses to use.