Screens, projectors and venue technology

Everything the audience and the floor see — lineups, heats, live results, the prize ceremony, the schedule, sponsors — comes out of the Screens app. This page covers how a projector or TV gets its picture, who controls what it shows, and what to agree with the venue’s technician before the day.

What Vote4Dance drives, and what it does not

The venue’s equipment Does Vote4Dance drive it?
Projector, LED wall, TVs Yes — through a computer or tablet running the Screens app, connected like any other picture source.
Sound system and microphones No. Your DJ and the speaker use the venue’s sound. Vote4Dance shows the running order; it does not play music or route audio.
Stage lighting No.
Streaming / camera mixer No, but a screen output can be fed into a mixer like any other HDMI source, and the blank/green-screen views exist for exactly that.

So the only cable that matters for Vote4Dance is the one from your display computer to the venue’s picture input.

How a screen gets its picture

A “screen” in Vote4Dance is two things: a screen record in Manager (Manager → Event → Screens), and a device showing the Screens app in fullscreen, plugged into the projector or TV. There is no separate box and nothing to install.

In Manager: create the screen

Manager → Event → Screens → Create screen. Each screen has:

Field What it does
Label The screen’s name, for example “Main projector” or “Foyer TV”. This is how the device and the speaker identify it, so name it after where it hangs.
Background Normal background, Green screen (TV), Custom background or an animated background (V4D or Blue). Green screen is for streaming and camera mixers; on green screen and blank, the federation/branding image is hidden.
Floor All floors, or one specific floor. A screen in a hall with two floors should be set to its own floor. See Floors.
Show What the screen starts on — see the Show options below.
Settings Hide name before finals, Spotlight duration (podium) (default 5s), Spotlight duration (outside podium) (default 3s), Winner flag only.

Each screen card also has a connection dot, so the desk can see at a glance whether that screen is still alive.

On the device: point it at the screen

  1. Decide which device drives each display. A laptop or a small computer with an HDMI output is the reliable choice for the main projector. A tablet can drive a TV, but a computer is easier to keep awake and in fullscreen.
  2. Connect the device to the venue’s input (usually HDMI; bring a USB-C or Mini-DisplayPort adapter if your laptop has no HDMI port).
  3. Give the device access to the Screens app — either sign in as a user who has Screens ticked, or let the device join a Screens station by scanning its QR code. A station is the better choice for a machine that stays in the hall all weekend: no personal login, and you can revoke it afterwards. See Users, apps and stations.
  4. The Screens app shows one card per screen you created in Manager. Press Show on the card for this display. That is the device’s only choice — the floor, the background and what is shown all come from Manager and from what the speaker pushes.
  5. Put the browser in fullscreen.
  6. If the text is too large or too small, use the browser zoom hotkey, usually Ctrl +/-. The screen layouts are built for a resolution of 1280 × 720 and scale from there; the app states all three of these hints on its own start page.

Several devices can join the same station and open the same screen — that is how you get the same picture on several TVs.

One screen device shows one thing at a time. For two displays showing different content, create two screens in Manager and use two devices — or, on a computer with two picture outputs, two browser windows, each opened on its own screen card and dragged onto its own display. A single window cannot feed two projectors with different content.

What a screen can show

The Show setting in Manager

Manager → Event → Screens → Show has seven options. This is what the screen displays on its own, without anyone touching it:

Show Shows
Heat The running heat. Names appear when the field is small, and a single-couple heat can show a picture.
Lineup Who is on the floor next, per heat, with start numbers.
Schedule (no heats) One card per schedule block with its rounds and their live estimated start times — good for a foyer TV.
Result The result of the round, with podium, advancement marking and the prize-ceremony spotlight.
Round number The round number only, large.
Results (last 6) The six most recently published rounds, for the hall between rounds.
Judge presentation The panel: judges one at a time, or one pinned.

There is no separate “prize ceremony” setting: the podium and the spotlight are part of Result, and the spotlight durations are the screen’s own settings.

What the speaker pushes

During the competition the Speaker app overrides what a screen shows, with Show on screen buttons. The speaker picks which screen to drive, then sends it:

From What goes on the screen
Overview Show competition name, Show blank screen, Round number, Results (last 6), Lineup, Schedule
Schedule A specific schedule item
Lineup A round, its teams, a single team in a heat, a group’s dancers, a redance/rotation draw
Results A round’s result, or the open judging for one team
Judges One judge, or all judges in turn
Sponsors A sponsor, or the sponsor rotation

The screen fades over about a second when it changes. Audience voting and the live-placement view are variants of the heat screen and appear on their own when they apply.

Who controls what is shown

Who What they can do
Screens (the screen device itself) Nothing beyond choosing which screen it is. It is display only.
Speaker The floor console. Has Show on Screen buttons — a team, a judge, a schedule item, the result reveal for the prize ceremony. This is the app your MC drives the hall from.
Supervisor Chooses the floor and controls the screens, without being able to change the setup.
Manager The screens themselves: label, background, floor, the Show setting and the spotlight/name settings.

Agree before the day who has the screens: normally the speaker, with the desk as backup.

Projector practicalities

These are the things that actually go wrong in a hall:

  • Aspect ratio. The screen layouts are built for 16:9, at a reference resolution of 1280 × 720, and scale up from there. A 1080p projector is fine. On a 16:10 or 4:3 projector expect black bars, and check that nothing is cut off at the edges.
  • Overscan and edge cropping. Some projectors cut a few percent of the picture. Adjust with the browser zoom hotkey (Ctrl +/-) rather than fighting the projector.
  • Text size. Browser zoom is also how you make names and start numbers bigger for a deep hall, or smaller when a long start list is being cut off.
  • Sleep, screensaver and updates. Disable sleep, screensaver and automatic updates on the display computer, and keep it on mains power. A screen that goes dark mid-final is almost always a power-saving setting.
  • Fullscreen and the mouse pointer. Use the browser’s fullscreen mode and move the pointer off the display, or it sits in the middle of the projection all day.
  • Cable length. HDMI over 10–15 metres often needs an active cable or an extender. This is the venue’s problem to solve, but you need to raise it early.
  • Test with the real cable, in the real seat. A picture that works on your desk can fail on a 20-metre run through a stage box.

Network

Every screen, tablet and judge device is a live client talking to the Vote4Dance cloud.

  • Reliable internet for the whole event is a requirement, not a nice-to-have.
  • Wi-Fi must not have a captive portal, a browser login or a forced timeout — those kill screens and judge devices mid-round.
  • Wire the main display computer if the venue has an Ethernet port. It is the one device that must never blink.
  • Have a backup path: a second router, or a phone hotspot you have actually tested.
  • Count your devices and make sure the venue’s access point can carry them.

Full list: Technical requirements.

What to ask the venue technician

Send this list to the venue before your visit. It is written to be forwarded as it is.

Picture

  1. Which input does the projector take, and where is the socket we plug into (stage, desk, booth)?
  2. Is it HDMI? What length is the cable run, and is an extender in place?
  3. Which resolution and aspect ratio does the projector run at?
  4. Can we see the picture from the scrutineering desk as well, or only from the floor?
  5. Are there other screens (foyer TV, stage monitor) we can feed, and from where?
  6. Can we leave our computer connected and powered in one place all day?

Internet

  1. Is there Wi-Fi in the hall, and does it cover the floor, the desk and the judges’ positions?
  2. Does the Wi-Fi require a login or a portal page, and does it time out?
  3. Is there a wired network port near the display computer?
  4. Roughly how many devices can the network carry at once?

Power and space

  1. Power at the desk, at the display computer and at the check-in desk?
  2. Table space and chairs for the desk and the judges?
  3. Can the judges’ tablets be charged during the day?

People and access

  1. When can we get in to set up, and who from the venue is present?
  2. Who is our contact during the event if the picture or network fails?

Troubleshooting

The projector shows nothing

  1. Check the projector is on the right input.
  2. Check the computer is actually mirroring/extending to it (display settings).
  3. Swap the cable before you doubt the app.

The screen shows the wrong floor or the wrong content

The floor and the Show setting belong to the screen record in Manager, not to the device. Open Manager → Event → Screens, check the screen’s Floor and Show, and confirm the device opened the right screen card. If the speaker has pushed something onto it, the speaker decides what it shows until they send it something else.

Edges are cut off, or content looks too small

Use the browser zoom hotkey (Ctrl +/-) to fit the picture, and confirm the output is 16:9.

The screen froze or went dark

Reload the page. If it went dark, power saving is the usual cause. Check the screen’s connectivity in Manager to see whether the device dropped off the network.

Results are not appearing

Results only reach the screens once the round is Published. Check the round status in Manager and the Live publish settings.

The screen shows a practice warning

The event is a practice event. Every app, screens included, shows “Practice events have limitations! Only for practice and should not be used for live competitions.” It disappears when you run a live competition — see Test run and venue rehearsal.