New: Audio Cues for Timer Phase Transitions

Visual phase colors have always been a core part of StageTick — yellow for wrap-up, red for danger, flashing red for overtime. But what about speakers who aren't looking at the screen? Or backstage crew monitoring audio-only feeds?

Today we're adding configurable audio cues that play alongside (or instead of) the visual flash when a timer changes phase. It's a small feature with a big impact on keeping your show on schedule.

How It Works

Each timer now has a sound preset selector and a flash on phase toggle:

• Flash on phase (on by default) — the existing 3-second visual pulse on all output views.
• Sound preset (None by default) — choose from five built-in sounds that play through the device speaker at each phase transition.

Five sound presets are available, each with a distinct character:

• Beep — simple tone beeps that escalate in count per phase
• Chime — softer melodic chime tones
• Bell — resonant bell sound
• Pulse — rhythmic pulse pattern
• Escalate — rising pitch pattern that increases urgency per phase

Audio cues fire at three phase transitions:

• Wrap-up — when the timer enters the warning phase
• Danger — when the timer enters the danger phase
• Overtime — when the timer reaches zero

No Audio Files, No Latency

The cues are generated in real time using the Web Audio API — pure synthesized tones with zero network dependency. There's no audio file to download, no CDN to worry about, and no perceptible delay between the phase change and the sound. The browser generates the tone locally the instant the threshold is crossed.

Per-Timer Control

Not every segment needs audio cues. A 15-minute coffee break probably doesn't need a bell, but a 5-minute keynote wrap-up absolutely does. That's why the sound preset is per-timer — pick a sound for the segments that matter and leave it on "None" elsewhere. You can even use different presets for different segment types so backstage crew can tell by sound alone which kind of timer is transitioning.

You can also disable the visual flash per timer. If you want sound-only cues with no screen flash, just toggle flash off and select a sound preset. Or keep both for maximum visibility.

Global Mute & Accessibility

The operator view now includes a global mute toggle in the header bar. Press M to toggle it with a keyboard shortcut. When muted, all audio cues are silenced regardless of per-timer settings — useful during sound checks or when the house PA is active.

Audio cues also respect the operating system's prefers-reduced-motion setting. When reduced motion is enabled, audio cues are automatically suppressed to avoid unexpected sounds for users who have opted into that accessibility preference.

Also New: Targeted Device Flash

While we were working on cue signals, we also fixed the connection flash behavior. When you flash a specific device from the connections popup, it now flashes only that device — not every connected screen. The manual flash button in the controller still flashes all views, as before.

This makes device identification much more practical in multi-screen setups. Flash a specific monitor to confirm which physical screen it is, without disrupting the speaker's confidence display on stage.

Getting Started

Audio cues are available now on all plans. Open any timer's settings, choose a sound preset (Beep, Chime, Bell, Pulse, or Escalate), and run the timer to hear the cues at each phase transition. No configuration beyond picking a preset — it just works.

For the full details, see the Timer Display Modes documentation.