Nothing to install on the screens
The Halyx engine runs on a Windows PC. Its screens are web pages: scan the QR code in the launch window and the tablet becomes a console. Added to the home screen, it opens like an app, full screen. Halyx is a PWA: no app store, no update to run on each device.
A layout designed for each screen
Halyx is not a shrunken website. Each screen class has its own layout:
- PC and large tablet: 3D stage plot, programmer and cue list side by side;
- portrait tablet: the stage on top, the programmer below;
- phone: tabs, with large touch targets (48 px minimum, 64 px for GO).
Dangerous actions (Blackout, Delete, New show) must be held for 600 ms, with a filling gauge: you never trigger a blackout by putting the tablet down.
Several screens at once, all in sync
The engine is the single source of truth: the lighting designer programs on a tablet, the stage manager fires GOs from a phone, a playback screen shows the state front of house. Each device receives the engine's latest frame, and only what changed: on a busy Wi-Fi, a tablet skips frames but never lags behind.
- Per-device roles: full, playback (read only), pages only;
- access codes (at least 6 characters for full access), with attempts throttled per device and for the whole engine;
- one programmer per device, optional: two people program at the same time without getting in each other's way;
- a momentary button held on several screens only releases when the last one lets go;
- a screen silent for 10 s is treated as gone: its held buttons are released.
Built for the dark venue
The interface is grey and dark so it doesn't light up the desk or distort colour perception. Three themes, chosen per device: Control room (dark venue), Night (all red, to preserve night vision) and Daylight (outdoors, lit room), with brightness adjustable from 20 to 100 %. Over local HTTPS, the screen stays on during the show.
The show keeps running
The show is saved continuously on the engine, with backup copies. A tablet that loses Wi-Fi cuts nothing: the light is computed by the engine, 40 DMX frames per second. A lost link shows immediately (orange hatched frame and banner), so an anomaly never goes unnoticed.