Skip to content

Send messages to the stage

Push flash, banner or full-screen text from Timers Studio to the player. Write the line, pick a style, hit Show, and it lands on stage in under 100 ms.

Last updated

Send messages to the stage

During a live session, you often need to tell the speaker something the audience should not read on their badge — a reminder, a correction, a change of plan. Timers Studio ships a dedicated panel for this: you write the line, choose the style, hit Show, and it appears on every connected player within 100 ms.

Prerequisites

  • A running Studio tab at timers.studio/id/<your-room>
  • At least one player or stage display connected to the same room
  • The Messages tab visible in the right rail (it is on by default)

Steps

1. Open the Messages panel

In the Studio, click the Messages tab on the right side of the screen. The MessageControl opens. The panel is split in three:

  • Q&A Live at the top — audience questions that have been approved.
  • Message editor in the middle — where you type stage-facing messages.
  • Intercom at the bottom — private chat with your moderator.

This page is about the middle block.

2. Type your message

Click the textarea and type the line. Keep it short — the speaker reads it in one glance:

  • Wrap up
  • 2 minutes left
  • Please repeat the question
  • Break — back at 14:30

The textarea auto-expands as you write.

3. Style it

The toolbar sits just above the textarea. From left to right:

  • Font family — Inter, Arial, Roboto, Montserrat, Bebas Neue, Oswald, Poppins, Impact.
  • Bold — toggles font weight 700.
  • Uppercase — forces all-caps on the rendered line.
  • Colour — nine dots: White, Green, Red, Yellow, Blue, Purple, Cyan, Orange, Pink.

The small Aa swatch in the footer previews the style. The textarea itself also updates live.

4. Choose STANDARD, FLASH or FULLSCREEN

Three modes are available:

  • STANDARD — a discreet bar at the bottom of the player. Good for reminders.
  • FLASH — same bar but with a red strobe. Click the red Flash button in the header. Use it sparingly.
  • FULLSCREEN — replaces the timer with the message. Click the square icon in the header. Useful for a final Thank you or an intermission slide.

You can combine FLASH and FULLSCREEN for a full-screen red strobe.

5. Show it on the player

Click the green Show button at the bottom right of the editor. Three things happen:

  • The message is pushed through the Gateway module to every connected player.
  • The Show button turns red and reads Hide.
  • The current line is now recorded as the active Message for the room.

Latency is typically under 100 ms on a normal connection.

6. Hide it when done

Click Hide to clear the message from every player. The panel goes back to its empty state and the editor keeps your last draft, so you can tweak and send again.

Expected result

On every tab opened at timers.studio/player/<your-room>, the message renders in the style you picked. The Studio shows the same text in the preview, and the Show / Hide button mirrors the live state.

Troubleshooting

What is the difference between STANDARD, FLASH and FULLSCREEN? STANDARD is a discreet bar at the bottom of the player. FLASH adds a red pulse, meant for urgent cues like Stop or Wrap up. FULLSCREEN replaces the timer with the message text, filling the whole screen — useful for a final thank you or a break slide.

Can the speaker reply to my message? No. The stage-facing message is one-way. For a back-and-forth with your moderator, use the Intercom chat at the bottom of the same panel. Audience questions flow in through the Q&A Live queue at the top.

Why do my colour and font not look the same on the player? The player renders the font family only if the browser has it installed. Stick to common fonts like Inter, Arial, Roboto, Poppins or Impact for predictable output on any machine. Colours are passed as hex and always render as picked.

The Show button is disabled — why? The button activates only when the textarea contains non-empty text. Add at least one visible character.

Next reads