🎛️ Mini-Pilot Studio | Director Station for OBS

🚀 Professional Timeline-Based Show Controller & Intercom system — directly linked to OBS

Mini-Pilot Studio is a powerful, web-based control room designed to automate and manage live broadcasts, talk shows, and events. It transforms your browser into a fully-fledged Director Station with a Non-Linear Timeline Editor (NLE), automating OBS scene switches, triggering external devices via Webhooks, and providing real-time cues for your crew.

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🎯 What is this?

Think of it as an automated brain for your live production:

• 🎬 Timeline Automation: Plan your show in advance with precise durations
• 🔴 OBS Auto-Switching: Automatically cuts and transitions between OBS scenes
• 🎚️ Studio Mode Switcher: A real Preview/Program bus — send a scene to Preview (PRV), then TAKE it live via OBS's Studio Mode transition, or CUT straight to Program
• 📋 Live Auto-Scrolling Rundown: A dynamic script that follows the show in real-time
• 🎙️ Realtime Intercom: Low-latency streamed Push-To-Talk audio to your crew
• 🌐 Webhook Triggers: Fire external events (lights, audio, Resolume, etc.)
• 🎛️ Manual Override: Take control anytime with Quick Cuts
• 🔁 Loop Groups: Define named groups of scenes that auto-cycle on their own timer, while still going through the normal Preview/Program pipeline
• 🧹 Manual View Only: Declutter the Director Station to just the switcher, intercom, and transport controls
• 🔄 Resilient to refresh: Reloading any screen (F5) re-syncs it to the live show automatically

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🧠 How it works

The system is powered by a Python backend (Flask + Socket.IO) that communicates with OBS Studio via WebSockets.

It serves different interfaces:

• Director Station (/) → Timeline, controls, NLE, Preview/Program switcher
• Cameraman View (/camera) → Current/next shots, tally (including a "you're in preview" warning when the director arms your camera), intercom — responsive on phones/tablets
• Talent View (/talent) → Prompter, cues, alerts — responsive on phones/tablets

Every screen re-syncs itself from the server on load/reconnect, so refreshing the page or reconnecting after a dropped connection picks the show back up automatically.

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🚀 Installation & Setup

1️⃣ Install OBS & Enable WebSockets

1. Install OBS Studio
2. Go to: Tools → WebSocket Server Settings
3. Enable WebSocket server
4. Set port (default: 4455)
5. Enable authentication and generate password

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2️⃣ Install Python

Install Python 3.8+

⚠️ IMPORTANT (Windows): enable "Add Python to PATH"

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3️⃣ Setup the Project

pip install -r requirements.txt

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4️⃣ Run the App

python app.py

Open:

👉 http://127.0.0.1:5000

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⚙️ Connect to OBS

1. Open settings in UI
2. Enter:
   • Host: localhost
   • Port: 4455
   • Password: your OBS password
3. Click Connect

✅ Status → OBS Connected

ℹ️ You don't need to enable Studio Mode yourself — the app switches it on in OBS automatically the first time you send a scene to Preview.

🔄 If OBS closes or the connection drops mid-show, the app keeps checking in the background and reconnects automatically as soon as OBS is reachable again — no need to reopen Settings.

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🎥 Director Workflow

1. Build the Show

• Add timeline items:
  • Camera shots
  • Lyrics / cues
  • Webhooks
• Set duration & transitions
• Drag to adjust timing

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2. Go Live

• Select mode (Auto / Manual / Record)
• Click ARM SHOW
• Press GO! (SPACE)

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3. Switching (Preview/Program)

Each scene has its own PRV / CUT buttons, stacked like a real switcher bus:

• CUT (or its hotkey) → instant cut straight to Program
• PRV (or Shift + hotkey) → send the scene to Preview first
• TAKE → push whatever is in Preview to Program via OBS's Studio Mode transition (falls back to a direct cut if Studio Mode isn't available)

Pressing any of these while the show is in Auto automatically switches it to Manual, so you're never fighting the automation.

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4. Loop Groups

Click ⚙ Loops to open the Loop Groups panel, where you can create, edit, and delete named groups of scenes (e.g. "Wide Cams" = Scene 1/2/3), each with its own switch interval (in seconds) and a Random Order option.

Every configured group shows up as its own dashed button in both the PRV and PROGRAM rows, right alongside the real scenes:

• PRV on a group → arms its first scene as Preview
• PROGRAM on a group (or the global TAKE button, once armed) → cuts that scene live and starts auto-cycling through the group at its configured interval, picking each next scene sequentially or at random
• The button pulses with a live countdown while its group is cycling
• Only one group cycles at a time; taking any manual PRV/CUT/TAKE action on a real scene pauses it, and pressing PROGRAM on the group again restarts cycling from its first scene
• Camera and talent screens show the same auto-cycling switches as regular Preview/Program changes, including a countdown to the next switch

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5. Manual View Only

Click 🧹 Manual View Only in the toolbar to hide the rundown editor, rundown table, timeline, and SYNC SETUP panel, leaving only the switcher, intercom, and show transport (ARM/GO/Stop) — enlarged for fast, hands-on vision mixing. Click it again to restore the full layout; the choice is remembered across reloads.

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6. Communication

• 🔔 Stage Pager → send alerts
• 🎙️ Hold PTT → talk to crew in realtime with streamed audio

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7. Save & Export

• 💾 Save project
• 🗂️ Export CSV
• 🖨️ Print script

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🧩 Project Structure

app.py
requirements.txt
templates/
 ├── index.html      Director Station page shell
 ├── camera.html     Cameraman View page shell
 └── talent.html     Talent View page shell
static/
 ├── css/
 │   ├── index.css
 │   ├── camera.css
 │   ├── talent.css
 │   └── receiver-common.css   shared by camera.html + talent.html
 └── js/
     ├── index.js
     ├── camera.js
     ├── talent.js
     └── receiver-common.js    shared by camera.html + talent.html

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💡 Pro Tips

• 🖥️ Dual monitor: OBS + Director UI
• 📱 Use local network for mobile access
• 🎥 Auto-record on GO

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❤️ Contributing

Pull requests welcome!
Ideas: vMix, MIDI, PTZ integrations 🚀