Build your first show

Your own copy of the Demo show, changed and put on your desk, in the browser. There are two ways to change a show before it goes on the desk: edit the plan’s tables directly, which needs no AI model, or change the show’s files and build the plan again, which does.

You need: your desk (Set up Atoo), not running a show, with its own show saved. Step 4 also needs a model (Setting up an AI provider); skip it if you don’t have one yet.

1. Make a copy of the Demo show

The Demo show is read-only. atoo init --demo writes a copy of your own into your Atoo folder, as demo-show, beside the starter conventions and presets it was built from. Run after init, it adds only the copy:

atoo init --demo

Working folder: ~/Documents/Atoo (already there)
  README.md                    already there
  conventions.md               already there
  presets/README.md            already there
  presets/                     23 presets: 23 already there
  audit-demo/                  3 files: 3 already there
  demo-show/input.csv          created
  demo-show/instructions.md    created
  demo-show/plan.json          created
  demo-show/watch.json         created

~/.atoo.config:
  [conventions] default    already ~/Documents/Atoo/conventions.md
  [presets] default        already ~/Documents/Atoo/presets
  [workspace] default      already ~/Documents/Atoo

Next: `atoo ui` opens Atoo in your browser, starting in ~/Documents/Atoo. ~/Documents/Atoo/README.md says what each file is.
The Demo show's copy is ~/Documents/Atoo/demo-show: yours to edit, build and apply.

A demo-show folder already there is never written over. To start again from a fresh copy, rename it and run atoo init --demo again.

2. Open the copy

1. Run atoo ui.
2. Next to Show bundle, press Open….
3. Click demo-show/ (tagged SHOW BUNDLE), then press Open demo-show/.

The bar reads demo-show/, and the four tiles read LOADED, with PLAN CURRENT on 04 Plan. Unlike the Demo show, this one can be edited.

3. Change the plan directly (no model needed)

The stage-right guitar amp has been moved to the next socket on the stage box.

1. Click the 04 Plan tile. The Channels table is the input list, one row per input.
2. In the Gtr 2 row, change Patch from AES50-A 9 to AES50-A 10.
3. Press Save input.csv.

The message reads Saved demo-show/input.csv: 1 row(s) changed. The plan is updated: CH 8 patched from AES50-A 10. The tile still reads PLAN CURRENT: the plan changed with the file, without a build.

You can change a channel’s patch, name, DCA and mute groups this way, and a bus’s sources, width and outputs in the Busses table. A cell that can’t work on the desk, such as a socket it doesn’t have, turns red with the reason, and Save waits until it is fixed. Adding a new input is different: it needs a build (step 4).

4. Bring the guest singer in (needs a model)

A build is a call to an AI model, so this step needs one set up before atoo ui starts (Setting up an AI provider). Without one, Rebuild plan is locked, with the reason beside Build plan, and the plan stays exactly as it is: skip this step, leave Guest Vox skipped, and go on to step 5 with the plan from step 3.

The input list already has the guest’s microphone, switched off: its row is skipped, so the build leaves it out.

1. Click the 02 Input list tile. It reads 16 input rows · 1 skipped.
2. In the Guest Vox row, untick Skip, then press Save.

The tile now reads 17 input rows, and 04 Plan reads STALE: the plan no longer matches its files.

3. Click the 04 Plan tile. Under Options, choose your desk’s model under Console model.
4. Press Rebuild plan.

A build takes a few minutes. When it is done, the tile reads PLAN CURRENT. The starter conventions put playback last, so Guest Vox takes channel 13 and Playback moves along to 14. Changed since the last build lists the two strips, and in the Channels table they are marked ADDED and MOVED. Read the Findings panel (Build a show).

5. Apply it to the desk

1. Save the show that is on the desk: on the desk, press Library, then Snap, then Save; set Scope to All and press Save. This is your way back.
2. In the bar at the top, next to Console, press Change… and enter your desk’s Address.
3. Click Apply, then Preview. Atoo reads the desk and shows how many settings will change and how many already match. Nothing is written yet.
4. Tick Arm, then press Write to console.

Every value written is read back, and anything that didn’t land is named. Look at the desk: the channels are named, colored and patched as the plan says. Apply a plan to the desk has each step in full.

6. Watch it

1. Click Watch, then Start watching.
2. Pull a DCA that has channels in it down to the floor. A row appears in the table, and clears when you push the fader back up.
3. Press Stop.

Watch the desk during a show explains what Watch checks, and how to add your own watch conditions.

7. Undo, and put the desk back

On Apply, press Preview undo, then tick Arm and press Undo newest write: the desk goes back to how it was before your write (Undoing a write). Then load the show you saved on the desk.

Next

Patch a show: make a change to a show that is already on the desk, typed in plain English.