What people ask before their event.

Joining

Does anyone need to install an app?

No. Scanning the code opens a web page, and that page is the light. It works on essentially any phone with a current browser, on either platform.

Does anyone have to sign up or give an email?

No. Guests answer one question at most — the one you chose, like home or visitor — and that is the whole of it. No account, no name, no email.

What if someone joins halfway through the song?

They join the show already in progress and land on the next beat with everyone else. Being late costs them the part of the song they missed and nothing more.

What if the venue has terrible signal?

Phones fetch the show once and then run it from their own clock, so they are not depending on the network beat by beat. Bad signal mostly slows people joining. If you expect it to be bad, get the code in front of people early — as they arrive, not as the song starts.

What if a phone locks or the screen dims?

The page asks the phone to stay awake while it is open. If someone locks their phone anyway, reopening it puts them straight back into the show.

The show

Do I have to program anything?

No. You pick the song and how big it should feel; the show is written from the music — the beat, the sections, the drop, the individual instruments. You can change the colours, the energy and the flashing limit, and rebuild it as many times as you like.

Can I use any song?

You use a file you already have. It is decoded and analysed in your own browser and never uploaded — the server only ever receives the light show, meaning colours and timings. Making sure you have the right to play the music at your event is the same question it always was, and it is yours to answer.

What if the DJ is playing the music, not me?

That is the normal case, and it is handled. The host phone can listen through its microphone, work out where in the song the room actually is, and line every phone up with it — correcting as it goes, even if the source runs slightly fast or slow.

Can different parts of the room do different things?

Yes. Ask one question as people join and their answers become groups — two sides answering each other, a wave crossing the stand in order, three blocks lighting in turn. Tell Wildlights where those groups physically are and the movement follows the real room.

Can I see it before the night?

Yes, and you should. The preview runs the actual show through the actual engine on a room of simulated phones. You can also send it to one phone in your pocket to rehearse with, and nobody in the real audience sees anything.

On the night

What do I need to bring?

A phone or a laptop with the control link, and the code in front of people. That is the entire rig.

What if something goes wrong?

One button takes every phone in the room to black. You can also light a single group, put the whole room on one colour, or stop the show and start it again.

How many phones can it handle?

There is no cap. The honest answer is that it has been tested in simulation at 300 phones — 99.8% of them within 50 ms of each other — and not yet in front of a stadium. If you are planning something genuinely large, tell us about it first.

What about people sensitive to flashing light?

Pick the flashing setting deliberately, tell the room what to expect, and remember that anyone can keep their phone in their pocket without affecting anyone else. There is a whole page on how the limits work.

Accounts and cost

Do I need an account?

Not to run an event. An account keeps your events and your saved colours together so they follow you between devices instead of living in one browser.

What does it cost?

Nothing while Wildlights is in beta — the details are here.