Remote access
Siglos Professional allows you to set up your show for remote access. Customers can browse the list of songs and add requests using their own devices (phones, tablets, laptops) or you may provide a pre-set device for them. This eliminates the need for printed songbooks, makes searching for songs much faster and you, as a KJ, do not have to deal with paper request slips.
Remote request mode also enables customers to create their accounts, so they can check the songs they have sung in the past, add them to the rotation, and manage their rotation without bothering the KJ.
Remote access can be run in two connection modes (they are not exclusive, both can be used at the same time):
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Internet server |
Local network |
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Running remote requests in Internet server mode
Running remote requests in Local network mode
INTERNET SERVER: QUICK START
1. Before you start using remote queue in Siglos you need to open an account at connectkaraoke.com. It is a website that serves as an intermediary between Siglos running on your laptop and your customers. You will need to provide the email address and a unique name for your show. To provide you with this service we need to charge a monthly fee for it.
On your account page at Connect Karaoke you will find an API key that you will need to connect Siglos to the server. You can also choose if customers need to enter code before accessing your show (you may change the code each nigth so only people attending know it and you will not get bogus requests by jokers).
2. To enable the remote interface in Siglos open Remote Queue window using Remote Queue button in Rotation window (
),open Settings and go to Internet card. Enter the API key in the appropriate field. connectkaraoke.com should be selected as web server to use. Click Test connection button to see if everything works.
3. Now you have two ways to provide customers with access to your show. You may:
A. Give customers your show name and (optional) access code and ask them to enter connectkaraoke.com on their devices
B. Use Direct URL to have customers enter directly to your show. You may either put the link on your website or you can use QR code generated in Siglos.for the customers to scan on their phones for fast access. Sample QR code looks like this:
4. When customers go to the address provided by you, they will be presented with the starting page. You can control how this page looks in Remote Queue Settings.
The login icon in top right corner is displayed only if cookies are enabled.
5. Customers have your song book at their fingertips. They can browse, search, and add requests by touching the songs on the list.
Please note that in Browse by artist mode multiple songs by the same artist are combined.
6. When a user selects the song, Siglos displays a form that allows to add the request.
The user is required to choose a secret numeric code that is used as password and prevents other users from adding (and removing) songs on her/his behalf.
When adding song it is possible to request a key change. Remarks field allows to provide the KJ with more information if needed.
7. Requests added by the users are placed in the Remote Queue (unless Auto Add is enabled, see more info here)
Double-clicking on the request adds it to the rotation. You may also choose to open the song and singer in Add Singer using button or a right-click menu item. You may display singer information using Edit Singer button. It allows to match singer from the request to one in your database (see more in Matching singers).
Now you are ready to run your show. Please see below topics for more detailed information on how to adjust remote request functionality to your needs.
LOCAL NETWORK: QUICK START
Before you start using remote queue in Siglos you need to have client devices (customer phones or your kiosk device) connected to the same network as the computer that is running Siglos. You may provide a WiFi router to do this and provide your customers with a password to connect to the router.
1. To enable the remote interface in Siglos open Remote Queue window using Remote Queue button in Rotation window (
),open Settings, go to Local network card and make sure that Enable local network server option is checked there.
2. If your computer has more than one network interface, select the one used for customers' router in Local server network. Also make a note of a port used by the server (it is 6803 by default). Below you will find the link to provide to the customers. You may generate a QR code for the customers to scan on their phones for fast access. Sample QR code looks like this:
3. When customers go to the address provided by you, they will be presented with the starting page. You can control how this page looks in Remote Queue Settings.
The login icon in top right corner is displayed only if cookies are enabled.
4. Customers have your song book at their fingertips. They can browse, search, and add requests by touching the songs on the list.
Please note that in Browse by artist mode multiple songs by the same artist are combined.
5. When a user selects the song, Siglos displays a form that allows to add the request.
The user is required to choose a secret numeric code that is used as password and prevents other users from adding (and removing) songs on her/his behalf.
When adding song it is possible to request a key change. Remarks field allows to provide the KJ with more information if needed.
6. Requests added by the users are placed in the Remote Queue (unless Auto Add is enabled, see more info here)
Double-clicking on the request adds it to the rotation. You may also choose to open the song and singer in Add Singer using button or a right-click menu item. You may display singer information using Edit Singer button. It allows to match singer from the request to one in your database (see more in Matching singers).
Now you are ready to run your show. Please see below topics for more detailed information on how to adjust remote request functionality to your needs.
REMOTE QUEUE
Remote queue is the control center for most of the remote access functions. When a singer makes a request on their phone, this is where KJ sees the request. It also provides options to control remote access.
The list contains requests done by the singers from the remote devices (unless Auto add is enabled, see below). It displays the name of the singer, the song he/she has chosen and some additional information. The window is resizeable and you can arrange the order of the columns to your liking by dragging and dropping the headers.
Dark blue color mean matched singer. Light blue is a request that had 'This is my first request tonight' option selected when adding a song.
Clicking on the requests selects it and enables you to perform additional actions. You may:
Add the song to the rotation. This puts the song straight into the rotation.
Open in Add Singer before adding to the rotation
Edit Singer in Singer window (only for singers already in the history)
Use Request details to open full information about the request and allows to match the singer to one from the history
Remove the request from the list
Remove All requests
Add All requests
The area on the bottom allows you to control the remote request engine.
Auto add does not list requests in Remote Queue window, but places them directly into the rotation. You may define exceptions in Remote Queue Settings / General section
Freeze disables the possibility to add requests, but keeps the server running (users can browse the songs).
Go offline blocks the access to the server (both local and internet).
More advanced options (for example choosing to automatically add requests only from registered singers) can be accessed in Settings.
The sphere button displays the current state of the internet server connection (red means error, green - OK, grey - disabled).
History opens requests from the past.
Settings opens the Settings window that allows to adjust remote access functionality.
SETTINGS
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Local Network |
Local server port defines TCP port used by web interface. This port must be open in firewall
Local server network allows to select the network interface used by Siglos. This allows to use one interface to connect your laptop to the internet (don't select it here) and use the second one for local server (this should be selected here).
Client URL is an address that customers should enter in their mobile phone browser to open the remote interface. If you are using this in a kiosk setup, or if you are providing your devices for the customers, you may choose to use the interface with cookies always disabled (this ensures that user's data is not stored in the browser)
Siglos can generate QR code that contains the client URL. You may display it and users can scan it with their phones. Use query cache is a setting that affects the speed of browsing of the songs. If cache is disables, Siglos prepares a fresh list of songs based on user criteria every time request is made. With cache enables queries that are single letters or pair of letters are prepared and kept in memory, so they are presented to the user much faster. Cache is build after the program starts and for approx. 100K songs it takes 5 minutes before it is ready on a regular computer.
As it takes a while to create the cache Siglos can save cache to disc once it is created and preload it on the next run. It will rebuild the cache, but queries will run fast from the start. You can disable this functionality using Store query cache from the last run and load before generating option. |
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Internet |
Enable internet server turns the connection on and off Web server to use allows to choose the server if more than one is available API key is obtained from your Connect Karaoke account page and allows Siglos to identify itself on the server Test connection button will check, if everything is correct Your show name is the name you define on your Connect Karaoke account and which will be used by users to enter your show Direct URL allows direct access to your show, but customers still have to enter your show's code if enabled Direct URL (no code) skips code input and provides direct link |
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General |
Allow cookies enables user names and password storage on client machines. You can override this using one of the links generated on Network page.
Max number of requests limits how many requests can be in the queue. If the limit is reached, users cannot add songs.
Max number of requests per singer limits the number of requests singer can place. When a song is sung, singer can place next request.
When Auto add is enabled in Remote Queue window requests are automatically processed and songs are added to the rotation. You may disable this feature with the following conditions:
Pause when remarks entered : if singer enters anything in Remarks section Pause when singer not matched : if singer is not matched agains any singer from the database Pause when song has duplicates : if more than one version of the song exists
Keychange steps allowed defines the number of semitones to modify the song that user can request
If you disable Require secret code option, user will not have to enter the code when making requests, but this will also cause adding new singer with each request. This works best for automatic kiosks. You may also choose if singers are required to provide unique names.
Enable 'This is my first request tonight' field shows appropriate checkbox under the singer's name when adding a song. Requests with this option selected will be displayed in light blue on the list of requests. You may also choose to force new singers to provide unique name, so you do not have four Toms in the rotation.
Require initial after space in singer name will force singers to add extra letter after name, so you do not have only single names in the rotation. This would work well with any of the name checking options. |
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Display |
Page color and Text color are the colors used in remote interface
Song list presentation section allows to fine-tune the page. Options are:
Show on-screen keyboard : with this enabled Siglos will add keyboard buttons to the search screen (use if remote device you are using does not provide an on-screen keyboard)
Show disc IDs : names of discs will be displayed to the user
Merge duplicates (same song and artist name) : the same song from different discs will be listed only once
Hide incomplete (blank artist or song) : songs missing some information will be hidden from the user
Detect commas in artist names (Beatles, The -> The Beatles) : artist names will be displayed in more readable form
If you choose to include the most popular songs, here you can define the Number of most popular songs to display and number of days to go back and make the statistics.
If you choose to display the singer's queue, you may define the maximum number of songs and allow only the first song for each singer to display (this is overriden if the user is logged in).
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Title page |
This window allows to define the first page that the users see. You can select which buttons will be available, you can rename them and you can modify the initial message displayed (it can be either a text or a image).
You may also choose a separate image that can be displayed in the background of the title page. |
MATCHING SINGERS
As a KJ you probably have a lot of regular singers in your database. You may configure remote queue so your regulars are matched to their database entries.
Users in the database are identified by name and venue (so you can have the same users on different venues). But remote access allows several users of the same name -- they identify themselves using secret code. You may create initial password for your regulars. Do do this go to open singer properties (either from Add Singer / Edit Singers / Properties or by using Edit singer properties button in Rotation window) and you will find two fields that apply to remote request users:
Remote singer name is the name that user enters when logging in or adding songs. Remote queue PIN is his/her secret code.
It is also possible to match singers to existing entries in the database directly from Remote queue window. You need to select the singer on the list of waiting requests and click Edit singer. Then find the singer in the database and finish with Select.