Skip to content
DMX Core

Timelines

Timelines choreograph complete shows: cues, presets, effects, sounds, Control Value moves, and scripts arranged on a visual multi-track editor, all firing at exact times.

Timeline editor with cue and sound tracks

Timeline Settings

Each timeline has a code and name, plus:

  • Duration — the total length of the timeline
  • Loop — how many times to repeat (0 = forever)
  • Dimmer — overall brightness for the timeline’s playback
  • Fade-In / Fade-Out — smooth start and end for the whole timeline
  • Description, Favorite, and Only Admin flags

The Editor

Open a timeline and click Editor. Drag events from the Available Events panel — cues, presets, sounds, effects, control values, and scripts — onto the tracks, then drag to position and resize them.

  • Cue tracks — cue events show an intensity profile you can shape, ramping the cue’s dimmer over its duration (fade a show in over ten seconds, dip it in the middle, out at the end)
  • Sound tracks — audio events render their waveform on the track, making it easy to line lighting hits up with the music. Each sound event has a Loop count (0 = forever) and a Layer for same-layer replacement, like cue playback layers
  • Control Value tracks — move levels (like a DSP volume) at exact points in the show
  • Other events — script events run a script at an exact timestamp, and Hold milestones make the timeline wait for a trigger before continuing

A playhead with seek/scrub lets you preview any point; zoom and snapping make fine alignment easy.

Interactive Timelines

A timeline doesn’t have to run start-to-finish on its own. Drop a Hold milestone on it and playback waits at that point — looping sounds keep looping, the lights hold — until a button release, another trigger, or a timeout continues the show. That’s how a timeline follows a tap handle, an operator’s cue, or a payment confirmation.

Playback Controls

During playback, the Web UI provides a progress bar with pause/resume, seek/scrub, and stop — on the timeline page and on the dashboard. A timeline waiting at a Hold milestone shows a red HOLDING badge, and play acts as continue.

Triggering Timelines

Timelines can be started from:

  • Web UI — the play button in the timeline list
  • Touchscreen — via schedules or custom menus
  • Control surfaces — a Play Timeline button assignment
  • External control — API, OSC, MQTT, or other input triggers
  • Scripts — dmx.playTimeline(code)

Duplicating Timelines

Duplicate a timeline from its detail page to create variations of an existing sequence.