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Stage Mode transforms your iPhone or iPad into a confidence monitor. It’s designed to be placed on a music stand, podium, or held in hand, giving the presenter a clear view of the current slide or lyric along with a preview of what follows — without ever glancing at the main screen.

Portrait layout

In portrait orientation, the screen is divided into two regions:

Current item (top 65%)

The active slide content fills the top portion of the screen in large, high-contrast text. This is the primary reading area for the presenter.

Next preview (bottom)

The bottom portion shows a preview of the upcoming item — either the first line of text or a thumbnail, depending on content type.

Current item display

  • Songs and Bible items display in large text optimized for reading at arm’s length or from a stand a few feet away. Bible references (book, chapter, verse) appear alongside the verse text.
  • Other media items (images, videos) display a thumbnail of the content so the presenter knows what’s on screen.

Next preview

The next preview area shows a smaller version of what’s coming up:
  • For Songs and Bible: the first line of the next slide or verse, so the presenter can anticipate the transition.
  • For other media: a thumbnail of the next item.
When no next item exists (end of playlist), the next preview area is blank.

Tap zones

The screen is divided into invisible tap zones for quick navigation without looking at the device:
  • Tap the right side of the screen to advance to the next slide or item.
  • Tap the left side to go back to the previous slide or item.
Tap zones work across the full height of the screen, so you can navigate with a natural thumb tap while holding the device — no need to aim at a specific button.

Swipe gestures

As an alternative to tap zones:
  • Swipe left to advance forward.
  • Swipe right to go back.

Bluetooth page-turner support

Stage Mode supports standard Bluetooth page-turners (clickers) that send keyboard arrow or spacebar events:
KeyAction
Right arrowAdvance to next slide / item
Left arrowGo back to previous slide / item
SpacebarAdvance to next slide / item
Connect your Bluetooth page-turner to your iPhone or iPad before launching Stage Mode. The app listens for these key events in the background, so the device screen does not need to be focused on any particular element.
Not all Bluetooth page-turners are identical. If your device uses different keys, check the manufacturer’s app for key remapping options.

Timeline scrubber

For video items, a timeline scrubber appears at the bottom of the current item region. This shows your position within the video and allows the presenter (or an assisting operator on Stage Mode) to drag to any point in the clip. The scrubber is hidden for Songs, Bible, and image items.

iPhone landscape layout

On iPhone, rotating to landscape orientation switches Stage Mode into a fullscreen layout:
  • The current slide or lyric text expands to fill the full screen at maximum size.
  • A bottom strip along the lower edge shows the next-item preview — the first line of text or a small thumbnail.
This layout is well suited for hand-held use during a fast-paced service where maximum text size matters most.
Tap zones and swipe gestures work the same way in landscape — tap the right half to advance, tap the left half to go back.

Thumbnail display

When the active item is a video or image (rather than a Song or Bible), Stage Mode displays a thumbnail of that item instead of text. This keeps the presenter aware of what’s on screen even for non-lyric content. For items with a configured title, the title appears beneath the thumbnail in a readable size.

Stage countdown timer

A playlist item action can start a Stage Display countdown — a timer that appears only on stage displays (the Remote’s Stage Mode and the Apple TV’s TV Wall Stage Display), never on the audience/program output. It’s designed so a speaker or pastor can glance at their remaining time and optionally run over. When a stage countdown is running, a compact timer pill appears in the upper-right corner of Stage Mode and counts down each second. If Allow Overrun is set, the timer continues into negative time and turns red when it passes zero.
Set this up under a playlist item’s Actions → Countdown Timer, choosing Display: Stage Only. A “Program” countdown instead shows on the audience output (and optionally mirrors onto a TV Wall Stage quadrant). See Playlists → item actions.
The timer is driven by the Apple TV and broadcast to every connected device, so all stage displays show the same synchronized countdown.