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rosterRF — User Guide

"your RF roster" — a live per-mic dashboard for Shure and Sennheiser wireless systems, with RF coordination, local-TV awareness, and headphone monitoring.

Version 0.9.14 · Windows 10/11 and macOS (Apple Silicon)

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1. What it is

Run rosterRF on one computer (the host) that is on the same network as your wireless gear. It shows a live card for every mic and IEM — RF, audio, battery, quality — and lets phones and tablets watch along by scanning a QR code (nothing to install on them). Plug in a tinySA Ultra or RF Explorer and it adds a live RF spectrum, interference detection, and clear-frequency suggestions.

Supported systems: Shure Axient Digital, ULX-D, QLX-D, SLX-D and PSM1000 (P10T IEM); Sennheiser EW-DX, Digital 6000 and EW G3 (300/500 series receivers, and the ew 300 IEM G3 transmitter).

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2. Install and run

Windows: run the setup file from the download page. Windows SmartScreen may show "unrecognized app" the first time — choose More info ▸ Run anyway — and then asks once for admin approval, like any installer. Setup adds the Start-menu entry, an optional desktop shortcut, and the Windows Firewall rule that lets phones reach the app, so the first launch asks nothing.

macOS: open the DMG, drag rosterRF to Applications and launch it. When macOS asks to allow incoming network connections, click Allow.

There is nothing else to install. Only one copy runs at a time — it owns the network port and the analyzer.

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3. The window

At first launch, if the host computer is on more than one network, rosterRF asks you to pick which adapter your gear is on, and — if your phones will connect over a different network — which adapter *that* is. This makes the Pair-a-phone QR correct the first time. You can change it later in Settings.

Esc closes whatever is on top: a dialog, then an open menu, then the drawer, then the Live scan panel.

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4. Cards

Each online mic/IEM is a card showing its name, RF %, audio level and battery. Audio is in dBFS, like the receivers' own meters and Wireless Workbench: 0 dBFS is full scale, and the bar runs from -50 dBFS, green to -20, yellow to -3, red at overload (Sennheiser G3 units show their own 0–100 meter). The battery is a small battery-shaped gauge that fills green, turns amber as it drops, and red when low, with the estimated runtime beside it. For Axient, purple dots show the receiver's link quality (0–5) — the same idea as the purple dots in Wireless Workbench, kept purple so they never read as battery or RF. A card flashes and shows a badge when something is wrong: low RF, clipping, low battery, RF interference, or an occupied TV channel. Settings ▸ Steady alert swaps the pulse for a steady red.

Card size (View menu or Z): Small = photo + name, Medium = adds the meters, Large = adds the RF/audio history timelines.

Sort (View menu or S): by name, device, RF, battery or alerts, or drag cards into your own order. Device type (T) filters mics / IEMs / battery.

Free space (in Sort): drag any card to any spot on the workspace. Sort another way and come back, and every card returns to its spot. Each tab keeps its own arrangement, and a card in alert always comes to the front. Phones keep their own sort.

Hidden cards — Hide this card in a card's detail dialog takes it off the grid but keeps monitoring it; the Hidden chip in the top bar brings it back.

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5. Card details (click any card)

Names, colors, groups, console channels and photos follow the device even if its IP changes, and are saved in show files and scenes.

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6. Photos

Tap the camera in the photo area to add a face to a card. Once set, a small change-photo button and a remove (✕) appear in the corner (they fade in on hover on a computer). Photos are kept whole and framed on the face: rosterRF keeps the whole head in view at every card size, on a computer and on a phone, and on Stream Deck keys. Where the browser can find faces this is automatic; anywhere else, or if a crop is off, open the card and drag the photo in Photo framing: the card follows. An optional portrait effect softens the background (toggle in the Pair a phone dialog).

> HEIC photos: use a JPG, or add the photo from a phone — Chrome on a computer > can't read HEIC.

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7. Show files

A show is your names, photos, colors, patches, thresholds, ZIP, backups and scenes. File ▸ Save writes it as an .rrf file you can open later or on another host (Ctrl/⌘ + N / O / S / Shift+S). Changes autosave in the background; a dot beside the file name in the top bar means unsaved edits.

At startup the host asks whether to reload the last show or start blank. The prompt appears a moment after the dashboard is on screen. Settings ▸ Ask to reload last show at startup turns it off, in which case the last show reloads silently.

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8. Scenes

Scenes drawer ▸ type a name ▸ Save captures the current names, colors, photos and layout. Previous / Next step through them (Next ▶ also sits in the top bar). Update on a scene overwrites it with what's on screen now. Scenes are numbered, and the order you drag them into is the number a Stream Deck key or a console recalls. A Stream Deck or a console can recall scenes only when the Enable remote scene recall switch at the top of the drawer is on (see §20 and §21). rosterRF remembers which scene is active across a restart.

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9. Chat

The Chat drawer is a small team channel between the host and every paired phone (for "mic 3 is hot", "swapping 7's pack"). Messages are kept with the show, so they travel in the .rrf file, and stay until you clear them: Clear chat (on the rosterRF computer) removes every message for everyone. Press C to open it.

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10. Settings

The Settings drawer holds what you change during a show:

Everything else is in the Settings menu in the menu bar:

Check for updates on launch is in About (the About menu in a browser, or About rosterRF in the desktop app): the host checks muffstuff.net for a newer rosterRF when it starts, and Check now checks any time. It only reads a version file and sends nothing about your show; phones never check; offline venues skip it silently.

In the Help menu (the About menu in a browser):

Letting another app read rosterRF. Another app on your network can ask to read your mic status and photos. rosterRF then asks on this computer's screen — never on a phone — showing the app's name, its address and a 4-digit code. Allow it only if the app shows the same code. An app can also ask to flash a receiver, start or stop Line Check, or rename cards; the prompt lists exactly what it asks for, and without those it can only read. Nothing an app does ever reaches the console. To change what an app may do, revoke it and let it pair again.

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11. Phones and tablets

Pair a phone (P) ▸ scan the QR code with the phone's camera. The phone must be on the same network as the host. If the host is on more than one network, the launch network picker (also in Settings) lets you choose which adapter your phones connect over, so the QR always points at the right address. Remote viewers see the cards, scenes and chat; the host's settings stay on the host.

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12. Live RF (the Scan panel)

Plug a tinySA Ultra or RF Explorer into USB — the app detects it and the Scan button turns green. Live scan (L) opens a panel with (the cards drop to Small while it's open so the spectrum has room, and go back to your size when you close it):

Suggestions are built from each system's Standard compatibility profile — for a critical show, confirm in Wireless Workbench. The analyzer is configured automatically and reconnects on its own.

### Countries

The Country dropdown sets the legal spectrum *and* how rosterRF coordinates, because the rules differ by region:

A US operator is only ever offered US-legal frequencies — a non-US band can't leak into a US suggestion.

Network analyzer (beta). Live RF can also drive a spectrum analyzer on your network (Siglent, Rigol, Keysight / FieldFox, Rohde & Schwarz, Anritsu): type its address under Network analyzer at the bottom of the Live RF panel. rosterRF takes over that analyzer's sweep while connected and hands it back when you clear the address, so use one nobody else is using.

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13. Headphone monitoring

With an audio interface or Dante Virtual Soundcard on the host:

1. Open a card ▸ Audio input ▸ pick the input device and channel carrying that mic. The list shows one entry per real input device. 2. On the card, tap the headphones button to listen (on the host or a phone).

Headphones only — never monitor a live mic through speakers. The first time, the OS asks for microphone permission — allow it.

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14. Line Check

Line Check (Alt/Option + L, or View ▸ Line Check) is the start-of-day pass: every online mic fades on the grid until it has shown healthy RF and audio at or above the level you set — have someone talk into each one. It ends by itself when every mic has passed, or end it from the same dialog.

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15. Identify, device list, exports

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16. Keyboard shortcuts

Single keys work when you are not typing in a field and no dialog is open. About ▸ Keyboard shortcuts lists them: L scan, P pair, S sort, C chat, Z size, T type, D demo, W workspace, Alt+L Line Check.

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17. Stopping the app

Close the window, File ▸ Exit, or ⌘Q on a Mac. If the show has unsaved edits the app asks first (Save, Don't Save or Cancel). Nothing is left running, and the window opens at the same size and place next time.

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18. Where your data lives

Everything stays on the host, outside the app, so updates never lose it:

Delete that folder to start fresh. See PRIVACY.md for the full data story — nothing personal leaves your computer.

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19. Troubleshooting

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20. Stream Deck

Install the rosterRF plugin from the download page (double-click the .streamDeckPlugin file; the Stream Deck app imports it). A deck on the same computer as rosterRF needs no setup beyond the host address, which the key settings detect. A deck on another computer also needs the pairing token — the k= value in the link the Pair-a-phone QR opens.

Seven keys, each configured in the Stream Deck app's key settings:

When a key refuses a press it flashes ✗ and says why on the key for a moment ("Recall a scene first", "Turn on remote recall in rosterRF", "Not paired", or "Console owns scenes" while Lockstep is on).

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21. Console scene follow (X32 / M32, Yamaha, Allen & Heath)

The Console button opens scene follow: rosterRF watches the desk's current scene and recalls its own scene with the same number when the desk changes — read-only, it never changes anything on the desk. Pick your desk family — the dialog scans the network on its own when no desk is set, and fills it in when it finds exactly one — or hit Scan (or type the desk's IP), tick Follow this console, and turn on Enable remote scene recall. Scan looks on every network this computer is connected to and lists each desk by the name set on it. Nothing needs switching on at the desk. Lockstep additionally lets the desk create scenes: recalling a scene rosterRF doesn't have yet creates the matching rosterRF scene. While Lockstep is on, scenes are recalled from the desk only: rosterRF's own recall and Stream Deck Recall keys are locked. Your console setup is kept when you quit and reopen rosterRF.

Other desk families are in beta.

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