Backstage stage clock — green room countdown display_
+ / − running-late offset
C copy the share link
A green room display that needs no operator and no server
Every stage timer on the market is built for the same room: a conference, where somebody sits at the back with a laptop and runs a countdown for one speaker at a time. That is why they all want you to create an account, open a "room", and then quietly cap how many screens are allowed to connect to it. It is a sensible design for a keynote. It is the wrong design for live music.
A gig does not work like that. The set times were fixed weeks ago and printed on the day sheet. Nobody backstage wants to press start — they want to walk into the green room, look at a screen, and know how many minutes the band on stage has left and how long until they are due on. That question has a fixed answer that anyone can compute from the running order and the time of day.
So that is what this does. The running order is encoded into the link itself, and every screen works out the countdowns from the ordinary wall clock. Two screens showing the same link agree because they are solving the same arithmetic, not because they are talking to each other. There is nothing to connect to, nothing to drop out, and nothing to meter — which is why there is no device limit and no account.
What the room actually needs to see
The display is built around the four things people ask backstage. Who is on — the act's name, big enough to read from the door. How long have they got — a large countdown that turns yellow at the warning point, orange in the final five minutes, and red counting up once they run over, because an act eating the changeover is the single most useful thing a stage manager can see early. Who is next and when — so the following band knows whether to start moving. And what state the show is in — doors, on stage, changeover, curfew — as a colour band across the top that reads from the far side of a dark room.
Changeovers are treated as real slots rather than dead air, because for the crew they are the busiest part of the night. Put a changeover in the running order and it gets its own cyan countdown; leave a gap and one is inferred.
Running late, and other things that actually happen
Shows slip. Rather than making you retype every set time, there is a single running-late offset that shifts the whole remaining schedule by a minute or five at a time. The offset is part of the link, so re-sharing it — or asking people to re-scan the QR code taped to the green room door — puts every screen back in agreement at once.
Two more things that bite on real shows are handled quietly. A running order that crosses midnight works without you doing anything: a slot earlier than the one above it is understood as the following day, which is how most club nights and late festival stages are written anyway. And because a cheap tablet's clock is often minutes out, the page checks the device clock against the web server on load and corrects for the difference, so a display with a drifting clock still counts down correctly.
Where it runs
Anything with a browser: a green room TV on a stick, a spare tablet gaffered to the wall, a laptop on the monitor desk, a phone in the tour manager's pocket. Fullscreen mode requests a screen wake lock so displays stay awake, and the layout shifts by a pixel every minute to spare screens that are left on all day from burn-in. Once the page has loaded it needs no network at all, which matters in the kind of backstage area where the wifi is a rumour.
It is not only for festivals. Anything running to a published order works identically — a conference agenda, a Sunday service with a pre-service countdown and a worship set, a school production, a comedy night with five acts and a compère. If you need real sound-level metering rather than the rough ambient indicator here, the online decibel meter does proper A- and C-weighted measurement.
Backstage stage clock FAQ
How do several screens stay in sync without a server?
They are not synced — they are anchored. The running order is encoded in the link, and every screen works out its countdowns from the ordinary wall clock. If two screens open the same link they compute the same numbers from the same time, so they agree by construction.
There is no room to join, no connection to drop and no limit on how many screens you open. A festival can run twenty displays off one link without anything to configure.
Is it really free, with no account?
Yes. No signup, no room code, no trial, no device cap. Most stage timers are subscription products that make you create a room and then limit how many screens can connect to it — this one has nothing to connect to, so there is nothing to meter.
What happens if an act runs over their set time?
The countdown passes zero and flips into a red OVERTIME counter that counts up, so the room can see at a glance that the stage is eating into the changeover. If you have put an explicit changeover slot in the running order, the display switches to the changeover countdown at its scheduled start instead.
The whole show is running late. Do I have to retype everything?
No. Use the running-late offset, which shifts every slot at once — one minute or five at a time. It is part of the link, so re-sharing it (or re-scanning the QR code) puts every screen back in agreement. Nothing in the running order itself changes.
Does it work without internet at the venue?
Yes, once the page has loaded. Everything is computed in the browser from the device clock, so the display keeps running with the network unplugged — which matters backstage, where the wifi is usually somewhere between bad and imaginary. Load the link while you still have signal and leave the tab open.
What if a tablet's clock is wrong?
On load the page compares the device clock against the web server's clock and applies the difference, so a display whose clock has drifted still shows the right countdown. If the drift is more than about 30 seconds it also warns you on screen, because a badly wrong clock is worth fixing on the device rather than papering over.
Can it show the FOH audio level?
Only from an audio input on the device that is running the display — and a green room TV does not have one. Rather than pretend otherwise, the display takes its state from the schedule, and offers an optional ambient level meter using the display device's own microphone as a rough "is the band still playing" signal.
For real measurement with A- and C-weighting, LAeq and peak levels, use the online decibel meter instead.
How is this different from stagetimer.io and the other stage timers?
Those are built for conferences, where an operator runs a timer live for one speaker at a time — which is why they need an account, a room and a live connection per screen. Live music runs to a published day sheet instead: the set times are fixed hours in advance, so nobody needs to press start.
This takes the schedule-driven approach, which is why it needs no operator, no server and no device limit. The honest trade-off: there is no live "hold the clock" button. You nudge the whole schedule with the running-late offset instead.
What exactly does the display show?
The wall clock, the act currently on stage, a large countdown of the time they have left, a progress bar across their slot, and the next act with the time until they are due on. A colour band across the top gives the state from across the room: green while there is time, yellow at the warning point, orange in the last five minutes, red in overtime, cyan during a changeover and purple before doors.
Can I use it for a conference, a church service or a school show?
Yes. Anything running to a published order of service or agenda has the same shape — speakers, worship sets, prize-givings, school productions, comedy line-ups. A Sunday service with a pre-service countdown, a sermon slot and a closing band is structurally identical to a festival stage.
Does the screen stay awake?
Fullscreen asks the browser for a screen wake lock, which keeps most phones, tablets and laptops on. Some browsers and TV sticks ignore it, so if a display keeps sleeping, set the device itself to never sleep. The layout also shifts by a pixel or two every minute to reduce burn-in risk on screens left on all day.
How do I type the running order?
Start times as 24-hour times — 2030 or 20:30, both work — and lengths in minutes. The display can show 12-hour or 24-hour independently of how you typed them. Add changeovers as their own slots to get a dedicated changeover countdown, or leave gaps and one is inferred.
What about a show that runs past midnight?
Handled automatically. Any slot with a start time earlier than the slot above it is understood as the following day, so a running order that goes 22:00, 23:15, 00:30, 01:45 works exactly as written — which is how club nights and late festival stages are normally printed anyway.
Can I put it on a TV that has no keyboard?
Yes — that is the main use case. Build the schedule on your laptop or phone, then send the link to the TV however you normally would: a QR code, a text message, or by opening the browser on the stick and typing a short link. The display needs no interaction once it is up; it just runs.
Is any of this uploaded anywhere?
No. The running order exists in the link and in your own browser's local storage, and nowhere else. There is no server component, no database and no account to attach it to. The only requests the page makes are for the page itself, the shared stylesheet and cookie-free analytics.
Why does the link get long with a big running order?
Because the whole schedule genuinely is in it — that is the trade for having no server. A twelve-act festival day is still comfortably inside what browsers and messaging apps handle. If you are pasting it somewhere that mangles long URLs, use the QR code, or run it through any link shortener.
Can two people edit the schedule at once?
No, and deliberately so. There is no shared state, so there is nothing to conflict — one person owns the running order and shares the link when it changes. On a show day that is usually what you want anyway: one source of truth, held by the stage manager.
Does it make a noise at the end of a set?
No. A green room display that starts beeping during a quiet acoustic set is a liability, and the screen is often in a room with a live mic somewhere near it. All the signalling is visual: colour, size and the flashing overtime counter.
What is the difference between an act slot and a changeover slot?
Only how it is displayed. A changeover gets the cyan state, dashed styling in the running order, and reads as "CHANGEOVER" rather than an act name — so nobody mistakes it for a performance. Use them for turnarounds, intervals and breaks.
Does it handle a curfew?
The end of the last slot is treated as the curfew, and once it passes the display switches to a dim CURFEW state. If your curfew is a hard licensing deadline rather than the end of the headline set, add it as a final zero-length slot so it shows in the running order as its own marker.
Can I run several stages?
Yes — one link per stage. Name each one in the event field ("Main Stage · Saturday", "Tent · Saturday") and the name shows under the clock, so a screen in a shared production office is unambiguous. Since there are no accounts or rooms, running six stages costs exactly as much as running one.
Is it accessible on a small phone screen?
The display scales down to phone size and stays readable — the countdown is the largest thing on screen at every size. The schedule editor is usable on a phone but easier on a laptop, so the usual pattern is to build it once on a laptop and only ever open the link on the phones.