01 · Getting Started

Getting Started

Understand what tally is and see the setup journey for your product (ready-made kit or Free edition). By the end of this page you know exactly which document to open next.

Applies to the kit and the Free edition

Before you start

Ready-made kit: master (and receivers) delivered
Free edition: module purchased and firmware installed via the DIY guide

What is a tally system?#

Tally tells camera operators which camera is on-air right now and which is scheduled next in studios and live events.

State	Meaning	LED color	Operator action
PGM (Program)	On-air now	Red	On-air — be careful
PVW (Preview)	Scheduled next	Green	My turn soon
OFF	Not on-air	Off (or blue)	Standing by

Components#

TALLY-NODE comes in two forms.

Ready-made kit (Licensed edition) — the master and receivers arrive as finished devices. Unbox, set up, and run — no assembly.

Master — takes tally from the switcher, broadcasts it over LoRa to every receiver, and hosts the web console (up to 20 receivers, license-governed).
Receiver — mounts on a camera and shows only its own camera number state on LED and OLED.

TALLY-NODE kit operation: switcher → Master → LoRa wireless → Receiver → LED display flow — Ready-made kit — the tally signal travels wirelessly from the switcher through the master to the receivers

Free edition (self-installed) — you buy an ESP32-S3 module yourself and flash the free firmware onto it. No receivers — phones and browsers act as tally monitors (Web Tally). Follow the DIY guide from purchasing to install.

Free edition operation: switcher → Free master → WiFi network → phone/browser (Web Tally) display flow — Free edition — no receivers; phones and browsers receive tally over Web Tally

Tally travels over two paths

Tally travels over two paths: LoRa wireless to the receivers, and Web Tally (over the WiFi network) to phones and browsers. The ready-made kit master uses both paths; the Free edition uses Web Tally only.

Setup journey#

For the ready-made kit, follow this order — each document is the prerequisite of the next.

1
Hardware setup
Doc 02 → exterior check, mounting, charging, pre-use checklist passed
2
Firmware
Doc 03 → installed via the web flasher, master/receiver versions match
3
Network
Doc 04 → web console reachable over a path that fits your site
4
Console & system
Docs 05-06 → console layout learned, basic settings
5
License
Doc 07 → key entered, Active badge shown (master)

For the Free edition: DIY guide (install) → 04 Network → 05 Web Console → 09 Switcher Integration.

You know the product lines and your journey order
You know the three states: PGM, PVW, OFF

Stuck on the journey? Find your symptom in the Troubleshooting tables.

Next steps

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