Timer

Cliqer has one timer for the room. You run it from the main window, presenters see it in their room bar, and it can also appear on a second screen as a timer window or on your network as an NDI source.

Run the timer

The timer starts at 15:00, counting down, stopped.

The time can be set from 0:00 up to 999:59. With a preset lit and the timer stopped, changing the time changes that preset.

The timer counts down by default. To count up from 0:00, set Direction under Mode in the Timer section to Counts up (Windows: Count up), or set Counts to Up in Settings, Show, Timer: "Up starts at 0:00. Changing it restarts a running timer."

If your plan does not include the full timer, the Classic timer stays visible but blurred and switched off behind one frosted lock that reads Timer. Press the lock to open the upgrade page. In the Studio layout the minute steps, presets, the timer window, Timer NDI and Limitimer carry the same lock, and in the Timer menu everything but Start or Stop is locked. A Limitimer plugged in says once that it needs the plan. This is the same on macOS and Windows.

Colours and states

The clock changes colour with the state, in the main window, the timer window, on presenters' phones, on the Stream Deck and in the NDI picture.

Overtime

When a count down reaches zero the clock shows 0:00 for a second, then -0:01, -0:02 and so on, in red. It does not stop. If you pause during overtime, the overrun is kept and starting again carries on from it. A count up never leaves the Talk state.

While a Limitimer leads, the warning follows its sum-up window instead of the last minute.

The timer window

The timer window is a second screen for the speaker: only the digits, no controls. Open it with Fullscreen Timer (Classic), Show Timer Display (Timer menu), Show (macOS Split View), the Timer display button on the Windows Timer page, or Show timer window in the Windows command bar. The Fullscreen Timer button stays lit while the window is open.

macOSWindows

Window title Timer Display, with a hidden title bar. It can use the system full screen. The digits take the colour of the state on the look you choose in Settings, Show, Timer, under Timer window.

NDI output

Switch NDI on in the Classic timer card (Studio layout: Timer NDI) and the timer appears on your network as an NDI source called Cliqer Timer. Pick it up in any NDI receiver, for example vMix, or as an NDI input in Studio. With a watermark on your plan, such as the Free trial, the NDI timer carries the same moving watermark as every other output.

Settings, Show, Timer has the output options, with the same names on both platforms:

If the output cannot start you see Timer NDI Output Failed. NDI sources are found on the local network, which on macOS needs Local Network permission (see Permissions).

When NDI cannot run, the NDI controls are greyed out with a note: "NDI® is not installed on this computer. Install NDI Tools, then restart Cliqer.", "This build of Cliqer has no NDI®." or, on Windows on Arm, "NDI® has no Windows on Arm version. The x64 Cliqer has NDI and runs on this PC."

Limitimer

A DSAN Limitimer connected by its USB cable and the Cliqer timer keep each other in step. Which one leads is set by DIP switch 1 on the Limitimer, and Cliqer follows it. See DSAN PerfectCue and Limitimer for the cable and the switch.

The status shows next to Limitimer under Outputs in the Studio layout's Timer section, on both platforms.

In the Classic layout, with a Limitimer attached, the clock icon becomes Set Sum-Up. Click it and the steppers set the sum-up window (0 to 99 minutes); clicking the time opens Sum-Up minutes and Sum-Up seconds. Two toggles appear: Blink signal lights for this program and Beep for this program. The Devices pill shows the clock and a phase label: Talk, Sum up, Overtime, Setting, Idle or Driven by Cliqer.

Other ways to run the timer

• A paired phone running Cliqer Remote starts, pauses, adjusts and resets the timer, and can set its time. See Cliqer Remote.
• Stream Deck and Bitfocus Companion buttons run the same actions. See Stream Deck and Bitfocus Companion.
• The timer actions (start, stop, reset, add or remove minutes, presets, NDI) can be bound to keys in External Control.
• Presenters in Cliqer Remote see the timer in their room bar. They cannot start or change it.

Timer settings live in Settings, Show, Timer: the count direction (Counts), the timer window look and the NDI output, on both platforms.