Connected sockets

DreamShow can switch power sockets on or off during a show: cut the power of architectural fixtures at night, bring it back before opening, start a smoke machine or a sign at the right moment. Four kinds of sockets are supported:

Type	What you need	Socket setting
Home Assistant	a Home Assistant server that already knows the socket (Zigbee through ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT, Wi-Fi…)	the entity, for example `switch.facade_lights`
Zigbee2MQTT	a Zigbee USB stick, Zigbee2MQTT and an MQTT server (Mosquitto…), without Home Assistant	the device topic, for example `zigbee2mqtt/facade_plug`
Shelly (Wi-Fi)	nothing else: DreamShow talks to the socket directly	its IP address
Tasmota (Wi-Fi)	nothing else: DreamShow talks to the socket directly	its IP address

To open it: menu Venue > Connected sockets….

Gateways

At the top of the window, the settings shared by all sockets:

Home Assistant: address (for example http://homeassistant.local:8123) and Access token. Create the token in Home Assistant: your profile → Security → Long-lived access tokens → Create token. It is saved in the venue file.
MQTT server: address, port (usually 1883), MQTT user name and MQTT password: the MQTT server used by Zigbee2MQTT. Leave the user name empty if it does not ask for one.

Shelly and Tasmota sockets need none of this.

Sockets

+ Socket adds a socket, − Delete removes the selected one.
Name: the name chosen in timeline blocks (two sockets cannot share a name).
Type: Home Assistant, Zigbee2MQTT (MQTT), Shelly (Wi-Fi) or Tasmota (Wi-Fi).
Entity, Zigbee2MQTT topic or IP address, depending on the type. Make the IP address of Wi-Fi sockets fixed in your router, otherwise it may change.
Relay no. (Shelly and Tasmota): 0 for the first relay; useful for multi-relay modules, for example a module in the switchboard that cuts two lines of fixtures.
On, Off, Read state: immediate test of the selected socket with the current settings (even unsaved). The result is shown next to the buttons: « Socket: on », « Socket: off » or the reason for a failure (token refused, no answer, address not set…).
Save stores the list in the venue.

For Shelly, DreamShow recognises both generations of devices by itself (the « RPC » API of Shelly Plus, Pro and Gen3, and the API of the first Shelly devices).

The Socket… block

In Libraries, Others list, drag Socket… onto a timeline track. Choose the socket and the action: on, off or toggle (inverts the current state). On the timeline, the block shows 🔌, the socket name and the action.

The command is sent when the playhead reaches the block, in show mode as well as during playback in the editor. It never holds up the show: if the socket does not answer, the log says so (category « sockets ») and the show goes on.

In the conductor window

While the conductor window is open, a 🔌 Sockets strip, at the bottom of the large left panel, lists the venue's sockets with their state, read again every 10 seconds: ● on (green), ○ off, ⚠ unreachable (orange: the socket or its gateway does not answer) or ◌ state unknown (not read yet). Zigbee2MQTT sockets also report each change as it happens.

Architectural lighting: an example

For a façade that lights up at sunset and goes off at 1 am:

A Wait for a time, a date, the sun… block set to sunset, then a Socket… block « Façade » set to on, then, one or two seconds later, the light blocks (time for the fixtures to start).
Further on, a Wait… block set to 1:00, light blocks at zero, then a Socket… block « Façade » set to off.

Good to know

The control PC must be on the same network as the Wi-Fi sockets, the Home Assistant server or the MQTT server.
With Zigbee2MQTT, the socket's real state comes back over MQTT: the window shows it after Read state.
The Home Assistant token and the MQTT password are stored in plain text in the venue file: do not share this file outside your team.