PatchHub — build the show before the kit arrives

Who it is for

Built for the person who gets handed the rig.

Freelance video engineers

Turn up with the patch already drawn and the labels already typed, instead of building it on a laptop in the truck.

Video departments

One way of documenting a rig, so the drawing from the last job is readable by whoever picks up the next one.

Theatre and venue teams

House ties, wall boxes and FOH runs stay documented between productions rather than living in one person’s head.

Production and AV companies

The same file goes to the designer, the crew chief and the hire desk, and they are all reading the same rig.

How it works

Plan it, draw it, then run it, all from one computer.

The rig you type in once is the rig you draw, the rig you print, and the rig you patch on the day. Change a label on the day and the drawing you handed out is already right.

01Plan

Build the show before the kit arrives

Put the whole rig on screen weeks before any of it is racked. Routers, patchbays, switchers, converters, projectors, laptops — all of it works with nothing plugged in, because none of it is plugged in yet.

Set up an ATEM in the flight case

Do the auxes, the multiviewer and every label while the switcher is still in its case. The day it is racked and on the network, one press writes the lot to it.

Fit the cards and the I/O follows

An Analog Way Aquilon or a Barco Event Master turns up as an empty frame, and its page in PatchHub is a drawing of the real rear panel. Put cards in the bays and the inputs and outputs appear where they will be on the unit. Try a card in a slot that will not take it and the frame refuses, the same as it would in the rack. Save that build and put it straight onto the next show.

The sockets are the ones on the actual unit

Add a Barco PDS-4K or a Roland V-160HD and it arrives with its own ports: eight SDI in and eight HDMI in on the Roland, the PDS-4K’s four outputs each carrying an HDMI and an SDI connector. Every port list was typed off the manufacturer’s spec sheet, so the drawing matches what you find behind the rack.

02Draw

The drawing knows what the kit is

Drag a device onto the canvas and its real ports come with it, so a cable cannot go into an input the unit has not got. Auto-arrange lays the rig out to fit the paper when you are ready to print.

Name a camera once

Type CAM 3 at the camera and the name travels with the signal through every patchbay, router and converter it passes. Rename it at the source and the whole chain follows, so nothing downstream is still saying CAM 3 a week after CAM 3 became the roving.

Ring the FOH rack and drag it as one

Draw a zone round it, name it, and the whole group moves together. Cables route round devices instead of vanishing under them, and folding a device up to save space keeps every cable attached where it was.

Hand it to the people who need it

A PDF for the crew, an Excel patch sheet for production, a kit list with quantities for the hire company, and a read-only link that opens on a phone in the compound.

03Run

Drive the same drawing on the day

The rig you drew weeks ago is the one you now run the show from. Routers, switchers and recorders all answer in one window instead of one app per manufacturer, over the same protocols their own control software uses.

Repatch live, then lock it

Change crosspoints and labels across the whole rig from the drawing, then close the patch lock so nobody moves a route mid-show.

Everything for the day on one screen

Show Day has the patching checklist, the read-only link for the crew, and a way into every piece of kit the app can talk to.

Roll every deck on one press

Master REC starts every HyperDeck and AJA deck together. You get a take sheet as you go, markers on a hotkey, and an edit-ready project built from any take.

Patch Sync

Name it once, at the camera.

Type a name on the source and it travels with the signal through every panel, router and converter it passes. Rename it and the whole chain follows, so nothing downstream is left insisting a feed is something it stopped being three days ago.

CAM 3→ Stage rack 1→ House tie 12→ FOH patch→ Videohub in 7→ ATEM in 4

Every one of those panels now reads CAM 3, including the printed sheet and the crew’s page.

The application

What it actually looks like.

Screens from the app, not mock-ups. These are being captured from a real show file and will land here before launch.

A theatre rig drawn in PatchHub: four cameras through a stage rack, house ties and FOH patch into a Videohub 40x40, then an ATEM 2 M/E, out to an Aquilon RS5, two projectors and an LED processor — A theatre rig in the schematic: cameras through the stage rack, house ties and FOH patch into the Videohub, the ATEM, then out to the RS5, projectors and LED. The orange guide is the A3 sheet it will print on.

The Aquilon RS5 frame page with cards fitted into its bays: an IP/SDI input card and four output cards, each drawn with its real connectors — The RS5 as a drawing of its own rear panel. Fit the cards and the I/O follows; ports are named by the slot silkscreened on the metal.

The FOH patch crosspoint grid, with camera names carried down the chain by Patch Sync — The FOH patch. The camera names were typed once, three panels upstream — Patch Sync carried them here.

The kit list, generated from the rig: quantities against each model, with the device names that make up each line — The kit list writes itself — the rig already knows what is in it. Quantities per model, and which devices make up each line.

Public View on a phone: the whole rig listed read-only, with patch grids, schematic, spare ports and the checklist — Public View on a phone. The crew does not need PatchHub installed — a read-only page with the patch, the drawing and the checklist.

Supported kit

Real devices, with the I/O the manufacturer actually shipped.

PatchHub patches Blackmagic Videohub and ATEM for real, over their own protocols. Everything else in the rig it draws and documents, down to a passive patch panel with no network port at all.

Videohub routers
ATEM switchers
Cameras
Playback & graphics
Capture cards
Presentation switchers
LED processors
Projectors
Recorders
2110 gateways
DAs & converters
Patchbays

Drawing & cable tracking

Useful long before anything is plugged in.

You do not need a Videohub, an ATEM, or a single controllable box. Used as nothing but a drawing board, PatchHub keeps the rig, every cable run and the paperwork in one file, and prints a sheet a crew can follow at four in the morning. Same job whether the racks are in an OB truck, a theatre’s dimmer room or the back of a conference hall.

Schematics

Draw the rig, then print it

Drag kit onto the canvas and draw cables port to port. Lines are kept apart so each one can be traced by eye, and the drawing is laid out to fill the paper rather than sitting in a corner of it. Add zones, notes and labels where the drawing needs explaining.

Patch panels

Follow a signal through the panels

Record what lands on every panel port, under the ID engraved on the metalwork rather than a number the app invented. In a theatre that means the house tie lines, the wall boxes and the FOH run stay documented between productions instead of living in one person's head.

OB trucks

Know where every cable went

Track a run from the camera position, through the tie lines and the OB truck's panels, to the port it lands on inside. Print it for the tape, or share a read-only page the crew can open on a phone from the compound.

Pricing

PatchHub. Bought once, not rented.

PatchHub is the product — plan the rig, draw it, then drive it, recording included. TakeHub is a separate, smaller app for crews who only want the decks, and it is still in development; you do not need it to use PatchHub. Neither is a subscription, and neither depends on a licence server that could go down mid-show.

Not released yet. PatchHub is still in beta with a small group of testers. The trial is the complete app rather than a cut-down one, and the download below is the real thing. The prices are what it will cost when it goes on sale; the checkout appears here the day it is ready.

Beta

Free · 3 months

Join the beta and you get a key that lasts three months, on up to two computers. The downloads come with it.

The complete app, nothing held back
Real hardware or the built-in emulators
Updates itself, and asks before it restarts

Join the beta

Already testing on a key that starts PHUB-? Carry on with it until it expires; there is nothing to do. Without a key the app runs for seven days, and exports are what needs one.

PatchHub

Price announced when buying opens

One-off, not a subscription. Covers two computers at once, and you move a licence yourself when one is replaced. Price when buying opens.

Plan, draw and drive the whole rig
Videohub and ATEM, live
Schematic, kit list and Public View
Recording included

Kitting out a fleet? Per-machine pricing from five, applied automatically at checkout.

Coming soon

TakeHub · separate app

Price announced when buying opens

A separate app, still in development. PatchHub already includes recording — TakeHub is for crews who want only the decks.

Master REC across every deck
Take sheet, markers, pre-flight check
Edit-ready projects from any take

Coming soon

Two computers per licence, and the app checks its key with no internet connection at all — which is the point, in a rack room or a compound. Move a licence yourself in the customer portal when you change computer or a drive dies. Prices are before tax: your local tax is added at checkout and itemised on your receipt.

Questions

The things worth knowing first.

Does PatchHub work offline?

Yes. It runs entirely on your machine — no cloud, no account, and it checks its own licence key without an internet connection. The only things that need a network are the ones that obviously do: talking to your hardware, and sharing the crew’s read-only page.

Is it a subscription?

No. One payment, and the version you buy is yours.

Can I move my licence to another computer?

Yes, and you do not need us for it. A licence covers two computers at once; release one in the customer portal and activate the new machine. Change of laptop, or a dead drive, is not a second purchase.

Does it run on macOS and Windows?

macOS is the version in daily use through the beta, and it is notarised by Apple, so it opens with no warning. There is a Windows build, and it is newer and less tested — it is also not yet signed, so Windows SmartScreen warns the first time you install it. Choose More info, then Run anyway. If you are on Windows, use the trial before you buy.

Can I build the rig before I have the hardware?

That is what it is for. Devices, cards, ports and cabling are all documented without anything plugged in, and the built-in emulators let you drive a Videohub or an ATEM that is still in a flight case. When the real kit arrives you point the same file at it.

Which hardware can PatchHub control?

Live control today: Blackmagic Videohub routers and ATEM switchers over their own protocols, AJA KUMO routers over AJA’s REST interface, and HyperDeck and AJA recorders. Anything else — projectors, Barco and Analog Way processors, patchbays, converters, cameras — is documented and drawn rather than driven. The AJA paths, both the recorders and KUMO, are written to AJA’s published API and tested against an emulator, but have not yet been proven against the physical hardware.

Does PatchHub count my cables?

No, and it is worth being precise about this. PatchHub tracks individual cable runs — every one you draw is a real record, port to port, and it appears in the drawing, the reports and the checklist. It does not add them up into an order for the hire company. The kit list gives you equipment quantities; the cable schedule gives you the runs.

What happens after the seven days?

The trial is the complete app, not a cut-down one. You can edit and save throughout; what needs a key is exporting. Your show files are yours either way, and nothing you built is locked up.

When can I actually buy it?

Not yet. PatchHub is in beta, and the beta is free to join — a key for three months, on up to two computers. The checkout for buying it outright appears on this page the day it is ready rather than a day before.

Ready to build the rig before the kit arrives?

The beta is free: a key for three months on up to two computers, and the downloads come with it.

Join the beta What it will cost

Build the show before the kit arrives.