ShowDeck: Live Show & DJ Audio App for Mac, iPad and iPhone
One offline app to run live shows, worship services, water-ski shows, live music and radio, with AI as the build team
At a glance
I acted as design lead and executive sponsor for ShowDeck. Drawing on years as a national touring country artist and my work with churches and water-ski show teams, I gathered problem statements from show directors, DJs, professional audio engineers and church audio engineers, solved them one by one, and designed one app that works for all of them. I used Claude (AI) to help build the app and its interactive prototype.
The challenge
Show directors, DJs, professional audio engineers and church audio engineers each juggle different tools for the same job: a laptop playlist, a soundboard app, DJ software and an announcer mic. Pro tools like QLab are Mac-only and priced for theaters. The goal was one offline app that solves each group’s problems and that a volunteer can run safely.
What I led
- Gathered problem statements from show directors, DJs, professional audio engineers and church audio engineers
- Drew on my years as a national touring country artist and my work with churches and water-ski show teams
- Researched the tools teams use today: QLab, Playback, djay, radio playout and soundboard apps
- Set the concept: one stage that combines a cue list, DJ decks, sound-effect pads and a remote
- Designed the operator safety rules: one song at a time everywhere, a double-press guard, Fade All and a locked Operator Mode
- Designed the Launch Grid: songs as backlit glass pads that turn blue, green, red and grey as the show runs
- Directed the DJ console: platters, mixer, 8 effects, beat loops, a sampler and automatic BPM sync
- Designed phone and browser remotes with cue points, the song list and tap-to-play, hold-to-stop pads
- Created the brand, four skins and locked, versioned System Settings, and built an interactive prototype
- Tested every build on a Mac and an iPhone and turned each finding into the next fix
The outcome
Build 28 runs on Mac and iPhone with the Launch Grid, DJ decks and effects, remote control and offline playback in one app. Next steps are a TestFlight beta with real show teams and an App Store and Mac App Store release.
Overview
ShowDeck is a native app for Mac, iPad and iPhone that runs the audio for live shows, worship services, water-ski shows, live music and radio. A cue list with a big Play Next button, two DJ decks, a wall of sound-effect pads and a new Launch Grid share one stage, and everything works offline.
Why I built it: I’ve worked shows from every seat: years on the road as a national touring country artist, and today with churches and water-ski show teams. Every group had the same kind of problem in a different room. I gathered the problem statements from show directors, DJs, professional audio engineers and church audio engineers, worked through their issues one by one, and designed a single app that solves them for all of them.
How I led it: I acted as design lead and executive sponsor, running it as a one-person product studio. I set the vision, researched the market, designed the product, the operator safety rules and the brand, and tested each build on a Mac and an iPhone. I used Claude (AI) to help build the app and its interactive prototype.
What’s in build 28:
Show cue list: Play Next, Up Next carousel, cue points, fades, Talk-over and Fade All
Launch Grid: every song as a glass pad: tap to play, hold to rewind, drag to rearrange
DJ decks: platters, mixer, 8 effects, a filter, 1–32-beat loops, an 8-pad sampler and automatic BPM sync
Remote control: any phone or tablet over Bluetooth, direct Wi-Fi or a browser, with no internet
Safety: only one song ever plays, locked Operator Mode, and versioned System Settings
Services
Customer & Market Research, Product Concept, UX & Interaction Design, Audio Product Design, Brand & Visual Design, Interactive Prototyping, AI-Assisted Development, Launch Planning
Client name
ShowDeck (independent product by John Karl)
Team
John Karl, Design Lead & Executive Sponsor
Prototype
Market research
User research
UX Decision
Go-to-market
This is a working prototype. Follow the guided steps or switch tabs and use the controls. Everything responds live.
Market research
Goal:
Find out what small show teams use today, what it costs, and where the tools leave them stuck.
QLab: the theater standard for cue-based show control. It runs on Mac only, the free version limits audio, and paid licenses are listed at about $399 for Pro Audio. Reviewers call it “prohibitive for many in the lower-budget range” and “overkill for many.”
Playback by MultiTracks: the worship team favorite for setlists, tracks and ambient pads, free to download with paid Premium and Pro subscriptions. It is built around one job, worship.
djay: a strong DJ app with automix and effects, free with a Pro subscription of about $6.99 a month or $49.99 a year. It has no cue list or show safety features.
Soundboard and sports-sound apps: fast pads for stingers and crowd effects, but no song list, no countdown and no talk-over.
Water-ski shows: no dedicated app turned up. Teams combine a laptop playlist, a soundboard and an announcer mic, and run them in bright sun from a dock.
The gap: no single offline app combines a cue list, DJ decks, effect pads and a phone remote, works on Mac, iPad and iPhone, and is safe for a volunteer to run.
User research
Goal:
Solve the real problems of everyone who runs sound for a show, one group at a time, and say plainly what still needs validating.
“We need the software to let the volunteer make changes to the song list or order on the fly. In a live situation at a Waterski Show, things happen, and plans change in the blink of an eye, and the need for the software is the same.”
Music Director, US water-ski show team
Voice of the customer (real input): problem statements gathered from show directors, DJs, professional audio engineers and church audio engineers, through my work with churches and water-ski show teams and my years as a national touring country artist
Show directors: songs that start on cue, a clear Up Next, and an operator who can’t make a costly mistake mid-show
DJs: real decks, effects, loops and sync, plus a fast way to fire songs and samples from a laptop or a phone
Audio engineers: clean routing to the right output, fades that never click, and no dead air
Church audio engineers: simple, locked controls for volunteers, talk-over for the pastor or host, and ambient pads between songs
Hands-on testing (real input): I ran every build on a Mac and an iPhone, and each round became a fix, from readable phone screens to the rule that only one copy of a song may ever play
Research plan: a TestFlight beta with a water-ski show team and a church tech team, observed run-throughs, a count of operator errors and missed cues, and a short survey on pricing
Why Each UX Decision Was Made
Goal:
A volunteer should be able to run a whole show with zero dead air and zero double-played songs.
Change the plan in the blink of an eye: a water-ski show Music Director asked for volunteers to change the song list on the fly, so a tap on any song makes it Up Next (even in locked Operator Mode), Launch Grid pads slide into a new order mid-show, and the phone remote can pick what plays next
One song at a time, everywhere: starting a song in the show, on a deck or on the Launch Grid stops the others, so a busy operator can’t play two copies at once
Color tells the state: Launch Grid pads are blue when ready, pulsing green while playing, red when stopped and grey once played, readable from across a booth
Hold, don’t tap, for risky actions: holding a pad rewinds it and holding a remote pad stops it, so a stray tap can’t end a song
Readable from a distance: a large countdown turns amber under 30 seconds and red under 10, with a Stage dark mode and a bright Daylight mode for the dock
Offline first: songs are copied onto the device, and remotes connect over Bluetooth, direct Wi-Fi or a local browser, with no internet
Built for every screen: the decks stack upright on a phone and sit side by side when it turns, sized to the screen
Go-to-Market Plan
Goal:
Start with the operator. Build 28 is in testing, so the 90-day plan recruits teams with a rehearsal coming up and a real cueing problem, then learns which workflow earns a second show.
Positioning: for teams that run music and cues in real time, ShowDeck brings the show order, one-tap playback, DJ decks and local remote control together on Mac, iPad and iPhone
One promise, “Run the next cue.”: the same line leads the sales video, the one-pagers, the landing page and the live demo. Only the workflow example changes for each audience
First audience: worship production leads and show directors, including water-ski and community performance teams, starting with teams that rehearse in the next two weeks
Second audience: mobile and event DJs, led with two decks, automatic BPM, beat-matched sync, loops and the sampler. Headphone cue and controller needs are qualified on the first call
Selective audience: live audio and radio operators who need beds, stings and planned playback on one stereo output
Offer: a 15-minute workflow demo, then a supervised pilot where the team rehearses a real cue list with their own local audio
Honest limits: Build 28 has one stereo output and no separate headphone cue, MIDI, OSC or Stream Deck control, so every demo qualifies for that up front
90-Day Rollout
Days 1–14, prepare: test local playback, Launch Grid, Now and Up Next, the phone remote and Mac output fallback; publish the demo-request page; recruit the first 10 qualified contacts
Days 15–35, pilot: 6 to 10 teams, one supported rehearsal each, logging device, output, network and any cue-start issue
Days 36–60, focused launch: publish the sales video, email the opted-in list and share approved pilot stories, starting with worship and live show crews
Days 61–90, expand: give the best-converting audience its own page and demo, and pause channels that bring clicks without qualified demos
Release gate: go public only when distribution is approved, the demo form works end to end and at least three pilot teams finish a rehearsal without a blocking playback or remote issue
Channels and Launch Kit
Founder-led outreach: in the first 30 days, a personal note to production and event contacts with the one-pager for their world, asking about their next rehearsal
Community and partners: practical cueing walkthroughs for worship production groups, mobile-DJ communities and show-team networks
Owned funnel: the sales video sits above the Request a demo button, with one page section and one PDF per audience
Small paid test: only after the release gate, with a proposed $750 cap split across the two strongest audiences and compared against founder-led outreach
Launch kit: a 35-second sales video, four audience one-pagers (worship, show teams, DJs, live audio and radio), landing page copy, a first-touch email and an organic post
Proposed 90-Day Targets
These are planning targets for a small pilot, not results. They’ll be recalibrated once the first cohort sets a baseline.
Funnel: 30 qualified leads, 15 completed demos and 8 pilot starts
Repeat use: 6 completed first rehearsals and 4 teams running a second session within 30 days
Pricing: tested after a successful rehearsal, comparing an individual license and a team offer. No public price until it’s confirmed
The Launch Grid and the one-song rule
The Launch Grid turns a show into a wall of backlit glass pads, listed in order. A tap plays a song, a tap on the playing pad stops it, and a hold sends it back to the start. Hold an empty pad to add songs, triple-tap or right-click to replace or delete one, and slide a pad to move it or drop it on the trash. The glass sheen moves as an iPhone or iPad tilts.
Underneath, the show, the decks and the grid share one rule: only one song plays at a time. If a song is already playing on a deck or in the show, its pad shows ON AIR, and a tap takes over from the same spot without a second copy.
ShowDeck build 28: the Launch Grid, DJ decks with effects, the phone remote and the show cue list, all from one native app.
Final observations
ShowDeck shows how I lead a product from real-world problems to a working build. I took problem statements from show directors, DJs, audio engineers and church audio teams, found the gap between pro theater tools and simple soundboards, made the calls on safety, layout and feel, and tested each build on real devices until it held up. AI helped turn those decisions into native code. Next steps are a TestFlight beta with real show teams, then release on the App Store and Mac App Store.
John Karl
19 Years • Product & UX Design Leader Leading Mobile Product for 500K+ Users
If you like what you see or have any questions, feel free to send me an email anytime.
Selected work
[2010 -2025]
