From install to a mapped, running show.

What you need

• A Windows 10 or Windows 11 computer (64-bit) with a DirectX 11 graphics card. A dedicated graphics card is strongly recommended for several layers or high-resolution output.
• Your projector or LED processor connected by HDMI or DisplayPort, set up in Windows as a second display in Extend mode, not Duplicate.
• Your licence key. It arrives by email when you start a trial or buy a plan.

Install Raedia

1. Download the installer using the link in your Raedia email, or from raedia.dev.
2. Run it. If Windows asks whether to run the file, check that the publisher reads CODEXA SOFTWARE (Pty) Ltd, then continue.
3. Start Raedia. The first time, Windows Firewall may ask whether Raedia may use your network. Allow it on private networks if you plan to use network control (OSC, Art-Net) or network video (NDI).

Raedia opens on Home.

Activate your licence

Until a key is applied, Raedia shows an Activate Raedia window each time it starts.

1. Make sure the computer is online. Activating a new key needs the internet once.
2. Copy the whole key from your email and paste it into the box.
3. Click Activate.

You can also do this later: go to Home, paste the key under Licence and click Apply licence. The line above the box then reads licensed and the badge shows your plan.

Demo mode, trials and the badge

If you choose Continue in demo mode, everything works so you can learn the tool, with two limits:

• The output carries a watermark. A banner across the top reads Demo mode — output is watermarked. Activate a licence to remove it.
• Saving a show is switched off. Raedia answers Saving requires a licensed tier.

A trial key unlocks Raedia for seven days, counted from the first time you apply it. When the trial ends Raedia returns to demo mode until you apply a paid key.

The badge reads online when Raedia has recently reached the licence server and offline when it has not. Offline is fine. A valid licence keeps working without the internet, so you can run a show in a venue with no connection.

Updates

When a newer version exists, a quiet bar appears at the top: Raedia x.y is available, followed by Included in your licence or Optional paid upgrade. The button opens the download page in your browser. Raedia never downloads or installs anything by itself, so an update cannot interrupt a show.

The side menu and the six views

Click « at the top of the menu to shrink it to a narrow strip and give the view more room. Click » to bring it back. Raedia remembers your choice.

The top bar

The first three buttons appear on every view except Home. When more than one display is connected, a Screen… list appears beside the monitor button.

Panels: collapse, float, resize

Each working area (the previews, the grid, the effects, the mixer) is a panel with the same controls in its title bar.

Floating panels stay inside the Raedia window. To use a second monitor for your controls, stretch the Raedia window across both screens and park panels wherever you like.

Save your layout

1. Arrange the panels the way you like to work.
2. Click the window button (Save layout as a named preset) and type a name, for example Setup or Live.
3. Switch between presets with the Apply preset… list that now appears in the top bar.

Click the star to make the current arrangement your default. New show and the reset button both return to it. Presets and the default are stored on this computer. The layout you are using when you save a show is also stored inside the show file, so the show reopens looking the same.

Start blank and add layers and columns

1. Open SHOW and click the New show button in the top bar. The grid empties.
2. Click ＋ Layer. A small menu asks where to put it. Choose At end. Add three layers.
3. Click ＋ Column and choose At end. Add three columns.

You can have up to 20 layers and 20 columns. You can also right-click a layer name or a column header to add a new one beside it.

Put clips in the slots

Every empty slot has three ways in.

To follow along without any files, use the built-in sources:

1. In Layer 1, Column 1, click ✦. The Add a source window opens.
2. Under Generators, click Plasma. The slot becomes a coloured tile.
3. Fill the rest of Layer 1 and Layer 2 with other generators.
4. In Layer 3, Column 1, click ✦, scroll down and click Live text.

Loading a clip only fills the slot. Nothing plays until you trigger it.

Trigger clips and columns

• Click a clip to play it on its layer. One clip plays per layer at a time, so it replaces whatever that layer was showing. A video starts from the beginning.
• Click a column header, for example ▶ Column 1, to fire every clip in that column at once. This is how you change the whole look in one move.
• Press 1 to 9 to fire columns 1 to 9 from the keyboard.

Firing a column also clears any layer whose slot in that column is empty. Use that on purpose: leave a slot empty where you want a layer to go dark.

See it: open the output

The two previews at the top of SHOW, Output and Selected layer, only show a picture while an output is open. Until then they read No output open — send to a display to see it here. Sound works the same way.

1. Click the monitor button in the top bar (Send the show to a display).
2. The output opens full screen on your second display and the previews come alive.
3. Click the monitor button again, or press Esc, to stop.

Adjust a clip: the Source panel

Click the ⚙ on a tile, or right-click the tile, to open its Source panel. It also opens by itself right after you load a clip.

Scale, for every clip

Playback, for video clips

• Loop at the end: untick it to play once and hold the last frame. The loop badge on the tile does the same.
• Speed: from 0.25× to 4×. Reset returns to normal speed.
• Pause / Play: freezes and resumes. Triggering the clip always restarts it playing.
• Scrub: drag to a position in the clip. The jump happens when you let go.

At the bottom, Remove source empties the slot. The layer and column stay.

Live text

A live text clip is a title or message you type in Raedia. Open its Source panel to edit it.

Generators, solid colours and gradients

Generators are moving patterns made by Raedia, sharp at any resolution: Plasma, Noise, Fractal, Shapes, Perlin noise and an animated Test card. In the Source panel you can switch the Pattern, change Speed and Scale, and choose two colours with Colour A and Colour B.

For a solid colour or a gradient, choose the colours in the Add a source window before you click Add solid or Add gradient. They cannot be edited afterwards. To change one, remove the clip and add it again.

Cameras, capture cards, NDI and Spout

• Camera or capture card: click ◉ on an empty slot and pick the device. If the signal drops, the tile shows ⚠ and the output holds the last frame until the device comes back.
• NDI: in Add a source, type the NDI source name exactly as the sending computer shows it, then click Add NDI. Raedia connects when the source appears on the network.
• Spout: start the other program first (Resolume, OBS, TouchDesigner). Its sender then appears in the list. Spout works between programs on the same computer.

Move, copy, rename and reorder

Dropping a clip onto a slot that is already full asks before it replaces the clip there.

Layer controls

Each layer row carries its own controls on the left.

• The slider is the layer's opacity: how strongly it shows over the layers behind it.
• V hides the layer's picture. Its sound keeps playing.
• M mutes the layer's sound. Its picture keeps playing.
• Click the name to select the layer. The Effects panel and the Selected layer preview follow the selected layer.

Decks: pages of columns

A deck is a page of columns. Use one deck per song or segment so the grid never gets too wide.

• Click ＋ Deck to add a page, and click a deck name to switch to it.
• Layers, their effects and their sound are shared by every deck. Only the columns change.
• To move a clip to another deck, drag it over that deck's tab, wait for the page to switch, then drop it.
• Deleting a deck removes its columns and clips. Raedia asks first.

The limit of 20 columns is for the whole show, across all decks.

Add an effect

1. Click a layer's name in the grid. The Effects panel title changes to that layer, for example Layer 2 — effects.
2. Choose what the effect belongs to: Whole layer stays on the layer whatever clip plays. This clip belongs to the clip playing now and travels with it.
3. Click an effect chip, for example + Kaleidoscope. It joins the list below with its sliders.

This clip is only available while a clip is playing on the layer. A clip's own effects run first, then the layer's effects.

Adjust, reorder, bypass, remove

• Tick box beside the name: switch the effect off and on without losing its settings.
• ↑ ↓: move the effect earlier or later. Effects run top to bottom, so order changes the result.
• ✕: remove the effect.
• Sliders and number boxes set each value. Colours use a colour picker.

Press Ctrl+K anywhere to open Quick Search, type part of an effect's name and press Enter to add it to the selected layer.

Make a value move: Animate

Tick Animate under any numeric value and Raedia sweeps it back and forth for you.

Several effects sit still until one value moves. Animate these to bring them to life: Phase on Wave warp, Ripples, Sparkles and Rainbow; Roll on Scanlines; Level on Infinite zoom; Hue shift on Edge box.

Blend, mask, LUT, shader and transition

Below the effect list are the settings for how the whole layer joins the picture.

Fade a whole column in

Under each column name is a small tick box. Tick it and set a time, and that column crossfades on every layer when you fire it, whatever each layer's own transition says. Use it for a slow change into a ballad and leave the other columns as hard cuts.

The thirty effects

Where a value is marked 0/1, such as Chase or Coloured, 0 is off and 1 is on.

The Mixer

Each layer has a strip: a volume fader, a level meter, M to mute and S to solo. When any strip is soloed, only soloed strips are heard.

• Line / Mic brings in sound from your computer's input. Tick In to switch it on.
• Master is the overall volume. Its M mutes everything.

Sound only runs while an output is open. Until then the panel reads No audio device — send to a display to start audio.

Line up sound and picture

If the sound arrives before or after the picture on your rig, drag A/V sync. Move it right if the sound is early. The range is half a second each way. This setting belongs to the computer, not the show, so set it once per rig.

The A/B crossfader

1. In the list under the fader, put each layer on a side: click A or B. Leave a layer on – and the fader ignores it.
2. Drag the fader. Towards A, the B layers fade out. Towards B, the A layers fade out. In the middle both sides are at half.
3. The percentage beside each layer shows what the fader is doing to it.

The crossfader fades picture only, not sound, and works on top of each layer's own opacity. Its A and B sides have nothing to do with decks.

Set the output size

Open Mapping Surface. In the Output panel beside the preview, set Width and Height to the pixel size of your projector or LED processor, for example 1920 by 1080.

The quick way: drag the four corners

With no regions yet, the preview shows a test pattern with four round handles marked TL, TR, BR and BL. Drag each handle until the projected picture sits square on your surface. This corrects a projector that is off to one side or tilted.

Reset to identity puts the corners back. If that is all your venue needs, skip to Lesson 7.

Regions: send parts of the picture to different places

A region is one piece of your picture sent to one place on the output. Use regions when a single rectangle is not enough: separate panels, a set piece, a wall with a doorway.

1. Click + Add region. Region 1 appears in the list and the view switches to Input Selection.
2. Under Source, choose the Feed: Full mix (all layers) for the whole show, or a single layer.
3. On the big preview, drag the rectangle to choose which part of the picture this region shows. Drag inside it to move it and drag a corner to resize it.

A region set to a single layer lets you put, for example, a logo layer on a side panel while the main screen shows the full mix. Duplicate copies a region with all its settings. The ✕ removes it.

Place and warp each region

1. Click Output Transformation above the preview.
2. Click a region to select it. Drag from inside it to move the whole region.
3. Drag its corner handles to fit the corners of your surface.
4. For fine alignment, press the arrow keys to move the region one pixel at a time. Hold Shift for ten.

Fill output stretches the selected region over the whole output in one click.

Curved or uneven surfaces: add mesh points

Four corners fit a flat surface. For a curve or a bump, add points where the surface bends.

1. In Output Transformation, select the region.
2. Click on one of the region's lines at the place where the surface bends. A new line of handles appears through that spot. Clicking a horizontal line adds an upright line of points, and clicking an upright line adds a horizontal one.
3. Drag the new handles until the picture follows the surface.

Adding points never moves the picture, so you can keep refining an alignment you have already set. The panel shows the count, for example Mesh: 3 × 2 points. You can have up to 17 lines each way. Back to quad removes all added points and keeps the four corners.

Zoom and screen colour

Under Transform & screen colour, each region has Zoom, Brightness, Contrast and Saturation. Use them to match two projectors or LED panels that look different, without touching your content.

Masks: cut a region to any shape

A mask hides everything outside a shape you draw. Find it under Mask in the selected region's settings.

1. Click on the small picture to add points around the area you want to keep. The mask starts working at the third point.
2. Drag a point to move it. Double-click a point to remove it.
3. Or start from a ready-made shape: open Shape library and pick one, then adjust its points.

The library holds Rectangle, L-shape, Diamond, Circle, Heart, Teardrop, Star, Hexagon, Arch, Trapezoid, Triangle, Cross and Pill. A mask can have up to 32 points.

Rotation turns the shape. Spin keeps it turning and Pulse makes it breathe. Clear mask removes it.

Edge blend: join two projectors

When two projectors overlap to cover a wide surface, the overlap is twice as bright. Edge blend fades each region's edge so the join disappears.

1. Make one region for each projector, overlapping in the middle.
2. Select the left region and raise Right under Edge blend until the fade covers the overlap.
3. Select the right region and raise Left by the same amount.
4. Adjust Gamma until the overlap is the same brightness as the rest.

Edge box: a border on a region

Tick Draw border under Edge box to draw a coloured border just inside a region's edges, following its warped shape. Thickness and Colour set the look. Speed runs the colour around the outline, Spin chooses the direction and Rainbow wraps a colour wheel around it. It is also a quick way to see exactly where a region lands while you line things up.

Line up with the alignment grid

Under Physical output, the Display shows switch has two positions: Alignment grid and Composition. Switch to the grid while you set corners and regions. It goes through exactly the same warp as your content. Switch back to Composition when everything lines up.

Keep a venue's mapping: output presets

Under Output presets, type a name and click Save current. The whole mapping is stored: corners, regions, mesh, masks and colour. Apply brings it back later. Applying replaces the current mapping at once, so save your current one first if you need it. Presets cover the primary output and are stored on this computer.

Send the show to a display

1. Connect the projector or LED processor and set Windows to Extend the desktop.
2. In Raedia's top bar, open the Screen… list and pick the display. Your own monitor is marked (this one).
3. Click the monitor button. The output opens full screen on that display and the button turns bright.
4. To stop, click the monitor button again or press Esc.

If you click the monitor button without choosing a screen, Raedia uses the last display in the list, which is normally the one you just plugged in. The same controls are on the Mapping Surface under Physical output, as Display, Send to display and Close output (Esc).

More than one screen

For a second or third screen, scroll to Additional outputs on the Mapping Surface.

1. Click + Add output. A row named Output 2 appears.
2. Pick its display.
3. Under Shows, choose Full composition (all layers) or a single layer.
4. Click Open. Use Grid / Composition on the row to line that screen up.

To warp or add regions on that screen, choose it in the Editing list at the top of the Mapping Surface. Everything in Lesson 6 then applies to that output. You can add up to seven outputs beside the primary one.

Send the picture to other software

Under Network output on the Mapping Surface, tick one of:

• NDI out to send the picture across the network. It appears to other machines as Raedia — Program Out.
• Spout out to share it with another program on the same computer, as Raedia — Spout Out.

Only one can be on at a time, and an output must be open. This switch is off each time you start Raedia, so turn it on as part of your setup.

Connect a control with Learn

Plug in your MIDI controller before you start Raedia. The list of devices is read once at start-up.

1. Open Control. Your controller is listed under MIDI devices.
2. Choose a Target, then fill in the lists that appear beside it, for example which layer.
3. Click Learn. The button reads Listening… touch a control (Cancel).
4. Move the fader, turn the knob or hit the pad. The connection joins the list underneath.

What you can control

The Target list also offers Dashboard control and Fire cue. They belong to features that are not finished in this version, so leave them for now.

The connections list names layers and columns by short internal codes, not the names you gave them. To change a connection, remove it with ✕ and learn it again. Learning the same control twice adds a second connection, so remove the old one.

Connections are saved inside the show file, so a mapped controller is ready again when you open the show.

OSC and DMX (Art-Net, sACN)

Learn works the same way for network control. Click Learn, then send the message from the other device.

• OSC: send to this computer on UDP port 8000.
• Art-Net and sACN: Raedia listens on UDP port 6454. A lighting desk can then drive Raedia from a DMX channel.

DMX here is for controlling Raedia. Raedia does not send DMX to lights.

Several controllers, clock and timecode

Every MIDI device is switched on by default. Untick one under MIDI devices to ignore it. A connection remembers the channel and note or control number, not the device, so give two identical controllers different MIDI channels.

Clock source and Timecode source choose which device Raedia reads MIDI clock and MIDI timecode from. The tempo and timecode are shown under the list.

Keyboard and Quick Search

• 1 to 9 fire columns 1 to 9.
• Ctrl+K opens Quick Search. Type to find an effect, a layer or a column. ↑ ↓ to choose, Enter to act, Esc to close. Choosing an effect adds it to the selected layer.

The number keys are ignored while you are typing in a text box.

Save and open

• Save: click the disk button in the top bar. Raedia asks for a name and place every time. To update a show, save over the same file. To keep versions, give each a new name.
• Open: click the folder button and choose a .raedia file.
• New: the page button clears everything, straight away. Save first.

After each action a short message appears beside the buttons, such as Show saved → followed by the file's location. Saving needs an active licence.

What a show file holds

Opening a show does not start the output. Send it to a display when you are ready.

Move a show to another computer

1. Copy the .raedia file and the folder of media it uses.
2. Open the show on the other computer.
3. Click the picture button in the top bar to open Media Manager. Each file-based clip is marked OK or Missing.
4. For each missing clip click Relink… and choose the file in its new place. Rescan checks again.

Keeping your media in the same folder path on every machine, for example D:\Shows\Media, avoids relinking altogether.

Snapshots

A snapshot remembers the whole SHOW grid under a name so you can jump back to it.

1. Click the camera button in the top bar.
2. Type a name and click Save snapshot.
3. Later, click Recall beside it.

Export a video

Click the down-arrow button in the top bar. Set Duration (seconds) and Frame rate, click Export… and choose where to save. Raedia renders the current picture to a HAP .mov file. It renders as fast as it can, not in real time, and the window shows Exported → with the file's location when it is done.

Venue checklist

1. Plug in displays and controllers, set Windows to Extend, then start Raedia.
2. Open your show. Check the badge shows your plan, with no demo banner.
3. Open Media Manager and confirm every clip reads OK.
4. On the Mapping Surface, switch Display shows to Alignment grid and send to the display.
5. Line up corners, regions and masks on the grid. Save an output preset for the venue.
6. Switch back to Composition. Open any additional outputs.
7. Fire each column once. Move each mapped fader and pad once.
8. Check sound, and set A/V sync if needed.
9. Save the show under a new name for tonight.

If something looks wrong

The Remote view

Home and Remote show a web address and a QR code. Opening that address on a phone or tablet on the same Wi-Fi loads the Raedia remote page.

Wire

Wire is Raedia's node patcher: a canvas where you connect small building blocks to make your own visuals. Click New to make a patch, click a node in the list to add it, then click an output port and an input port to join them.

Keyboard and mouse

Limits

The grid stays comfortable at around five layers and five columns per deck. Use decks rather than a very wide grid.

Getting help

Plans, your licence and downloads: raedia.dev. For anything this tutorial does not answer, write to [email protected].