Frequently Asked Questions

On a locked-down studio, corporate, or facility Wi-Fi, MovieSlate's automatic peer discovery (Bonjour / mDNS networking services) is usually what gets blocked. The fastest fix is almost always to use MovieSlate's new Connect by IP Address feature (available in MovieSlate 8 version 26.0 or newer), which lets iPads/iPhones connect directly even when Bonjour is unreachable.

Requires MovieSlate 8 version 26.0 or newer on every device. On the client iPad/iPhone (the one that needs to see the host), open MovieSlate's device chooser. There are several ways to get there; the most common is from the timecode display:

1. Tap the timecode display on the slate.
2. On the timecode keypad that appears, tap the SYNC button.
3. Tap Receive.
4. Tap Receive via WiFi.

You can also reach the same chooser from Settings > TextField Data Sync & Remote Control via the Choose Remote Control, Choose Timecode Master, or other "Choose…" buttons.

Once the chooser is open:

1. Scroll down to the Other Actions section.
2. Tap Connect by IP Address….
3. Enter the host iPad/iPhones's IPv4 address (e.g., 192.168.1.42) and tap Connect.

To get the host's IP, open the same chooser screen on the host iPad/iPhone and tap My WiFi IP Address… (also in the Other Actions section) — MovieSlate will display the host's current Wi-Fi address so it can be shared with the rest of the team.

The chooser also keeps a Recently Seen list, so once two devices have connected once, you can usually re-pair from that list later without re-entering the IP.

Connect-by-IP gets you working immediately, but if you'd like your IT or Wi-Fi team to enable automatic peer discovery (so the chooser's Online list populates on its own), MovieSlate uses two discovery mechanisms in parallel: Bonjour / mDNS and a supplementary UDP probe protocol. The ports involved are:

• UDP 5353 — standard Apple mDNS / Bonjour
• UDP 47900–47904 — MovieSlate's direct UDP discovery probes (used as a fallback when multicast Bonjour can't traverse the network)
• TCP — the actual sync connection uses an ephemeral / dynamically-allocated port that the host advertises via Bonjour or returns in a UDP probe reply, so no fixed TCP port needs to be opened

Apple's full list of standard service ports is here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/103229.

Many studio and corporate networks place every device on an isolated "client" segment (sometimes called client isolation, AP isolation, or a "dedicated" segment) that prevents devices on the same Wi-Fi from talking to each other at all — even when Bonjour and UDP ports are technically open. If you hit this, ask the Wi-Fi team to either:

• Disable client/AP isolation on the SSID your iPads/iPhones use, or
• Place your iPads/iPhones on a dedicated SSID / VLAN where they're allowed to communicate peer-to-peer.

Even if your IT team can't (or won't) change anything on the network, the Connect by IP Address… route will work as long as the iPads/iPhones can reach each other on the network at all — which is almost always the case once they're on the same Wi-Fi, regardless of how locked-down it is.

After connecting (automatically or by IP), return to Settings > TextField Data Sync & Remote Control — the other devices and the Choose Remote Control option should now appear.