Vivo Props — User Guide

Battery-powered theatre props fired from handheld RF remotes, with a built-in web page on every prop for scenes, colours and effects — and a desk controller that lets a lighting desk fire the same scenes over DMX. No app, no cloud, no venue infrastructure required.

prop firmware v1.8 · controller v1.0

Start here

Two kinds of people use these props. Pick the door that fits you — each path stands on its own, and the second builds on the first.

📡

I've got a remote

You run the props from a hand-held 433 MHz button remote and set them up from a phone or laptop.

  • What a scene is and how a button fires one
  • Capturing a remote button into a scene
  • Colours, effects, fades and brightness
  • Show mode, batteries, and copying one setup to twenty props
Using the props → 🎚️

I've got a lighting desk

You want the props in the cue stack. The desk controller takes DMX in and sends the props' own remote codes out over RF.

  • Cabling the controller into the DMX line
  • Loading the props' scenes and mapping them to a channel
  • Patching one fixture per prop type — generic desks and ETC Eos
  • Firing rules: bands, edges, timing
Desk controller →  ·  Desk setup →
The remote and the desk are not either/or. The controller speaks exactly what the hobby remotes speak, so a stage manager with a remote and a desk running cues can drive the same props in the same show without changing anything on the props.

The props

Each prop type has its own reference page covering power, what its scenes can do, and anything specific to that build. Everything they share — the web page, capture, effects, fleet sync — lives in Using the props.

🏮

Lantern

Hand-held candle lantern — 7 LEDs, 18650 battery, RF remote scenes. The main fleet (20 units).

 🏆

Chalice Fogger

The smoking chalice — 20 LEDs, driven by a simple on/off radio switch. Two fixed scenes: On and Off.

 🪼

Jellyfish

Swimming jellyfish — 16 LEDs plus a motor with speed and direction control from RF scenes. Three units.

What's where

PageWho it's forWhat's in it
Using the props Everyone Scenes, the web page, capture, colours and effects, show mode, fleet sync, troubleshooting. The common manual for every prop.
Lantern · Chalice · Jellyfish Everyone Per-prop reference: power, what its scenes can do, motor calibration, the chalice's switch radio.
Desk controller LX / production tech The M5Stack controller itself: cabling, first boot, the code book, the DMX map, the touchscreen, discovery, updates.
Desk setup Desk programmer Patching the props as fixtures, the value bands, firing rules and timing, a worked ETC Eos example, GDTF export.
Firmware Bench Release downloads and notes for props and controller; flash a prop from the browser over USB.