Skip to content

Event & Track Manager: High-Reliability Live Stage Production System

Event & Track Manager is a cloud-native event production, track intake, and live stage playback system built originally for EMA Paattukoottam (Exton Malayali Association) and adaptable to any stage musical night, concert, or talent show. It synchronizes with Google Sheets for performer registration and stage sequencing, uses Google Shared Drive for versioned backing track storage, runs an isolated YouTube extraction worker, and delivers a low-latency stage sound console, performer intake portal, and live public audience schedule.

Overview

Live stage events and community musical productions often suffer from fragmented workflows: performers email backing tracks at the last minute, file formats vary widely, audio technicians struggle with sudden order changes, and venue Wi-Fi drops can disrupt streaming tracks mid-performance.

Event & Track Manager unifies the entire live sound lifecycle into a cohesive, fault-tolerant platform. Performers search for their registered slot and upload audio or YouTube links directly from mobile devices. Tracks are transcoded to stage-fidelity 320kbps MP3s, cached locally on solid-state disk, and archived to Google Shared Drive. During showtime, the sound engineer operates a keyboard-driven stage console protected against accidental disruption, while audience members and backstage performers track act readiness on an auto-updating live schedule.

Key Features

1. Performer Intake & Track Upload Portal (/tracks)

  • Mobile-First Performer Matching: Searchable autocomplete dropdown matching both primary lead singers and duet partners.
  • Multiple Performances Support: Seamlessly accommodates singers performing multiple acts across the program.
  • Missing Information Warnings: Alerts performers if song titles or details are missing on the registration sheet, with one-tap shortcuts to the Google Sign-Up sheet.
  • Dual Submission Methods:
    • Direct Audio Upload: Accepts MP3, WAV, M4A, and AAC files up to 200MB, automatically transcoded to uniform 320kbps stage-ready audio.
    • YouTube Extraction: Input a YouTube URL; the backend worker extracts the audio stream with JavaScript challenge solving and normalizes it.
  • Waveform Audio Preview: Built-in interactive waveform player allowing singers to preview their uploaded audio immediately with play/pause and scrub controls.
  • Venue & Event Details: Integrates event posters, venue maps, schedule notes, and optional ticket/registration payment links.

2. Public Live Stage Program (/live)

  • Adaptive 70/30 Split Display:
    • Expands automatically into a widescreen 70/30 layout when gallery media is present.
    • Sponsor & Highlight Carousel: Smooth crossfading banner carousel rotating every 6 seconds through sponsor logos, flyers, and event highlights from ./data/gallery.
    • Automatically collapses to 100% full width if no images exist.
  • Pre-Show Countdown: Prominent live countdown timer (DAYS : HOURS : MINS : SECS) synchronizing to the configured EVENT_START_TIME.
  • Live State Transitions: Automatically shifts into 🔴 LIVE PROGRAM and 🎤 NOW ON STAGE when performances kick off or a track is cued.
  • Sound Engineer Stage Notes: Displays live stage directives (e.g., "Mic 2 +3dB", "Saxophone solo after chorus") directly under the song title.
  • Backstage "Up Next" Queue: Automatically highlights upcoming acts with confirmed audio tracks so performers know exactly when to report backstage.
  • Zero-Lag Polling: Auto-refreshes display state in the background every 5 seconds.

3. Stage Sound & Playback Console (/console)

  • PIN-Protected Access: Secure console protected by a 4-digit sound operator PIN (ADMIN_PIN).
  • Disruption Safeguards: Confirmation modals guard against accidental mute, track cancellation, or premature skip while stage audio is actively playing.
  • Persistent Cue State & Uncue: Preserves the cued track across page refreshes. An Uncue button returns the act to the queue and restores the live countdown.
  • Staged Reordering with Glowing Sync:
    • Drag-and-drop re-sequencing updates local SQLite with <1ms latency.
    • An amber glowing "Sync to Sheet" button indicates local reordering, allowing batch synchronization back to Google Sheets and automated renaming of Google Drive files with a single click.
  • Keyboard-Driven Workflow: Full shortcut mapping:
    • Space: Play / Pause live audio
    • ← / →: Seek \(\pm 5\) seconds
    • M: Mute / Unmute
    • ↓: Cue next upcoming track
    • Enter: Mark performance complete
  • Local Disk Cache & Offline Resilience: All audio is cached locally in /data/cache. Playback never depends on live internet connectivity during showtime.
  • Offline ZIP Export: Bundles all sequenced audio tracks into a cleanly numbered ZIP file for emergency USB backup.

Architecture Overview

                           [ Google Workspace ]
                        ┌────────────────────────┐
                        │ Google Sheet (Signups) │
                        │ Google Shared Drive    │
                        └───────────▲────────────┘
                                    │ HTTPS (Service Account)
                       ┌────────────▼────────────┐
                       │   Docker Compose Net    │
                       │                         │
[ Singers / Intake ] ──►  app (FastAPI :8000)    │
[ Audience / Live  ] ──►  ├── / (Intake)         │
[ Stage Sound Op   ] ──►  ├── /live (Audience)   │
                       │  ├── /console (Stage)   │
                       │  └── Audio Stream Proxy │
                       │           ▲             │
                       │           │ Internal API│
                       │  downloader (:8001)     │
                       │  ├── yt-dlp + ffmpeg    │
                       │  └── Deno EJS Engine    │
                       │                         │
                       │  Volume: /data/cache    │
                       └─────────────────────────┘
  • app container: FastAPI service handling Google Sheets API synchronization, Shared Drive upload/archival, SQLite database management, and HTTP 206 Partial Content byte-range audio streaming.
  • downloader container: Isolated microservice running yt-dlp, ffmpeg, and deno with yt-dlp-ejs JavaScript challenge solving.
  • Shared Audio Volume (/data/cache): Persists audio on local storage, eliminating buffering and stage dropouts.

Installation & Setup

Create a docker-compose.yml file:

services:
  app:
    image: ghcr.io/binuengoor/event-track-manager-app:latest
    container_name: event_track_manager_app
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8088:8000"
    environment:
      - CONFIG_PATH=/app/config.yaml
      - ADMIN_PIN=2026
      - DOWNLOADER_SERVICE_URL=http://downloader:8001
      - CACHE_DIR=/data/cache
      - GOOGLE_CREDENTIALS_PATH=/secrets/credentials.json
    volumes:
      - ./config.yaml:/app/config.yaml:ro
      - ./secrets:/secrets:ro
      - ./data:/data
      - audio_cache:/data/cache
    depends_on:
      - downloader

  downloader:
    image: ghcr.io/binuengoor/event-track-manager-downloader:latest
    container_name: event_track_manager_downloader
    restart: unless-stopped
    environment:
      - CACHE_DIR=/data/cache
      - COOKIES_PATH=/secrets/yt_cookies.txt
    volumes:
      - ./secrets:/secrets:ro
      - audio_cache:/data/cache

volumes:
  audio_cache:
    driver: local

Create environment file .env for your event specifics:

APP_TITLE="EMA Paattukoottam 2026"
EVENT_START_TIME="09-28-2026 06:30PM"
GOOGLE_SHEET_URL="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/<SHEET_ID>/edit"
GOOGLE_DRIVE_ACTIVE_FOLDER="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/<ACTIVE_FOLDER_ID>"
GOOGLE_DRIVE_ARCHIVE_FOLDER="https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/<ARCHIVE_FOLDER_ID>"
ADMIN_PIN="2026"

Start the application:

docker compose up -d

Option 2: Hetzner Cloud Virtual Server Deployment

For live venue streaming and distributed intake, deploy on a Hetzner Cloud CX22 or CAX11 instance:

  1. Provision Virtual Server: Launch an Ubuntu 24.04 LTS instance on Hetzner Cloud.
  2. Install Docker: 
    curl -fsSL https://get.docker.com -o get-docker.sh
sh get-docker.sh
  3. Clone & Configure: 
    git clone https://github.com/binuengoor/event-track-manager.git /opt/event-track-manager
cd /opt/event-track-manager
cp .env.example .env
mkdir -p secrets data/gallery
  4. Transfer Google Credentials: 
    scp secrets/credentials.json root@<HETZNER_IP>:/opt/event-track-manager/secrets/
  5. Launch Application: 
    docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

Google Workspace Integration

To connect the application to your event spreadsheet:

  1. Create Service Account:
    • In Google Cloud Console, enable Google Sheets API and Google Drive API.
    • Create a Service Account and download the JSON key as secrets/credentials.json.
  2. Share Google Sheet:
    • Share your event spreadsheet with the Service Account email as Editor.
  3. Share Google Shared Drive:
    • Create Active and Archive folders on Google Drive.
    • Grant the Service Account Content Manager access to the Shared Drive.
  4. Configure Environment Variables:
    • Paste the browser URLs for the Sheet and Drive folders directly into your .env file.

Access Endpoints

Portal URL Purpose
Performer Intake http://<server-ip>:8088/ Mobile-friendly registration & audio upload
Public Live Schedule http://<server-ip>:8088/live Stage countdown, live performer status & sponsor carousel
Sound Playback Console http://<server-ip>:8088/console PIN-protected sound engineer control board
Health Check http://<server-ip>:8088/api/health Automated uptime & container healthcheck

License

Distributed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.