Getting started

From download to first frame on air in about ten minutes. Questions this page does not answer go to support.

1. Install and sign in

Download PlayGrid, unzip it and drag the app to Applications. On first launch macOS may say the app cannot be checked — right-click the app, choose Open, and confirm once. Then open Settings → License and sign in with the same account you use on this site: the app fetches your key itself. Without a licence it runs in the free tier (one channel, with a corner mark); the 14-day trial unlocks everything.

Requirements: a Mac with Apple silicon, macOS 14 or later. For SDI, a Blackmagic DeckLink card with Desktop Video installed.

2. Channels and playlists

The window is a grid of channels. Each channel is an independent player with its own playlist, clock and outputs. Drag video files onto a channel to add them; drag inside the list to reorder. A playlist is made of blocks: a block plays through, then either stops, loops, or continues into the next block — set that per block with the mode control. Insert a break between blocks where a presenter takes over.

• Space plays / pauses the selected channel; Enter cues the selected clip; ⌘ Enter plays every channel. All of it is remappable under Settings → Shortcuts.
• The countdown on each channel shows time remaining in the clip and in the block.
• Loop on the channel loops the current clip; Loop playlist on the block loops the block.

3. Output over NDI

Open Settings → Outputs, pick the channel and turn on NDI. The channel appears on your network as PLAYGRID 1, PLAYGRID 2 and so on (the prefix and a per-channel name are yours to change there), and any NDI receiver — OBS, vMix, a TriCaster, an NDI monitor — can pick it up. Audio travels with the video. Resolution and frame rate follow the channel's format under Settings → Channel; match it to your switcher, and keep the Mac on wired Ethernet. New to NDI^®? ndi.video explains it and has the free NDI Tools (Studio Monitor is the quickest way to check a channel is on the network). NDI^® is a registered trademark of Vizrt NDI AB.

4. Output over SDI (DeckLink)

With a DeckLink card and Blackmagic Desktop Video installed, the card's outputs appear under Settings → Outputs. Choose the output and the SDI format. Each DeckLink output carries one channel, so a multi-output card gives you several.

5. Stream to RTMP or SRT

Under Settings → Streaming paste the RTMP URL and stream key from your platform (or an SRT address), pick a bitrate and start the stream from the channel. What goes out is the channel's program output — the same picture it sends over NDI or SDI. Recording to disk is set up the same way under Settings → Recording.

6. Stream Deck and Companion

PlayGrid speaks OSC. Turn it on under Settings → Control and note the port (8000 by default). Then either:

• Install the Stream Deck plugin (double-click), set PlayGrid's IP and port once in any key, and drop Play, Pause, Loop and Cue keys per channel. Keys light while the channel is on air.
• Or import the Companion configuration and set the connection's host. Feedbacks are included.

Anything else that sends OSC works too — the full address list is on the download page.

7. Multiview

The multiview is a grid of every channel with clocks and status, for a second monitor or a confidence feed. Set it up under Settings → Multiview; it can go to a display or out over NDI so the gallery sees it.

8. Licence and Macs

Each plan allows a number of activated Macs. The app registers a Mac when it signs in; release one you no longer use from Account → Licence. Subscriptions renew themselves and the app refreshes the key on its own — there is nothing to paste again. Keys keep working offline between check-ins.