RLS Best Practices

If you and your group are new to RLS, we absolutely recommend starting small with your RLS sessions at first. By this, it is meant to do initial dry-run sessions with a small group of 2-4 participants. This is good to get a feel for the software before going all-in with a 20 person session. RLS requires a proper equipment configuration and usage from every single user, and if a first-timer dives in with a big group, confusion and problems due to improper use or setup are bound to occur. It's much easier to deal with one technical issue than 10 different ones, so we suggest doing small groups and working your way up to bigger ones.

All users, both director and participants, should be fully setup in advance of your RLS session. This means everyone should have undergone the getting started (javascript:void(0))steps, as well as the pre-session (javascript:void(0))check to confirm they can open the show needed, and their equipment is working. Then, when it's time for the RLS session, everyone will need only to await the director's invitation. If you have any difficulty setting up or confirming your equipment, don't hesitate to reach out t(javascript:void(0))o us for help.

If you need help getting setup, or are encountering a problem that the troubleshooting FAQ doens't solve, just give our tech support team a call at 212-620-0774, ext. 2

All users must use headphones when working with RLS. Bluetooth headphones will not work properly with the iOS version of RLS, so wired headphones must be used. Without headphones, users in a session will encounter audible echos. If an echo is heard during a session, the director may use the mixer view to isolate participants and locate the source of the echo.

Internet service will affect RLS performance. RLS requires broadband Internet speeds of at least 100 mbps for director, 30 mbps for participants. The network being utilized by all users must allow connections to the following servers: • https://rms.biz/ • https://accounts.rms.biz/ • rls.rms.biz • port 8888

In advance of using RLS, quit other applications running the background, especially computationally intensive ones, as well as video-conferencing programs (e.g. Zoom, Skype, FaceTime) before starting an RLS session. Leaving other programs open in the background will compromise performance, or create hardware compatibility problems.

The Director will need a fast, powerful computer, while participants may use lower-spec machines. The Director should have the minimum of a 4 physical core CPU. RLS sessions with higher participant counts are more computationally intensive for the director's computer, and over encumbering a director's computer results in slower performance along with compromised functionality. Therefore, very powerful computers should be used for RLS sessions with high participant counts.

The Director can check the Mixer window to gauge syncing problems. The activity of the synchronization algorithm is indicated by a red bar over each participants video feed. These red bars are visible when a session first begins, and then stabilize and disappear after a few seconds. If the red bars do not resolve, you should end the session, quit/relaunch, and try again. If certain Participants retain their red bars throughout a session, that machine should be dropped from the session. Have the Participant send a feedback report and/or contact us for further assistance.

The microphone being used by each participant is a major factor in the resulting sound. For a higher quality of sound, we recommend using external microiphones as opposed to the one internal to computers. See our hardware recommendations (javascript:void(0))page for more details.

The RLS show builder will accept 44.1 or 48K sampling rate, 16 or 24 bit depth wav files or mp3s. You may only use up to 16 stereo files, or 32 mono files per song. If you have met these requirements, and are still having issues building your show, please contact us f(javascript:void(0))or assistance.

If you are finding that your participants are out of sync, and do not have persistent red bars, use the buffer adjustment mechanism (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbdMmORSfN0&t=1s&ab_channel=RealtimeMusicSolutions)to recalibrate your participant's sync. If you are in a session with many users, sometimes it's best to isolate the ones you suspect are out of sync, and re-calibrate them.