ArtNet Viewer is a no-nonsense Art-Net network monitor for iOS and iPadOS, built for lighting designers, stage technicians and integrators working with DMX-over-Ethernet.
Plug into your MA-Net switch, open the app, and within seconds every Art-Net node on the network shows up with its IP, hostname, output universes and live packet rate. Pick any universe and watch all 512 channels update in real time.
WHAT YOU GET
• Live multi-universe view — "All universes" lists every active universe with a mini bar chart per universe (cyan-to-red gradient encoding value). Click to open the full 32-column channel grid with current values and bar fills.
• Per-channel detail — value 0–255 per cell, proportional fill, channel number on top. Header shows Active count, Highest active channel, Packets/second and the last Sequence byte. Hover for the full Port-Address breakdown.
• Device discovery — Art-Net node enumeration via ArtPoll every 3 seconds. mDNS reverse lookup via DNSServiceQueryRecord resolves .local hostnames unicast DNS can't.
• Test sender — pick a Port-Address (Net/Sub/Universe), target IP and start broadcasting your own ArtDmx at 30 Hz. Click any of 512 channels to type a value, double-click to toggle 0/255, or apply a single level to the whole universe at once. Great for finding a fixture or sanity-checking a patch before show.
• Packet log — every inbound and outbound packet logged with timestamp, source, OpCode, Port-Address and size. Filter by direction, OpCode or IP. Export to JSONL for analysis in jq, Python or your favorite tool.
• Network interface picker — for hosts with multiple NICs (USB-C Ethernet for MA-Net plus WiFi for internet, common on tour). Pin the listener to a single interface; ArtPoll goes out only on its broadcast, inbound packets get filtered by subnet.
• In-app Help — built-in troubleshooting for the classic "I see devices but no DMX values" scenario (console unicasts ArtDmx to specific output node IPs) and other production gotchas. Help menu (Cmd+?) in the menubar links to every section plus the OF COURSE software catalog.
WHO IT'S FOR
Lighting designers programming on grandMA, Hog, Avolites, Chamsys and other Art-Net consoles. FOH techs verifying patches at load-in. Integrators commissioning new installations. Anyone who needs to answer "is DMX reaching this fixture?" in seconds.
PROTOCOL & TECHNICALS
• Art-Net 4 over UDP/6454, IPv4.
• 15-bit Port-Address with Net/Sub-Net/Universe addressing.
• BSD socket listener with SO_REUSEPORT — coexists with consoles and onPC
software on the same machine.
• App Nap disabled at launch so monitoring keeps working when the window is
in the background.
PART OF THE OF COURSE FAMILY
Browse the catalog from inside the app under Tools → Our apps, or at ofcourse.design/software.
