OnAirScreen 0.9.8 — Release Notes

Release date: July 2026
Previous baseline: 0.9.6 (beta)

OnAirScreen 0.9.8 is not just another incremental update — it is the largest release in the project's history. What started as a focused on-air display tool has evolved into a fully connected, remotely controllable broadcast companion with a modern web interface, smart home integration, and a dramatically more robust codebase under the hood.

Since version 0.9.6, hundreds of commits have landed across remote control, automation, studio workflow, security, and code quality. Whether you run OnAirScreen on a studio PC, a Raspberry Pi, or headless in the rack — this release brings features that studios have been asking for, fixes long-standing annoyances, and lays a solid foundation for everything that comes next.

If you have been waiting for the right moment to upgrade: this is it.

Area	What's new
Web-UI	Full browser-based remote control with real-time WebSocket updates
Smart Home	MQTT integration with Home Assistant Autodiscovery
Studio Workflow	Top-of-Hour countdown, configuration presets, event logging
Warnings	Priority-based warning system with NTP support
API	TOGGLE commands, REST endpoints, expanded status JSON
Quality	580+ unit tests, unified error handling, security hardening
Docs	Complete English and German user manuals

The headline feature of this release cycle is a complete Web-UI accessible from any browser on your network:

Real-time status display for LEDs, AIR timers, and NOW / NEXT / WARN text fields
One-click LED control with toggle functionality
AIR timer controls — start/stop, plus reset for AIR3 and AIR4
Text input for NOW, NEXT, and WARN messages with clear buttons
REST-style API endpoints: /api/status and /api/command
Version and distribution info shown in the UI
Connection error modal that dims the background and disables controls when the link is lost

WebSocket support replaces HTTP polling for status updates — changes appear on screen instantly, with no refresh lag.

Dark Mode is fully supported: toggle via button, preference is saved automatically, and the theme is applied immediately on page load (no flash of light mode).

The Web-UI layout has been redesigned for clarity and compactness: status rows for LEDs and AIR timers, side-by-side NOW/NEXT fields, and timer labels (Mic, Phone, etc.) shown directly on control buttons.

OnAirScreen now speaks MQTT — perfect for studios that already run Home Assistant or any MQTT broker:

LED switches (LED1–4) — turn indicators on/off remotely
AIR timer switches (AIR1–4) — start and stop timers
AIR timer sensors — elapsed time in seconds
Reset buttons for AIR3 and AIR4
Text entities for NOW, NEXT, and WARN fields
Automatic status updates after every state change
Automatic reconnection with autodiscovery re-publishing on reconnect
Home Assistant Autodiscovery — devices appear automatically, no manual YAML required

MQTT settings (server, port, credentials, device name) are configurable in the settings dialog. The base topic is auto-generated from onairscreen plus a unique device ID derived from the MAC address.

A studio-focused feature for radio workflows: a wall-clock synchronized countdown to the next full hour, displayed on the Radio Timer (AIR3) in M:SS format.

Press once to start — calculates remaining time to the next :00 and counts down
Press again (or send OFF/TOGGLE) — stops and resets to 0:00
Synchronized with the system clock; stops automatically at the hour
/api/status includes "topOfHour": true in the air[3] object while active

Control options:

Method	Command / Action
Hotkey `T`	Toggle countdown
UDP / HTTP	`AIR3TOH:ON`, `AIR3TOH:OFF`, `AIR3TOH:TOGGLE`
Web-UI	"Top of Hour" button at AIR3
MQTT	Publish to `{base_topic}/air3/toh`
Home Assistant	"AIR3 Top of Hour" button (autodiscovery)

Warnings are no longer a single flat message. The new priority system supports four levels:

Priority	Type	Behaviour
-1	NTP	Shown in blue; hidden when higher-priority warnings exist
0	Normal	Standard warning
1	Medium	Higher visibility
2	High	Highest priority

API command format: WARN:Prio:Text
Web-UI shows NTP warnings in the status section with colour coding
X button to dismiss warnings (priority 0–2) directly from the status display
/api/status returns a warnings array with priorities alongside the legacy warn field

Save and restore complete OnAirScreen configurations as JSON preset files:

Save, load, list, and delete presets from the settings dialog
Dedicated UI buttons for preset management
Ideal for switching between show formats, stations, or deployment profiles

A new event logging system tracks everything that happens in your session:

LED state changes
AIR timer start/stop/reset events
Incoming commands (UDP, HTTP, MQTT)
Warning changes
System events

Configurable log levels: DEBUG, INFO, WARNING, ERROR, CRITICAL, NONE — set in General settings or override temporarily via --loglevel on the command line.

TOGGLE support for LED1–4, AIR1, AIR2, and AIR4 (in addition to ON/OFF)
Expanded /api/status JSON with version, distribution, warnings array, and Top-of-Hour state
Command test scripts for HTTP and UDP (utils/cmdtest_http.sh, utils/cmdtest_udp.sh)

Tooltips on all settings widgets
About dialog now shows version, distribution, and settings file path
Complete user manuals in English (USER_MANUAL.md) and German (BEDIENUNGSANLEITUNG.md)
Updated screenshots in README

Issue	Fix
Text clock in 24h mode showed 24-hour numbers (e.g. "12 minutes to 16")	Text clock now always uses spoken 12-hour form (e.g. "12 minutes to 4")
Web-UI template not found in PyInstaller builds	Correct template path resolution for packaged builds
LED toggle status not updating in Web-UI	Status now refreshes correctly after LED toggles
Autoflash LED blinking broken in Web-UI	Autoflash behaviour restored in browser control
Digital clock second LEDs lagged at second rollover	Repaint aligned to wall-clock second boundaries
Weather widget made API calls when disabled or without API key	API calls suppressed when widget is off or unconfigured
Crash when UDP/HTTP ports were left empty	Graceful handling of empty port configuration
IP addresses not shown correctly at startup	Fixed IP display on launch
HTTP command URL decoding	Correct decoding of URL-encoded command parameters
PyQt6 compatibility issues	Compatibility fixes across the application
MQTT client restart logic	Improved reconnect and autodiscovery re-publishing
`get_default()` font constants	Correct default font values after refactoring

This release includes a major internal refactoring that does not change how OnAirScreen looks on air, but makes it far more maintainable and testable:

start.py reduced from ~1,700 to ~1,400 lines by extracting dedicated modules: NTP manager, font loader, signal handlers, system operations, status exporter, UI updater, hotkey manager, logging config, command handler, timer manager, and more
Central configuration in defaults.py — one source of truth for all default values
Unified error handling with a custom exception hierarchy and consistent logging via log_exception()
Security hardening: input validation and sanitization for all network commands, length limits, control character stripping
580+ unit tests covering core modules, Web-UI, API endpoints, MQTT, exceptions, and more
Type hints and docstrings throughout the codebase
Improved multicast support on macOS with dedicated test/diagnostic tools

Settings are preserved — existing configuration files are fully compatible
MQTT is disabled by default; configure it in Settings → MQTT if needed
Web-UI is available at http://<host>:<http-port>/ (default port: 8010)
Presets are stored as JSON files alongside your settings
For Raspberry Pi / packaged builds: use the latest image or binary from astrastudio.de

OnAirScreen 0.9.8 represents years of feature requests, bug reports, and real-world studio feedback distilled into one release. A special thanks to everyone who tested beta builds, reported issues, and helped shape this version.

Happy broadcasting!

— Sascha Ludwig / astrastudio.de

OnAirScreen is open source. Support the project via PayPal, Buy Me a Coffee, or Ko-fi.

OnAirScreen 0.9.8 — Release Notes

A Major Milestone Release

Highlights at a Glance

New Features

Web-Based Remote Control

MQTT & Home Assistant Integration

Top-of-Hour Countdown (AIR3)

Warning Priority System

Configuration Presets

Event Logging

API Enhancements

User Experience Improvements

Bug Fixes

Under the Hood

Upgrade Notes

Thank You