onairscreen:release_notes_0.9.8 [astrastudio wiki]

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# OnAirScreen 0.9.8 — Release Notes

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

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## A Major Milestone Release

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.**

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## Highlights at a Glance

| 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 |

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## New Features

### Web-Based Remote Control

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.

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### MQTT & Home Assistant Integration

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.

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### Top-of-Hour Countdown (AIR3)

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) |

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### Warning Priority System

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

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### Configuration Presets

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

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### Event Logging

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.

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### API Enhancements

- **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`)

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### User Experience Improvements

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

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## Bug Fixes

| 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 |

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## Under the Hood

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

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## Upgrade Notes

- **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](https://www.astrastudio.de/shop/)

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## Thank You

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](https://www.astrastudio.de)

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*OnAirScreen is open source. Support the project via [PayPal](https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=YCQKC82DLCHMG), [Buy Me a Coffee](https://www.buymeacoffee.com/saschaludwig), or [Ko-fi](https://ko-fi.com/L3L8BKHYT).*

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