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Getting started.

Welcome to the Beam Dreams beta. The web app is for desk work: inventory, shows, paperwork. The iPhone app is for the field: placements, zone photos, checklists, issues. They share one account and one set of data.

1. Sign in and set up your company

• Open the web app, create an account, and create your company — the FDA variance holder. You become its first admin.
• In Settings, fill in the company's street address, phone, email and responsible person: these go on every FDA form, and the drafts will flag anything missing.
• Invite your team from Settings › Members. Admins manage inventory and filings; safety officers sign; operators work the show.

2. Inventory

• Add a laser model first (make, model, class, wavelengths, power per color, divergence, beam diameter, scan-fail details, accession number), then add each unit by serial number. Units inherit the model; override only what's different.
• Set the control patch on each unit: FB4 with its serial, or DMX / Art-Net with universe and start address. You can override it per show later.
• Rented or borrowed units go in the same place, flagged as rentals with the dates and the owner's variance.

3. Build a show

• Create the show with its venue, state and indoor/outdoor setting, then add dates. The alignment date matters most: deadlines count from the first date a beam is on.
• Assign the safety officer. Only that person can sign zone checks and the pre-show checklist.
• Place lasers, add zones, and pick effects. Blocked lasers (locked out, retired, or an unreported Laserworld/RTI unit) can't be placed, and the reason is shown.
• Outdoor show? Answer whether every beam terminates on a solid surface, and enter the site coordinates — the FAA notice depends on it.
• The Deadlines page now lists everything the show needs, by agency, with the rule's source and a verify link.

4. On site, with the iPhone app

• Install the app and sign in with the same account. Pull down to sync. Everything you've opened stays available with no signal.
• Open the show, adjust a placement's IP, patch, position or aim, and photograph zones before and after. Each photo is hashed and stamped the moment you take it.
• Start the pre-show checklist for the performance date: equipment checks per projector (with label photos), alignment checks, zone measurements, effect measurements, then the safety officer signs.
• Something wrong with a laser? Report an issue. A safety-severity issue locks the laser out of shows until it's cleared.
• Changes upload when you're back online. Account › Sync shows what's queued.

5. Paperwork

• Fill in Paperwork › Compliance profile once: venue types, tour length, audience scanning, operator control, and the variance conditions. Forms 3147 and 3640 read from it.
• From the show page, draft each required notice (FAA 7140-1, state notices, permits). Fix the listed gaps, edit anything you need to, export the PDF, file it, and mark it filed — the deadline closes itself.
• Run the calculator from a placement before drafting the FAA worksheet; it needs the NOHD and zone distances.
• After June 30, draft the annual report (Form 3636); it's built from every show in the period, including ones you added after the fact.

Adding past shows

Past shows takes shows the app wasn't used for: a quick form with only the annual-report fields, or a CSV upload checked row by row. They count fully toward the report and the five-year record.

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