ScriptureCasterFeatures
Remote control
Drive the projection from a phone or tablet on the church network — with its own reader, its own sign-in per person, and no way through to the settings.
Why a browser
The person who should be driving the projection is often not the person sitting at the PC. They are beside the preacher, or at the back where the screen is actually visible, and the machine is in a corner behind a pillar.
So the program itself answers a browser on the church network. A tablet, a phone, a spare laptop — whatever is to hand signs in and drives the projection. Nothing is installed on that device, which is the point: it usually belongs to whoever is holding it, and it will be a different device next month.
Turning it on
Open Settings → Remote control.
- Add the people who may connect, first. Press Add a person… and give a name and a password of at least six characters. Everyone gets their own. Until at least one person exists the tab says Nobody yet — add a person before turning this on.
- Tick Let a tablet or phone control the projection.
- Press OK, then open Settings again. The Address for the tablet line now shows what to type into the browser.
The address, and the Wi-Fi
The address is a number — something like 192.168.1.24 — rather than the name of the computer. On church networks names very often do not resolve and numbers always do.
It uses port 80 where it can, which is why the address is usually just the number with nothing after it. If something else on the machine already has port 80, it moves to the next free port on its own and the address line shows the port it landed on — 192.168.1.24:8080. There is nothing to configure either way.
The tablet has to be on the same network as the PC. A guest network is usually a separate network even when it is the same box on the wall, so a tablet on “Church Guest” generally cannot see a PC on the wired network.
The Windows firewall
The first time the remote starts, Windows asks whether the program may talk on the network. Answer Allow and tick the private network.
Worth getting right the first time: if that prompt was ever refused, no tablet can connect however correct the address is, and the PC looks perfectly healthy from the desk. To undo a refusal, open Windows Security → Firewall & network protection → Allow an app through firewall, find ScriptureCaster and tick Private.
What the tablet can do
- Book, chapter, verse — the same three taps as the host
- Search by reference (
mat 3 16) or by words from a verse - Read the passage around the verse before anything goes up
- Project it, release the screen, and step verse by verse
Releasing works from the tablet too, so whoever put a verse up can take it down without walking back to the desk.
What it deliberately cannot do
Settings cannot be opened from the tablet at all. Screens, colours, fonts, NDI and the Bible library stay on the machine at the desk.
This is not a permission left switched off — there is nothing on the other end to ask. A borrowed phone on the church Wi-Fi can put a verse on the wall; it cannot rearrange the projector five minutes before the service, and it cannot delete a translation.
One reader, one language
The projector may carry two languages at once. The tablet does not: it shows one translation, with a picker offering whichever ones are being projected, and it remembers the choice on that device. It starts on whatever the reader on the host machine is set to.
So two people can follow the reading in two different languages on two different tablets, and neither of them changes what the congregation sees. A word search follows the language being read.
Who may connect
Everyone who connects has their own name and password, added in Settings on the host machine. There is no shared password going round a worship team, and removing one person does not disturb anyone else.
The password never crosses the network — the browser proves it knows the password without sending it — and repeated wrong attempts from a device are locked out for a few minutes.
The connection itself is not encrypted, and the software says so where you turn it on. This belongs on the church network, switched on for the service and off afterwards. It is a control surface for a room you trust, not a service to put on the internet.
If it will not connect
| What you see | Usually |
|---|---|
| The page does not load at all | The tablet is on a different network, or the firewall prompt was refused |
| The address line is still the placeholder | Settings has not been closed with OK yet |
| “No such user” | The name is spelled differently from the one added in Settings — it is exact |
| “Too many attempts” | Wait five minutes; the lock is per device |
| It worked last Sunday, not today | The PC's address changed. Check the address line in Settings again |