Orchestrator is a registered third-party application on Tesla's official Fleet API. Owners grant temporary, revocable access through Tesla's own sign-in and key approval. When you start a show, every car receives the same absolute start moment, and because Teslas keep synchronized clocks, the whole fleet fires in perfect unison, whether the cars share a parking lot or a continent.
Owners can revoke access anytime in the Tesla app under Security & Drivers → Third-Party Apps, and you can release vehicles from your side (Chapter 9).
Orchestrator is in open beta: please report issues, failures, or improvement ideas through the MARQUEE Patreon. Reports shape every patch.
Go to marqueelightshow.com and sign in with your Patreon account (or open /director directly). Your membership is checked live at sign-in; lapsed or cancelled memberships lose access automatically.
The console header always shows your ceiling, for example MAX 10 VEHICLES. That's your tier talking:
| Membership | Fleet cap | Built for |
|---|---|---|
| Any member, even free | 2 cars (free trial) | Feeling the button in your driveway |
| Director 10 · $10/mo | 10 cars | Driveways, cul-de-sacs, first shows |
| Director 100 · $15/mo | 100 cars | Community events, club meets |
| Director 1000 · $25/mo | 1000 cars | Festivals, records, the news |
Every paid tier also includes Marquee Light Show Studio and the full light show library. Owners joining your shows never pay anything.
Under your show's USB link, the console has a Show package panel. It works on one rule: group by song, deliver by role, cue by song. A package is a list of songs in show order, and each song holds a part for every vehicle role in the show. Add a song by title, then click its chips to upload each part (the light show file and its music). Amber chips still need a file; green ones have it.
A role is which part a car plays. Most shows have one part per model, so owners never see a role step, the system detects their car and delivers that model's files. For productions with several parts per model (two Cybertrucks playing different choreography), add roles in the Roles row, e.g. Spot 1 and Spot 2 under Cybertruck. Cybertruck owners then pick their part at check-in, and each drive gets only that part. You can reassign a car's part from its board card (the owner re-prepares their drive afterwards; the console says so).
One file per song: its own (model, role) part; if the song has only one part for that model, that one; otherwise the model's first part; otherwise the universal Any part; otherwise the car sits that song out (the console warns you which checked-in cars would). Slot numbers are identical on every drive, so START SHOW cues one slot and every car plays its own part. Filenames follow Order_Model_Title, with the role added when a model has more than one part (1_Cybertruck_Spot2_Pretender.fseq).
On the owner check-in page and in the Light Show Library. On a laptop or desktop, the owner plugs in an empty USB stick, confirms it's empty, clicks, approves an exact description of what will be written, and the LightShow folder for their car and part is written, correctly named and ordered, nothing else touched. Safari and phones get a one-click zip and drag instructions instead.
Owners scan the QR or type the show code into the join box on the marqueelightshow.com homepage. On their phone they: sign in with Tesla, pick their car, enter their preloaded show count (most Teslas carry 6 to 8; owners verify the current number in their car's Toybox, not counting the USB), approve the virtual key, then tap Test my car.
The test plays Song 1 briefly and stops itself, and it self-heals along the way: a sleeping car is woken, a locked car unlocked, and Sentry Mode switched off automatically. When the owner confirms the right show played, they earn a verified mark. If not, they adjust their count and retest, no director involvement needed at any fleet size.
Toggle Grid board for numbered position tiles (assign positions on each car's card, they drive formations). Show-night doctrine: don't start until the board is green rings across.
Pick the song number (your custom songs count from 1), set your volume, then a countdown (60 seconds or more lets sleepers wake) or an exact clock time, and press Start show. No length needed, it runs until it ends or you press Stop all. Arming self-heals: sleeping cars are woken and retried, locked doors unlocked, stray queued shows cleared. Clock times already past are refused with a clear message rather than silently rescheduled.
Your volume setting is pushed to every car twice over: the console explicitly sets each car's media volume just before the show fires, then the show command carries it again. Set it once; the fleet obeys.
Multiple tracks with timed gaps, run automatically. Tap .fseq on a row, pick that song's file, and the exact duration and title are read out of the file itself, you almost never type a length. Gaps auto-enforce a minimum so the fleet can re-arm between tracks, and the mission readout narrates the night: Track 2 of 3 · T-minus 00:41.
Red lights get Re-arm failed cars, which rejoins them at the same showtime. Every command lands in History & records with its result and reason.
Preflight (15-30 min before showtime) wakes the fleet and turns Sentry off everywhere. Lock all after show reverses it: locks every car and restores Sentry.
Kiosk is the full-screen QR check-in station for a welcome table. Crowd is your jumbotron: chasing marquee bulbs around the border, the current song's name, a synchronized T-minus clock that pulses through the final ten seconds and flashes SHOWTIME at zero, the live count of Teslas in the show with a welcome flash for every check-in, a join QR recruiting all night, and the house record it's chasing, which flips to NEW HOUSE RECORD TONIGHT the moment you beat it. The clock clears automatically when a setlist completes or you stop the show.
When guests leave early, or the night ends, release their cars so no future show can ever reach them. Check the red boxes on the cars to release (or none to release all), press Release vehicles, then pass the double confirmation: type the show code, then type CONFIRM. Released cars vanish from the board and their access for that show is deleted. Rejoining later is two minutes at the QR. Releases are logged to History.
Every show you run writes history at marqueelightshow.com/leaderboard.html:
Somebody is going to set the world record for the largest synchronized Tesla light show through this system. The board is public, the counts are witnessed, and the top line is waiting for a name.
| You see | Meaning | Do |
|---|---|---|
| car is locked | Auto-unlock is off | Enable Auto-unlock or owner unlocks in app |
| car still busy with a show | A show is queued/playing | Console clears it automatically; or Stop, wait, re-arm |
| Sentry mode is on | Sentry blocks shows | Run Preflight; owner tests self-heal it too |
| Red board light | Missed the arm | Re-arm failed cars |
| tier limit message | Show exceeds your fleet cap | Trial runs 2 cars; upgrade your tier for 10, 100, or 1000 |
| Clock time refused | Time passed or too soon | Pick a later time or use countdown |
| Crowd screen error | Stale show code | Reopen Crowd from the console |
| Wrong access level shown | Signed in under another identity | Visit /api/logout, sign in again |