FAQS

COGS software runs locally on a computer and connects to the hardware over a local area network. COGS does not rely on the internet being active and if it were to temporarily cut out, COGS would be unaffected.

COGS only needs the internet to check that you have paid your licence. This depends on your billing cycle. If you are on a monthly plan, it checks once a month. If you are on a yearly plan, it checks once a year.

If it cannot connect to the internet at that exact time, COGS continues to work offline for up to 7 days (during which it's continually checking). It warns you of this so you have time to make sure that computer gets connected. If you have the computer offline, it only needs to be connected for a brief moment.

Licences are sold per installation. Which essentially means per show or per escape room.

For each show, if you need to connect more than 2 Masters or connect DMX hardware, you'll need to purchase one of our software licences - see here for details.

For example: You have 2 escape rooms that require 5 Masters each & use DMX, so you purchase a Plus licence for each room and assign each licence to it's own computer. You will have two installations of COGS running on two computers to run both rooms at the same time. If both computers are on the same network you can use either computer to run either room as they both have a Plus licence.

COGS is a software & hardware system developed to run interactive experiences as a seamless whole. You program the logic into the software application and this same application will also run the show live, communicating with our hardware across a LAN.

COGS has a graphical user interface that gives live feedback of what is going on and allows us to keep all the settings in the software, where they are easily edited.

Each of our hardware boxes has a specific 'job'. They control channels of each type. e.g. The Digital Master can control 32 digital (on/off) switches, the DC Master controls 6 DC outputs, the Media Master controls audio & video etc.

Think of your show as a list of inputs & outputs, irrespective of what interaction they are being used in. You wire them all into different hardware boxes which are shared across the entire show. It is a ‘centralised’ solution.

COGS can control all sorts of inputs/outputs, logic, lighting, sound, video & custom content. It can also connect to other software & hardware systems.

No. If you stop using a paid licence then your COGS installation will revert to the free (Lite) version. This will limit the number of connections you can have but all your logic and settings will remain within the project pack file.

We provide support to all our users using two main methods - Discord & Zendesk.

Our Discord server is free to join and is where you can ask anything you like to either our staff or our community of users on the public channels. Join here.

The Zendesk is a direct email system. Email here.

Our staff are active between the hours of 10am & 6pm GMT (UK Time) Monday to Friday. We aim to get back to every request within 24hrs. Our worldwide community are very active and often will help you out when our staff are not online.

COGS was created by designers of interactive experiences so the controls are intended to be extremely easy to run shows day in, day out.

The main controls are kept very simple but you also have the ability to customise your show's 'dashboard' to have any controls or readouts you desire.

It totally depends on how complicated and large your show is. It also depends what inputs and outputs you chose to use. As the boxes are shared across all your show's interactions, you may only need a few.

The large majority of our users need between 2-7 boxes per show.

Yes. There is a lock function that will remove any project editing tools and only leave the 'show running' controls.

For extra security, we recommend you put the project pack in a 'read only' Dropbox account (or similar) on the operator computer. That means if the lock function is undone and a change is made, the change will not stick. Only the designated editor should have access to the project pack from a 'read/write' account.

We also recommend you strongly discourage operators from trying to edit the show file!

Yes, but it depends what hardware it is!

If you own hardware that can be triggered by a voltage signal /send out a voltage signal (or close a relay) then these can be integrated through the Digital Master (in some cases with an Isolated Breakout). This includes Arduino, Raspberry Pi, programmable hardware & off the shelf electronic props

This will not allow for the same level of feedback you would get if using COGS hardware alone and is mostly limited to 'completed' and 'reset' signals.

If the hardware uses DMX, OSC, MIDI or TCP/UDP protocols then you can integrate them with COGS software using a Pro licence.

We are working on new communication methods all the time so watch out for these in future updates.

Unlike some 'software only' escape room solutions, we have a team and we're here for the long term.

Our team is constantly updating and maintaining the software & hardware in response to feedback, working on new tutorial content and providing support to our customers. We believe in making the product the best it can be for our users so they can push the boundaries of what they think is possible.

Not at all.

You can run multiple different shows off one LAN. This can be the same LAN you use for your entire venue's needs - including internet access, till systems etc.

For escape rooms, haunts & mini golf this is the most practical solution as it means you can potentially run any show from any computer (or tablet) that is on the same LAN.

In some cases it's preferable to run a separate network for each show - this is often the case in immersive theatre productions. It's totally up to you!

Yes. We have a few discount schemes.

Software

Multi - The more licences you buy, the less you pay for each new licence. This continues to go down up to 5 licences, after which you pay the lowest amount per new licence. You need to buy multiple licence of the same type for this to take effect.

Blocks - if you chose to buy a licence in 3, 6 or 12 month blocks you receive a discount up to 15% (on top of any multi discounts).

Hardware

Buy a basket over £1000 in our store and you receive a 5% discount.

Buy a basket over £5000 in our store and you receive a 10% discount.

We also run various promotions throughout the year often around trade shows and sponsorships.

Clockwork Dog (who makes COGS) has been going since 2016. Originally the company created escape rooms and designed short term experiences to promote movies, products & museums. The pre-cursors to COGS were built to run these shows.

COGS 1 was created in August 2018 in response to interest in the system and a contract for multiple escape rooms. The 'do it yourself' COGS 4 was released in July 2021 to service not only escape rooms but immersive theatre, haunted houses, miniature golf and experiential marketing.

COGS 5 came out in March 2024 and continues to be developed as the only software/hardware system built specifically for all kinds of interactive experiences.

You bet.

COGS can communicate via DMX, OSC, MIDI & TCP/UDP protocols.

Most lighting and sound desks use OSC to communicate. All professional lighting fixtures use DMX. Most professional electronic musical instruments have MIDI compatibility. You can even connect COGS to other show control systems using TCP/UDP.

It totally depends what you need show control for. For interactive events, COGS is easier to use, less expensive and faster to deploy than it's rivals. It can also connect to other systems that are better suited to certain tasks.

The main show control systems out there are incredibly powerful tools, yet they are hard to learn and often require a certified course to be able to use. The hardware they supply is very high end and capable, but in turn it can be quite expensive.

COGS can control inputs, outputs, lighting, sound and video to a professional level that many attractions require. We bring the capabilities of the big systems to a wider audience (and we're adding things all the time).

If you are looking for specialist sound or lighting systems for your interactive experience, it might be better to integrate these with COGS than use the native tools. COGS can communicate over DMX, OSC, MIDI & TCP/UDP.

If your local network has been setup correctly and it is not under any undue strain, outages are quite rare. When they do happen they tend to be very short term - a few seconds or so. If this were to happen, COGS software continues to run and will reconnect with the hardware as soon as the outage has passed. Note that internet failure (more common) is not the same as a local area network failure. See: Does COGS rely on the internet?

Reputable manufacturers build networking equipment that is incredibly solid, long lasting and reliable. Most of the world's homes, businesses & theatrical shows run on this equipment. If your network goes down for a long period of time it would point to something being majorly amiss e.g. physical severance, overload, power failure or hardware failure. A good network setup should rarely (if ever) fail.

Firewall issues can sometimes be misconstrued as network outages. The COGS app needs to be allowed to communicate through firewalls in order to operate.

COGS software will stop running. If you have another computer on the same network then you can open the project pack on that machine, it will connect to the hardware automatically, and you can skip back to where you were quite quickly.

However, modern computers should not be crashing regularly or even rarely. Buying a decent model and not overloading it's RAM or CPU will make crashes a very low worry. You can find the minimum spec for machines here.

COGS can run on Windows, Mac or Linux.

Certainly.

If the block based system of programming COGS is not enough, you can write in Javascript to create really custom conditions.

You can also build custom plugins for COGS by following these instructions. Plugins allow you to create bespoke bridges between COGS and other bits of software of hardware.

The same system is employed to create 'custom content' for the Media Master. You are able to create your own graphical interfaces (e.g. touchscreen games or bespoke dashboards) or a bridge that is able to use the USB ports on the Master. You might also want to create programs that are running 'on top' of COGS that do specific jobs.

Technically yes, but we would not recommend it. COGS was designed to be used as one project pack (ergo licence) per show.

As COGS has the feature of 'restartable scenes' it is technically possible to run multiple shows from one project pack/one machine. It would require that the pack is running at all times during the working day so any of the shows could be run at any point.

However, this will remove or impair useful features like the reset checklist, pre-show, timer, hints, DMX and show report. It is also harder to setup. For escape rooms this is not really a practical solution.

Not yet. There are plans in the works to create license products which are 'pay once for life'. Details & timeframe TBC. If you are interested in this, please tell us on Discord.

In the highly unlikely event that Clockwork Dog goes out of business and the COGS product is not transferred to another company then all the software licences will be made free in perpetuity.

If there are no future updates, COGS will continue to run on the computer it was installed on until either the hardware fails, or the computers OS is upgraded to a future version where the software can no longer run.