REQ:IQ vs. Remote Falcon
Both let your viewers take the wheel — request songs, vote on what plays next, watch the lights respond. Here's how they line up, feature by feature.
Remote Falcon is the free, open-source pioneer of viewer-driven shows — mature, self-hostable, and endlessly customizable, now with a visual page builder alongside the raw-HTML editor. It shipped a lot in 2026: a public show map, per-category fairness rules, one-click album art, a QR generator, reworked PSAs, two-factor auth, and a documented public API.
IQ Studio is an all-in-one, fully managed platform. Viewer requests and voting live in REQ:IQ — one tool in a suite that also remaps sequences, builds setlists, and generates timing tracks. The comparison below is REQ:IQ vs. Remote Falcon head to head; the wider toolkit is covered at the end.
Feature by feature
Tap any group to expand it.
Song Catalog & Auto-Enrichment
Where IQ really pulls ahead — your song list fills in its own art, info, lyrics, and viewer-facing polish.
Song Catalog & Auto-Enrichment
Where IQ really pulls ahead — your song list fills in its own art, info, lyrics, and viewer-facing polish.
Catalog fills itself in on import — art, BPM, key, tags, lyrics
REQ:IQ One pass on first load pulls it all; you just review
RF Bulk lookup fills artist and album art; BPM, key, tags and lyrics are still yours to type
Automatic album art
REQ:IQ iTunes → Deezer → MusicBrainz, plus embedded MP3 artwork
RF iTunes lookup — one row at a time or the whole catalog in one pass, with a review step before it saves
Synced + plain lyrics
REQ:IQ Line-by-line with timing from LRCLIB — powers Karaoke Mode
RF No lyrics support
Automatic BPM & musical key
REQ:IQ From Deezer, with an AI web-search fallback for gaps
Automatic tagging — seasonal, genre, tempo, mood, kids-safe AI
REQ:IQ AI builds a tag set from your actual catalog
RF Manual categories — first-class now, but you name them yourself
Viewer blurb — a one-line vibe for each song AI
A "watch for this" hype moment tied to a real lyric & timestamp AI
REQ:IQ e.g. '1:34 — 43 props erupt in red and magenta'
Title & artist cleanup on import AI
REQ:IQ Fixes casing and junk; low-confidence fixes wait for your OK
RF Strips track numbers and version tags to search with — your stored title is left as-is
Per-song lighting stats (effect count, prop count, color palette)
REQ:IQ Read straight from your sequence / FPP render
Family-show filtering (explicit-content flag)
Upload custom artwork per song
REQ:IQ Drag-and-drop, stored for you
RF Host it and link it yourself
General image / photo hosting for your page
RF Store and serve your own custom images
One-click bulk enrichment across the whole catalog
REQ:IQ Fetch art, lyrics, cues and blurbs for everything at once
RF "Look up missing metadata" covers artist and album art
Sortable catalog table with inline editing
Karaoke Mode
Lyrics light up on viewers' phones, in time with the song.
Karaoke Mode
Lyrics light up on viewers' phones, in time with the song.
Live sing-along lyrics on the viewer's phone
REQ:IQ Words scroll in sync with the music as the song plays
RF No lyrics support at all
Lyrics that stay in time with the show
REQ:IQ Line-by-line timing from the synced catalog lyrics
Graceful fallback when a song has no synced lyrics
Viewer Request (Jukebox) Mode
Viewers browse your songs and add the next one to a live queue.
Viewer Request (Jukebox) Mode
Viewers browse your songs and add the next one to a live queue.
Phone-friendly request page (no app, no login)
REQ:IQ Anonymous session — scan a QR code and you're in
Live, ordered request queue
Per-viewer request limit
Queue-depth cap (one viewer can't hog the show)
Block re-requesting the song that's currently playing
Rich song cards with album art
REQ:IQ Built in
RF Possible with custom HTML/CSS on the viewer page
One-tap undo after requesting
Voting Mode
Viewers vote on what plays next; the top tally wins the round.
Voting Mode
Viewers vote on what plays next; the top tally wins the round.
Voting rounds — highest tally plays next
Max selections per viewer / device
Limit repeat votes by time / device
Show the currently-playing sequence to voters
Live-growing vote bars + round countdown
REQ:IQ Animated bars, countdown ring, confetti on the winner
RF Tally shown; live animation depends on your custom page
Ballot auto-built from what viewers actually want
REQ:IQ Crowd Pick assembles each round from real, in-limit demand — not a fixed admin list
RF Voting choices are the admin-managed sequence list
Tie-breaker handling
REQ:IQ Automatic photo-finish random pick
Free vote that doesn't burn a viewer's request limit
Smart Mode Switching
Move between jukebox and voting without babysitting the control panel.
Smart Mode Switching
Move between jukebox and voting without babysitting the control panel.
Manually switch jukebox ↔ voting
Schedule mode changes by time of night
RF Via FPP commands on a playlist/schedule
Auto-switch jukebox ↔ voting based on live crowd size
REQ:IQ Auto mode: jukebox on a quiet night, voting when a crowd shows up — hands-off
Now Playing & Viewer Experience
What the person standing in your driveway actually sees.
Now Playing & Viewer Experience
What the person standing in your driveway actually sees.
Now-playing & up-next display
Animated now-playing card with progress bar
RF Depends on your viewer-page template
FM frequency callout
RF Add it to your custom page
Graceful offline / show-closed state with countdown
Live updates without a page refresh
REQ:IQ Realtime WebSocket push
RF Viewer page polls on an interval
Show audio on viewers' phones, synced to the lights
REQ:IQ Listen along — one tap on the same viewer page; no FM radio needed
RF Pair with a separate audio service like PulseMesh
Anti-Abuse & Safeguards
Keep one person — or a drive-by troll — from wrecking the night.
Anti-Abuse & Safeguards
Keep one person — or a drive-by troll — from wrecking the night.
Per-viewer daily limit
Same-song cooldown
Minimum spacing between requests
Cap how many times one song can play per night
REQ:IQ Song-fatigue threshold in Safeguards
RF Nightly Play Limit, with the tally resetting each show night
Back-to-back prevention
RF Per-category — no two songs from a category play consecutively
Collective request cap shared across a whole category
RF Set "Novelty" to 2 and that whole corner of the catalog shares two slots
Blocked songs gray out instead of vanishing
REQ:IQ The song stays in the list and tapping it shows the reason and a countdown, but the row isn't dimmed up front
RF "Back next show" / "Available again soon", enforced server-side
Keep your own devices out of your stats and limits
RF Exclude-IPs list, plus a stat-neutral Play Next for operator picks
Global rate limiting
One-click safeguard presets (relaxed / standard / strict)
REQ:IQ Plus granular sliders when you want them
RF Tune each limit individually
Location gate (only let nearby viewers participate)
REQ:IQ Geofencing in Safeguards — pin + radius gates requests AND the phone-audio stream; fail-open or fail-closed, your call
RF Check Viewer Present GPS mode, plus Additional Allowed Locations for a second driveway
Help viewers who blocked or dismissed the location prompt
RF Auto-detects the cause and shows a re-enable button, iPhone steps, or a nudge to leave the Facebook in-app browser
Song Suggestions
Capture requests for songs you don't have yet — not just what's already loaded.
Song Suggestions
Capture requests for songs you don't have yet — not just what's already loaded.
Viewers can suggest songs you don't own yet
REQ:IQ Dedicated Suggest tab for next-season ideas
Admin review workflow (accept / decline / already have it)
Duplicate suggestions grouped + admin notes
Viewer Page Customization & Branding
Make the page look like your show.
Viewer Page Customization & Branding
Make the page look like your show.
Custom show name, colors & logo
REQ:IQ Guided branding controls
RF Visual RF Page Builder, or hand-edit the HTML
Full hand-coded HTML/CSS control of the page
REQ:IQ Curated, mobile-first layout (less to break)
RF Complete freedom — Monaco editor with live preview, device widths and an HTML validator
Visual drag-and-drop page editor
REQ:IQ Guided controls rather than a freeform canvas
RF RF Page Builder opens from the control panel and publishes back in one click
Keep several page drafts / A-B variants
RF Up to five pages per show; one is Live, the rest are drafts
Print-ready QR code for your viewer link
REQ:IQ Branding tab — presets, custom colors, center logo, PNG/SVG
RF Seasonal presets, gradients, a scan-safety contrast meter, a yard-sign card, and campaign tagging in Analytics
Starter templates
REQ:IQ Polished default out of the box
RF Template gallery + inline HTML validation
Your own branded subdomain
REQ:IQ yourshow.reqiq.net
RF yourshow.remotefalcon.com
Sequences & Organization
Control which songs viewers see and how they're organized.
Sequences & Organization
Control which songs viewers see and how they're organized.
Sync sequences from your show player
Per-sequence visibility (hide PSAs / commands / fillers)
Group sequences into categories
REQ:IQ Tags group the viewer menu
RF First-class Categories tab — drag to reorder the viewer-page sections, and each category carries its own fairness rules
Custom display names
Hide a song after it plays
PSAs & Announcements
Slipping your own announcements between the songs viewers picked.
PSAs & Announcements
Slipping your own announcements between the songs viewers picked.
Rotate PSAs automatically on a cadence
REQ:IQ Cadence by song count or by minutes
RF By song count — PSAs and leaders are invisible to the counter, and two never fire back-to-back
Fire a PSA right now from your phone
REQ:IQ The deck's "Play PSA now"
RF A dashboard PSA card with "Queued — plays next" and one-tap cancel
Toggle individual PSAs on and off without removing them
RF Special Roles tab, with drag-to-reorder and a last-played column
Burst every PSA back-to-back instead of one at a time
RF "Play all PSAs at cadence"
Intro bumper before an audience pick ("this one's yours!")
RF Leader sequences — a request leader and a vote leader, injected around the song without taking a queue slot
Show Player Integration
How requests reach the lights.
Show Player Integration
How requests reach the lights.
Falcon Player (FPP) integration
xSchedule integration
Admin force-play / skip / reorder the queue
Single on-box playlist trick (no per-request rewiring)
Scheduling & Show Hours
When the page is live and when it goes dark.
Scheduling & Show Hours
When the page is live and when it goes dark.
Turn the show on/off
Season date windows + Nightly Mix hours
RF Driven by FPP commands / your schedule
Change settings from the show schedule itself
RF FPP commands can flip RF settings mid-show
Analytics & Dashboard
See what played, what got requested, and how busy you were.
Analytics & Dashboard
See what played, what got requested, and how busy you were.
Live active-viewer count
Requests / votes over time
Most-requested songs
Custom date ranges
Compare a range against the period before it
RF Delta badges on every tile and rank-change badges on top sequences
Dwell time, new vs. returning, and season regulars
RF Analytics beta — opt in under Account Settings
Export your analytics to CSV
REQ:IQ Night reports, suggestions and song ideas export; no whole-range dump
RF One file per click covering the whole selected range and every section
Show-health tile with plugin heartbeat history
REQ:IQ Live plugin connection state on the Live deck
RF Connection status, last heartbeat, plugin/FPP versions and 7-day uptime
Alert you when your show player goes quiet mid-show
REQ:IQ The status shows offline, but nothing pings you
RF Opt-in bell alert with a renotify interval; clears itself on reconnect
Unified reports across every IQ tool
REQ:IQ One analytics home for requests, mapping, setlists & more
Discovery, Account & Hosting
Finding your show, signing in, and who runs the servers.
Discovery, Account & Hosting
Finding your show, signing in, and who runs the servers.
Opt-in global shows map for viewer discovery
RF Two independent toggles — other operators, the public map at remotefalcon.com/map, both, or neither; your pin is blurred either way
Two-factor authentication on your operator account
RF Authenticator app, plus self-service show-token rotation
Documented public API for building your own front end
RF OpenAPI reference generated from the spec — read show state, queue a sequence, cast a vote
Free to use
REQ:IQ REQ:IQ is free — no subscription, no per-request fees
Open-source
RF Source is public on GitHub
Self-host on your own server
RF One monorepo, one script — Docker / Cloudflare Tunnel
Fully managed hosting — nothing to run or patch
REQ:IQ We host it; you just point your show player at it
RF Hosted instance available, or run your own
Beyond requests: the rest of IQ Studio
Remote Falcon focuses on one job — viewer interaction — and does it well. IQ Studio bundles that with the rest of your show pipeline. These tools have no Remote Falcon equivalent.
Where Remote Falcon still shines
A fair comparison cuts both ways. If these matter most to you, Remote Falcon is a genuinely great fit:
- It's open-source. Read every line of the source and shape it to your liking.
- Self-hosting. Host it on your own hardware with full control of your data.
- Total page control. The viewer page is a blank canvas — hand-write HTML/CSS in a real editor with live preview and validation, drag it together in RF Page Builder, or keep up to five variants and flip between them.
- Discovery. The public map at
remotefalcon.com/mapputs your show in front of people who have never heard of it. REQ:IQ has no equivalent. - A documented public API. If you want to build your own viewer page or a stats overlay, there's a real OpenAPI reference to build against.
- A big, proven community. Years of shows, templates, and forum knowledge behind it.
Common questions
Can I move over from Remote Falcon?
What's 'Crowd Pick' voting?
Is REQ:IQ free?
Remote Falcon is an independent open-source project and a trademark of its respective owners. This comparison reflects publicly documented features and is provided for informational purposes; IQ Studio features marked “partial” may still be rolling out in beta.