The words ARC uses, in plain language. Terms are listed alphabetically.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Action | A single step an automation or scene carries out — set a device, play media, speak a hint, adjust the timer, and so on. |
| Add-on | An optional part of ARC you turn on when you need it. Some are downloaded on demand from System → Overview (Vision, Speech Recognition, local text-to-speech voices); others are added to your subscription (Cloud Connect, Cloud Backup). |
| Ambient audio | Background music or sound a game plays while it runs. |
| Assist | An optional helper that watches a game and suggests a hint when a group looks stuck. You turn it on in System → Overview and choose how it behaves for each game. |
| Automation | A rule that runs actions automatically when a trigger happens (and any conditions pass) — “when this, do that.” |
| Bypass | Marking an objective as skipped without it being solved. |
| Camera wall | A full-screen grid of room cameras for a dedicated monitor. You lay the grid out per game in the editor’s Cameras tab, then open it from the control page or a dashboard card. |
| Condition | An optional check that must pass before an automation’s actions run. |
| Connection | The bridge ARC uses to talk to a family of hardware — an MQTT broker, a Z-Wave controller, a DMX or Hue setup, and more. You add a connection before adding devices that use it. |
| Constant | A fixed, named value in a game that never changes while the game runs. |
| Control dock | The persistent bar that carries the current page’s controls — the timer, game status, and start/pause/end buttons on the control page, or the section menu in the editor, Insights, and System. You can put it along the top or the bottom in System → Overview. |
| Control page | The screen where staff run a game — timer, hints, objectives, displays, and audio. |
| Dashboard | The home screen showing every game at a glance, with status, timer, and progress. |
| Device | A piece of hardware ARC reads from or controls — a lock, light, sensor, or sound player. |
| Display | A screen players see, showing the countdown, hints, and media. |
| Display settings | The drawer holding one display’s own setup — its name, type, template, hardware, and views. Settings that apply to every display in the game sit next to it under All displays. |
| Editor | Where you build and configure a game — its objectives, media, displays, devices, logic, panels, and cameras. |
| Evaluation Mode | A free evaluation install. Games are capped at a shorter length, timer adjustments and speed are locked, player displays carry a “Powered by ARC” mark, and the paid features stay locked until you subscribe. Your account portal calls it ARC Explore. |
| Flow view | A map of which objectives unlock which. You arrange it in the editor’s Objectives tab; the control page shows the same map live, colored by what’s done, what’s available now, and what’s still locked. |
| Game | One escape-room experience set up in ARC, with its own timer, objectives, displays, devices, and automations. |
| Game Reset System | ARC’s guided process for returning a room to its starting state between groups. |
| Hint | A clue sent to players — text, image, video, audio, spoken aloud, or read out verbally. |
| Insights | History and performance after games run — analytics, leaderboards, timelines, and staff metrics. See Insights. |
| Integration | A link to an outside service you already use — weather alerts, UniFi Protect cameras, Slack or Discord chat, ElevenLabs voices, remote access through Tailscale. They live on System → Integrations. Hardware bridges are Connections; integrations are online services. |
| Listen | Room-audio monitoring. Staff turn on camera microphones from the Listen button on the control page to hear what’s happening in the room. |
| Logic | The tab that holds automations and scenes — plus variables and constants inside a game. There is one in the game editor and one in System. |
| Moments | Photos and short video clips ARC captures from your room cameras during a game, collected for that session. Automations trigger them; staff view, download, or delete them from the Moments button on the control page or in Insights. Needs the Vision add-on. |
| Objective | A puzzle or task players must complete. ARC tracks its progress and the hints tied to it. |
| Objective group | A named set of objectives within a game, used to organize the room’s flow. |
| Override | A staff action that fires the device action a builder attached to an objective — for example popping a stubborn maglock. |
| Pace | A live comparison of how the current group is doing against past runs of the same game, shown on the control page with a predicted finish. It stays hidden until the game has 10 recorded runs. |
| Panel | A small live view of one puzzle or prop, built in the editor’s Panels tab. Staff open it as a floating window on the control page. |
| Quick Action | A one-tap button on the control page that runs an automation or scene, or opens a panel. |
| Reporting criteria | Rules that decide what a run counts as in reported results — a time limit, a hint limit, a hint time penalty, or a team-size limit. You set them from Insights → Analytics. Timelines, Pace, and Assist always keep the raw numbers. |
| Reset | Returning a room and its devices to their starting state for the next group. |
| Scene | A set of actions you trigger on demand, with no automatic trigger behind it. |
| Search | The magnifier in ARC’s status bar, or just press S. Type to jump to a setting, game, device, connection, or automation — or leave the box empty and browse by category. |
| Device assignments | The drawer in the game editor’s Devices tab where you assign the room’s temperature sensor, door sensors, start button, help-request button, and speech-recognition microphone. |
| Session | One run of a game, from start to reset. |
| Speech recognition | An optional add-on that listens to a room or camera microphone for help keywords and lock codes. You install it in System → Overview and choose the microphone for each game under Devices → Device assignments. |
| System | The settings area for your whole location — connections, location-wide devices, integrations, logic, media, cameras, and the built-in services and preferences on its Overview page. |
| Timeline | The live log of what happened during a session — hints sent, objectives completed, devices changed, and more. Past sessions are kept under Insights → Timelines. |
| Timer | The countdown (or count-up) clock for a game. |
| Trigger | The event that starts an automation — a device change, an objective, a timer event, an interval, or a message. |
| Variable | A named value in a game that automations can read and change while the game runs. |
| Vision | ARC’s camera features, available with the Vision add-on. See Vision and cameras. |