Introduction

Volta is a real-time audience engagement platform for live events. Artists and presenters design interactive experiences in Volta Studio, and audience members participate from their phones or any connected app.

How it works

Volta’s core uses WebSocket connections with OSC (Open Sound Control) binary encoding for ultra-low-latency communication. The REST API provides a simpler HTTP interface on top of this, so you can integrate audience interactions into any app without dealing with WebSockets or binary protocols.

Your App  ──HTTP──▶  Volta REST API  ──WebSocket/OSC──▶  Volta Output

The 3-step flow

Every integration follows the same pattern:

1. Discover controls — GET /layout/{layoutId} returns the active controls (buttons, sliders, toggles, etc.) and their metadata.
2. Get a token — POST /token exchanges your API key for a short-lived JWT that authorises audience actions.
3. Send actions — POST /action sends a control interaction (button press, slider value, vote selection) that reaches the live output in real time.

What you need

• A Volta API URL — the base URL of your REST API endpoint
• A REST API key — used to authenticate requests
• A Layout ID — identifies which Volta experience to interact with

Your Volta Studio admin can provide these. The API key is set via npx sst secrets set REST_API_KEY <value>.