Guide

User Guide

Real-time WiFi signal monitoring for photographers and digital techs. This guide covers everything from installation through on-set use.

Requirements

macOS Sonoma 14 or later
Apple Silicon Mac
Location permission — required by macOS to read WiFi signal strength
Router Mode: a supported GL.iNet or UniFi router on your local network
P2P Mode: no additional hardware required

Installation

Unzip the download and drag Proximity.app to your Applications folder.
First launch: right-click (or Control-click) Proximity.app and choose Open instead of double-clicking. This tells macOS you trust it, since Proximity isn't distributed through the Mac App Store.
Grant location permission when prompted. Proximity uses this only to read WiFi signal strength — it never accesses or transmits your location.
Proximity appears in the menu bar as >Px< when idle and ready.

To uninstall, open Preferences → Uninstall Proximity… — this clears your saved settings and license from the Mac before removing the app.

Monitoring Modes

Proximity has two monitoring modes. Select your mode in Preferences → Mode.

Router Mode

Connects to your GL.iNet or UniFi access point and reports your camera's actual signal strength on the network — the radio link between the camera and the router. This is the most accurate measurement for tethering workflows and the primary intended use of Proximity.

P2P Mode

Measures link quality directly from your Mac to any nearby WiFi device — no router or additional hardware required. Useful when testing, traveling, or when the camera creates its own WiFi hotspot. Less precise than Router Mode since it measures from the Mac's perspective, not the router's.

Router Mode Setup

Open Preferences from the Proximity menu bar icon.
Select Router Mode.
Enter your router's local IP address. Common defaults:
- GL.iNet: 192.168.8.1
- UniFi: 192.168.1.1 (or your controller IP)
Enter your router admin password. Credentials are stored securely in the macOS Keychain — never in plain text.
Click Connect. Proximity detects your router type automatically.
Once connected, click Select Device and choose your camera from the client list.
Optionally enter a name for the device (e.g., "Javier's R5ii") — this is saved for future sessions.

Private Wi-Fi Address: If your camera appears as (unknown) in the device picker, MAC randomization is enabled. Disable it for your target network: on iPhone/iPad, go to Settings → Wi-Fi → tap your network → Private Wi-Fi Address → Off. Camera-specific settings vary by model — check your camera's network or wireless menu.

UniFi note: SSO and cloud-managed accounts are not supported. A local administrator account is required. Create one in your UniFi OS controller under Admins & Users → Local Access.

BSSID Randomization: Some routers have BSSID randomization enabled by default, which prevents cameras from discovering the SSID. Disable this in your router's wireless settings if cameras cannot find or connect to the network.

2nd-Gen Wireless Tethering Pre-flight Checklist

If you're shooting with a Canon R5 Mark II or R1 using Capture One's 2nd-gen wireless tethering, Proximity can check your whole setup before you shoot — not just signal strength. Look for the 2nd Gen Wireless Tethering card in Preferences and click Pre-flight Checklist.

It walks through, in order: a genuine Canon battery, firmware version, Capture One running and up to date, the camera detected as an R5 II/R1, wireless tethering enabled, image format (no JPEG), Re-tether, save-to-card (both the global preference and the camera's own setting), active recording slot, and a wireless-mode confirmation — plus a camera/computer clock-sync check. Each item updates live as it's checked, so you can see exactly what passed and what didn't as it runs. Where a fix is available, Fix It shows you exactly what's about to change before it writes anything.

Run this once per camera connection — every check briefly touches the camera over its tether, so it's meant to be an explicit action before you start shooting, not something running in the background.

P2P Mode Setup

No configuration required. Select P2P Mode in Preferences and Proximity immediately begins monitoring the Mac's own WiFi link quality. Make sure your Mac is connected to the same network as the camera.

P2P Mode is free with no time limit — it continues working after a trial expires.

Reading the Menu Bar

Proximity boils signal quality down to three colors. This is the core thing to know before anything else:

Color	Signal	What it means on set
●	Excellent	Ideal — full tethering performance, no action needed.
●	Marginal	Still usable, but transfers may slow or stutter. Audio alert fires — worth moving closer or checking for interference.
●	Critical	Expect stalls or dropped transfers. Audio alert fires continuously until signal recovers.

Every display style below — Band, Dot, dBm, and the click-menu percentage — uses this same color coding. Whatever style you choose, blue/yellow/red always means the same thing.

Display	Meaning
>Px<	Idle — no router configured or not yet connected
6G	Band mode (default) — camera on 6 GHz, blue = Excellent signal. Color reflects signal quality, not the band itself.
5G	Band mode — camera on 5 GHz, yellow = Marginal. Worth monitoring — audio alert fires.
2G	Band mode — camera on 2.4 GHz. Always Critical regardless of signal strength — throughput severely limited on this band.
●	Dot mode — same color coding, minimal menu bar footprint
-52	dBm mode — raw signal reading in dBm, same color coding
--	Offline — target has dropped off the network entirely. Gray, no flash. See "Alerts" below.

The click-menu percentage (shown when you click the menu bar item) follows the same color bands: 80-99% is Blue, 60-79% is Yellow, 59% and below is Red — so the number and the color never disagree.

Display Options

Choose your preferred menu bar style in Preferences → Display → Icon Style:

Band (default) — Active WiFi band (6G, 5G, 2G). Color reflects signal quality — not the band. The only exception is 2G, which is always red: cameras on 2.4 GHz are always in Critical state regardless of signal strength. Updates in real time if the camera is band-steered.
Dot — A single colored circle (●). Smallest possible footprint.
dBm — Raw signal reading in dBm (e.g., -52). Live signal percentage is still always available in the click-menu regardless of which style you choose.

All styles use the same color coding: Proximity Blue for Excellent, yellow for Marginal, red for Critical.

Alerts

Proximity plays audio alerts when signal enters Marginal or Critical territory:

Marginal — Blow sound, repeating every 1.5 seconds. Menu bar flashes yellow.
Critical — Tink sound, looping rapidly. Menu bar flashes red at 0.25-second intervals.

Alerts also fire if:

The router goes offline
A camera is detected on the 2.4 GHz band (always Critical regardless of signal strength)

Offline state

If a target disappears from the network entirely, Proximity tries to distinguish "probably powered off" from "actually dropped." If the connection was already weak right before it vanished, Proximity keeps alerting — likely a real drop. If it was solid a moment before, it shows a quiet gray Offline indicator instead of a false alarm — likely just powered off. No audio fires for Offline by itself.

Snooze

Temporarily silences alerts for 5, 10, or 15 minutes. Available from the menu bar click menu when an alert is active. Signal monitoring continues — if signal recovers and drops again after the snooze expires, alerts resume automatically.

Disable / Enable

Indefinitely silences all alerts. "Enable Alerts" appears in the menu bar until re-enabled. Available from the menu bar click menu and from Preferences → Alerts.

Preferences

Setting	Description
Mode	Router Mode or P2P Mode. Router Mode requires a supported router and credentials.
Router IP	Local IP address of your router. Proximity auto-detects the router type on connect.
Password	Router admin password. Stored in the macOS Keychain — never logged or transmitted.
Router Auto-Connect	On by default. Automatically reconnects to your router and resumes monitoring when Proximity launches, so you don't have to click Connect every time.
Target Device	The camera or device to monitor. Selected from the live router client list. Saved by MAC address — returns automatically on reconnect.
Device Name	Custom label for the target device (e.g., "John's Z9"). Saved and shown in the picker on future visits.
Target B	Track a second camera at once, in Router Mode — available throughout the trial, not license-only. Menu bar shows both as `A\|B`, the floating window splits into two independently-colored halves, and the click-menu shows both stacked. Audio alerts are shared across both targets, not per-camera — you'll know something needs attention, but tell which camera by looking, not by sound.
Icon Style	Band, Dot, or dBm. See Display Options above.
Alert Threshold	The signal level at which Marginal alerts fire. Adjustable per workflow.
Debug Logging	Enables detailed diagnostic logging visible in the Debug Log window. For troubleshooting only.

Supported Routers

Proximity communicates with your router via its native API — it speaks GL.iNet and UniFi natively, so any hardware from those families should work, not just the specific models listed here.

GL.iNet

Any GL.iNet router running firmware 4.x or later. Tested models:

Flint 2 (GL-MT6000) — 2.5GbE, dual-band WiFi 6
Mudi 7 (GL-XE3000) — tri-band WiFi 7, 6 GHz capable
Beryl AX (GL-MT3000) — dual-band WiFi 6
Beryl 7 (GL-MT3600BE) — tri-band WiFi 7

UniFi

Most UniFi access points managed by a local UniFi OS controller. Tested on the U7 Pro Outdoor (UniFi OS 5.1.15, AP firmware 8.6.11). A local administrator account is required — SSO and cloud-managed accounts are not supported.

Throughput monitoring note: Dev-mode throughput tracking (MB/s) is available on GL.iNet hardware. On UniFi firmware 8.6.11, per-client byte counters are non-functional — RSSI monitoring works correctly on all bands.

On-Set Tips

Band selection

For best tethering performance, ensure the camera connects on 5 GHz or 6 GHz — never 2.4 GHz. Proximity alerts you if a camera lands on 2.4 GHz, but the fix is in your router's band steering settings.

On congested sets with Teradeks, walkies, and other radio systems, 6 GHz is essentially interference-free. Position the router's directional antenna toward the shooting position and put the camera on 6 GHz. Let iPads and monitors use 5 GHz.

iPads and video monitors on the same network

WiFi is half-duplex — only one device transmits at a time on a given radio. A camera transferring RAW files and an iPad streaming Sidecar or Capture One Live on the same radio will compete for airtime, reducing effective throughput even when signal is strong.

On a tri-band router: put the camera on one band (e.g., 6 GHz) and iPads on another (e.g., 5 GHz). On a dual-band router: put iPads on 2.4 GHz as a workaround — Sidecar and Live for Studio work acceptably on 2.4 GHz in low-interference environments.

Router placement

On 6 GHz, signal falls off faster than 5 GHz — plan for ~50 feet maximum range with line of sight. On 5 GHz, ~80–100 feet is achievable. Physical obstacles (walls, C-stands, cases) reduce range significantly at 6 GHz.

Multi-device sets (camera + iPad)

If running both camera tethering and iPad monitoring simultaneously, a tri-band router with 2.5GbE Ethernet backhaul is recommended. At peak throughput, the combined wireless traffic can approach 1 Gbps on a 1GbE Ethernet link.

Trial & License

Proximity includes a 30-day free trial starting from your first launch, with full Router Mode access — including tracking a second camera. After the trial:

Router Mode locks — Proximity falls back to P2P Mode automatically
P2P Mode is free forever — no time limit, no expiry

Your License Key is shown on-screen immediately after checkout — copy it from there. It's also included in the receipt email Paddle sends you, if you need to find it again later. To activate, go to Preferences → License in the app and paste it in. Questions about your license? Contact proximity@lightisbeauty.com.