Explore server-backed editing and remote rendering

[Sportinger]

Migrated from issue #58, which was removed from the issue tracker to keep broad deployment questions in Discussions.

Topic

Can MasterSelects run with server-side resources while the user controls it from a laptop/browser?

Original User Need

A user asked whether they could run MasterSelects on a powerful server and use it from a laptop, similar in spirit to web-based video editors that offload work to server infrastructure.

Their example setup included a multi-CPU server with much more CPU/RAM than the laptop.

Possible Interpretations

1. Remote UI / VNC-like app streaming
   Run the app on the server and stream the desktop/browser UI to the laptop.

2. Control-signal mirroring
   Keep matching media/project state on two machines and send timeline/control events between them.

3. Real server-side render/export backend
   Browser sends jobs to a backend that performs render/export work with server CPU/GPU resources.

4. Collaborative state sync
   Use CRDT/event sync systems such as Yjs for multi-client control, but still solve media/render locality separately.

Open Questions

• Is the goal remote control, load balancing, backup/failover, or server-side rendering?
• How are large media files synchronized between client and server?
• Should the browser preview still render locally, or should preview frames stream from the server?
• What parts can be mirrored as control signals, and what parts need actual media processing on the server?
• Is this a hosted-product architecture, a self-hosted LAN workflow, or a desktop remote-access workflow?

Recommendation: treat this as a deployment/architecture discussion until the target mode is clarified. Concrete issues can be opened later for a specific prototype, such as remote render jobs or project-state sync.