LDI a Late report

dlincecum — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 02:29:00 GMT

Dear Readers --

I struggled with community server this weekend and could never manage to post from my connection at the LDI hotel. This is a conglomerate post of the happenings at LDI. Sorry it was late.

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Well - this is the end of Day 2 of LDI and my first opportunity to file a report. Seriously - We have all worked our butts off the past 2 days and things are great!

I am providing photos as best I can - but mostly of our stuff as I have had little time to wander the floor. We have been slammed with people wanting to see Ion and Eos - as well as all the other products.

We ran out of private demo slots and had to add extra equipment to accommodate more people - only problem is that we have been juggling the people to do the demo's!

Fortunately for us we got another great set of Smart Students who spend their day demoing the SmartFades and ML's. They have been enjoying learning to use the ML and SmartSoft! SmartSoft has been a big hit. People love the look of the app and the reception is very nice. Everyone is eagerly awaiting the Beta release in 2 weeks.

Even the newest ETC employee, only 36 hours fresh on the payroll was hard at work. Welcome to ETC Nick Gonsman!

The design of the booth is working well - about 100 square feet more space than last year - and the crowds fit nicely. The Pharos display has been busy - despite being on the "other side of the shed." We are previewing the LPCx - a new and lovely box designed to output up to 200 universes of networked DMX to run all sorts of lighting. The AVC - in its final phase of completion, has also been popular to look at. The folks at Pharos just keep raising the bar on this kind of lighting control.

The highlight of today was the awards ceremony where Fred Foster was awarded the Wally award for lifetime achievement. This is a great honor and well deserved by Fred - who has had an enormous impact on the lighting industry. Richard Pilbrow presented the award and gave a heart-felt speech about the things Fred has done and the experiences he has had with Fred personally.

And then - who should make an appearance but -- Mini Fred! Notice his prominent position at the podium!

I have not blogged about mini Fred - but suffice it to say that it is a running joke at ETC. All employees were given a mini statue of Fred honoring his 50th anniversary. It was put together as a roast of sorts. Since the appearance of mini Fred - he has traveled the world! See him sitting on the edge of the podium as Richard Pilbrow speaks!

And here in Fred's thoughtful acceptance speech - mini Fred respectfully listens (he was not thanked.)

Fred graciously gave credit for his success to his employees - something he never fails to do. It was a beautiful speech - raising laughter and tears from all of us. Congratulations to Fred on this award.

LDI was a great success. I hope everyone had a great time at the show.

David

LDI Preview Part 1

dlincecum — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 00:19:00 GMT

We are getting close to LDI and I thought I would share with you all what we have up our sleeves this year.

First off - a great product, SmartSoft. SmartSoft is a software package companion for SmartFade ML (and soon SmartFade) that allows you to have video display (and much more) with your SmartFade ML. You're going to like this!

SmartSoft was designed by Adam Benette - creator of the ML console. The Software was done by Lars Wernlund - also knwon for his great product Capture. Anders Ekvall is the software developer for Congo, SmartFade and SmartFade ML.

SmartSoft boots fast and looks good. Cleanly designed screens make it easy to see your data and it runs on fairly weak PC's. Only real requirement is windows (for now) and a 1280x1064 display. Connect SmartFade to your ML console via USB and your off to the races.

You can click all the images below to get full size screens.

The display above will be best for working in offline mode. You get the controls you need most often and a cue list for the stack. A series of tabs across the top allow you to navigate to different screens. You also get labelling of the device and channel names. The faders at the bottom work live and interact with the connected desk.

The above image is of the Palettes tab. You can view and edit palette data in this screen. When you view the full image notice that you get a pan/tilt position indicator. Color palettes also show the approximate CMY mixture. Change the values in this screen by clicking on them - the Color will change too!

The patch tab is another cool one. You can see the 2 DMX ports in a field and channel and device indicators above. You can drag intensity channels to any address - or any DMX address can be dragged to a channel. Best of all you can drag a device to any DMX address and get the pop up as shown below to select your device. The entire Carallon library, over 1,000 devices, is included and you create your own devices as well.

This is a great feature for setting up shows in advance. SmartSoft also has a main output display that shows intensity and parameter values.

This display would most likely be used for running and programming live.

The pages tab is used to see and label content on the various memory pages. You get labelling here to see what the actual content is. This is a great way to keep track of a lot of memories.

There are dedicated screens for editting memories and sequences. It is really easy to insert and delete steps and you can see exactly what is going to happen next. The image below shows a sequence ready to be editted.

SmartSoft is a great addition to the SmartFade line. It will initially work with SmartFade ML only, but regular SmartFade users will get the benefits in early 2008.

Best of all - IT IS FREE. SmartSoft will be on display at LDI. We will be starting a public beta of SmartSoft in November open to all ETC Forum registered users. If you own an ML - look for the beta soon. If you don't own an ML - look for the beta - download - you'll want to buy an ML.

Any questions? Post them here as comments.

What am I thinking? What are you thinking? : SmartSoft

LDI a Late report

LDI Preview Part 1