CAST Software announces that Ubisense, with offices worldwide, is the latest partner to BlackBox, providing rapid response real time location detection to the product. Ubisense is a world leader in precise realtime location systems, tracking people and assets with unmatched accuracy.
Photo: L to R: Bruce Freeman of CAST, Russ Chandler of Ubisense, and Gil Densham of CAST.
BlackBox is the world's first combination of hardware + positioning + interconnecting + communicating + speed. It uses a new wysiwyg.bb proprietary “CAD-type” software which defines the parameter (establishing “0”0”0”). Through the realtime positioning provided by Ubisense, BlackBox receives and converts live positional data about any/many moving objects, establishes the exact 6D positions of those objects, computes instructions in XYZ, plus yaw, pitch and roll terms, and shoots out moving positional information so moving lights, set pieces, spatial sound, media servers, robotic cameras, etc. are synchronized and tracking to the action of those moving objects, all at a speed of 50 Hz.
The design is plug-and-play – the brilliance is that these devices have never before talked to each other – the speed is realtime!
Ubisense provides BlackBox the live precise location of moving objects and people needed to automatically direct lighting and sound equipment with zero latency. The technology of Ubisense begins with antenna sensors, which “hear” the active tag and compute its exact location through a combination of time difference of arrival (TDOA or triangulation) and angle of arrival (AOA). This object can be anything from a live performer to a scenery piece. Through Ubisense, BlackBox processes a constant stream of exact 3D locations needed to control movement of sound and lighting equipment automatically. This Ubisense system can be thought of as indoor precise GPS with instantaneous response, fast enough to allow BlackBox to deliver instructions that allow lighting and sound systems to automatically follow objects as rapidly as necessary.
Russ Chandler, CEO of the Americas for Ubisense said, “CAST is clearly the leader in this industry in lighting design software, having proven itself through wysiwyg and showing that an entertainment environment can be modeled and that information can be used for a production. BlackBox takes it a step further by the incorporation of realtime action with the players themselves to drive the production to another level.”
“We find this to be a very exciting application because it plays to the Ubisense strength of being able to provide sub-second realtime response to many moving objects in a busy environment such as a stage. It's an excellent marriage of technologies. BlackBox is adding to the success of what other partners have achieved up until now – for example Out Board with what they've done for sound in their TiMax system. So now what Out Board has achieved with Ubisense in terms of tracking sound around a defined space, BlackBox now incorporates lights, tying all these elements together to allow a unification of all of these formerly separate parts.”
Gil Densham, President of CAST Software commented, “Ubisense is considered the most advanced, most portable, and most reliable choice in this area of technology. We are confident that the industry will adopt this new capability as a standard and that our partnership will only make BlackBox a stronger product.”
For the highly automated, hi-tech entertainment industry in particular, using BlackBox means that formerly autonomous technologies can work together as one, live and realtime, in both dynamic and pre-programmed ways. It means a better coordination of a production, in addition to no more missed cues or potential collisions.
Ubisense now joins the other Blackbox partners Out Board Timax, Niscon and GrandMA. For more information about CAST Software products, visit www.cast-soft.com.
About Ubisense: Ubisense is the world leader in Precise Realtime Location Systems and Consulting Services, tracking people and assets with unmatched accuracy, and giving enterprises the power to bring visibility and control to previously intractable business processes. With over 400 customers worldwide, Ubisense is revolutionising industries today. Visit www.ubisense.net.
For more information, Email: [email protected]. CAST Software, 35 Ripley Avenue, Suite 1, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M6S 3P2. Tel: +1.416.597.2278. Fax: +1.416.597.9594.