Wet Electrics Production Designer Studio
Production Designer ™ from Wet Electrics is a software solution that shifts the assembly, management, and output of audio and video content and device control to an open, digital platform. By bringing the elements of a multimedia presentation or production together into one controlled environment, it is a cost-effective and time-saving solution to the challenge of synchronizing and orchestrating multimedia.
The Production Designer workflow starts with media creation. You create digital content with your favorite tools, which for digital video can include Apple Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer, Media 100, Adobe Premiere, or Edit DV and for digital audio can include ProTools, Peak, Spark XL, Sound Forge, Vegas, or Cool Edit. You export the content as a QuickTime™ formatted file, then you can use Production Designer to compose and edit the content. The program allows you to orchestrate and synchronize your digital media with MIDI and serial commands for output devices in your production.
Wet Electrics is a software development company serving the media, entertainment, and corporate presentation industries. The company is committed to developing powerful, easy-to-use tools that create higher production values with greater cost efficiency.
Now, Wet Electrics has released Production Designer Studio™ software, the first-ever completely downloadable multimedia coordination software. The software incorporates the core power and functionality of Production Designer Multimedia Systems™, offering a suite of benefits to media designers and producers, including the trademark Production Designer simplicity and ease-of-use. By allowing multimedia designers to arrange media on a timeline, Studio facilitates the effortless playback of video and audio clips and MIDI and serial devices such as lighting consoles and projectors; its interactive capabilities allow the presenter to dynamically orchestrate the order of events within a controlled environment. Furthermore, the software's flexibility lends itself to an assortment of applications, including but not limited to business presentations, live performances, dynamic retail displays, and museum and educational installations.
The software significantly lowers costs by reducing the time, expense, and risk of managing and deploying media. Production Designer Studio fosters a more productive atmosphere for media designers, assembling complex productions in significantly less time. The process of designing and assembling complex presentations is greatly simplified, as the need for many external devices is reduced and often eliminated. The software also allows for easy content updates and changes. Consequently, design and technical preparations become more productive.
The software can be downloaded from the Wet Electrics website. Production Designer Studio retails for $995 (a special introductory price of $695 has been implemented until January 31, 2003) and is available for Macintosh systems only. There is also a trial download, free of charge.
Wet Electrics
www.wetelectrics.com
Over the rainbow
Altman Lighting, Inc. jumps into the LED fray with a new division, Software Lighting™, and an initial range of LED luminaires including Spectra-PAR, a 540-LED color-mixing PAR fixture; Spectra-Strip, a color-mixing LED striplight; Spectra-Splash, a 540-LED color-mixing outdoor PAR; and Uni-LED, a 252-LED monochrome PAR. The Altman units also include several proprietary patent-pending features, including Spectra-Burst™ an intelligent LED management system, which can optimize LED light output regardless of the environment; Spectra-Sync™, an LED color system that enables true color rendition; and Spectra-Drive™, an LED drive system that includes a flicker-free television mode.
Altman Lighting, Inc.
www.altmanltg.com
grandMA learns new tricks
MA Lighting's grandMA version 4 is here. Multi-user programming, MAtricks, wireless PDA remote control, enhanced grandMA 3D interaction, completely new fixture schedule, and patching system are just a few features of this new software release. One of the immediately obvious changes to the console is that the user interface has been simplified to aid navigation around the exponentially more powerful operating system. There is also now a built-in wire-frame visualizer that can be used for preprogramming. But the real meat of this new version is the networking implementation. Now multiple programmers can work on the same show at the same time with multiple consoles and all data is stored as if it is one console.
MA Lighting Technology GmbH
www.malighting.com
4 will get you 5
Version 5 software for the Jands Event 4 console significantly increases the power and functionality of this line of consoles as well as enhancing the user interface. 240 virtual playbacks, 40 more groups, color, beam, and position palettes, AutoStack cue lists, and a host of new recording options. This is one of the largest new feature upgrades for the Event 408 and 416 consoles. A new offline editor software package is now also available for the Event 4 line of consoles to help users make edits and set up consoles when a real console is not available, for example, on the bus or in a hotel room.
A.C.T Lighting
www.actlighting.com
Silent running
Clay Paky introduces the Stage Profile Plus SV, with its patented profile system composed of four blades that move separately to produce varying effects, can be rotated through 90°, and at variable speeds. The SV stands for Silent Version, and it also comes with an exclusive half-power/half-noise feature, controlled from the console, which allows you to reduce the noise by half. It uses a 1,200W lamp and features 16-24° zoom lens with linear movement, two combinable rotating gobo wheels for morphing effects with variable-speed rotation, linear variation frost, an effects disc with three prisms and a light frost, CMY color-mixing, adjustable-speed iris, and a 0-100% mechanical dimmer.
Clay Paky
www.claypaky.it