Medialon (Booth #3244) will be demonstrating a significant upgrade to Manager V3 as well as previewing Manager V4, which will be available at the end of 2004.
The new redundancy mechanism in V3 (which will also be in V4) allows users to hot swap from one PC to another during a show in the event that a PC fails. In the past, it wasn’t possible to tell a controlled device that it is no longer controlled by PC1, because, even if PC1 failed, the device thought is was still owned by it. The new mechanism allows PC2, if it detects that PC1 has failed, to tell all devices that it is now in control and that they should respond to it rather than the first PC. This new feature is a very important step as producers can rely on show control for highly complex extravaganzas while not having to worry about bottlenecks.
This implementation was recently installed at The Lido in Paris and will be demonstrated in Medialon’s booth. Also, during the Show Control Session on Saturday morning, October 23, Medialon President Alex Carru will present the Lido case study. He’ll demonstrate that full redundancy is not only a technical mechanism, but also know-how that the company has developed, which it will share in a "white paper" soon available on Medialon’s web site.
Medialon will also be previewing Manager V4 (Beta will be presented at LDI, shipping expected end of 2004). To simplify programming and exploitation of the software, the company has drastically reduced the number of windows necessary to program or enter parameters, device set up, user's screen etc. Instead, there is one main window, called "The Explorer," which has the same look and feel as the well-known browser with the same name and provides a list of all object in Manager (Devices, task, shows, etc.). Another general window, the “Object Inspector,” provides access to all object parameters (UserScreen, Device, Variable, Cue, etc.). V4 also features new, simplified ergonomics for the Timeline (the main show programming tool), which is now both easier to use and more powerful. All of the changes are the result of a year-long study conducted by a software ergonomics engineer, who interviewed customers and regular users. Medialon has always adhered to the policy of being a software editor only and makes Manager compatible with industrial hardware. With the increasing number of control interfaces over TCP/IP, the company is introducing a mechanism to control devices through third party interfaces. Discussions are in process with major control system manufacturers to develop interfacing with their product in a "plug and play" mode.
For more information, visit www.medialon.com.