ArKaos will preview its powerful and flexible MediaMaster 5.4 and GrandVJ 2.6 video and media control platforms.
TrackDJ is a straightforward solution for better integration between DJs or LJs and their live visuals, while Full Fixture Control is a serious advancement for lighting designers and operators, allowing them to control LED screens / surfaces and treat them just as if they are lighting fixtures.
Full Fixture Control
An LD or lighting operator using MediaMaster will often be in a scenario where there are multiple video surfaces on a stage as part of the production design – especially at festivals where this is an extremely popular setup – in addition to their lighting rig.
The setup / changeover time is always extremely short and often stressed at festivals or multi-artist events, yet the pressure to use these video surfaces creatively in the show … is extremely high!
At a festival, an LD may want to treat the whole video setup as a single surface one minute and then use each individual video surface (columns, squares, shapes or whatever format these might be) with chases or strobing effects in time to the music.
A second totally different scenario – where this feature is again a neat solution – is in TV studios, where the lighting designer or director must control both lighting and several LED screens which are distributed around the stage / studio.
In this case, the LD can have dozens of small video surfaces dotted around, and using Full Fixture Control, can at any moment transform the appearance of the whole space, allowing them to react to a real-time event – for example during a game or quiz show when a player or team is knocked out or transcends to the next level, etc.
This feature also has enormous potential for controlling lighting and media surfaces in the burgeoning live e-games tournament sector, which utilises large productions to ramp the excitement for both live and streamed audiences.
An LD now has the ability to patch any video mapper surface or video output into their control desk – unleashing the massive potential for it to become a fully creative and ‘fluid’ environment with video surfaces on a stage used just as if they were lighting fixtures controlled by all the standard lighting desk parameters and functions.
TrackDJ
This is a huge leap forward to DJs working at festivals and in clubs or at parties, offering more control over their own visuals.
Timecode is an important way to sync video, and ArKaos has already added support for audio SMPTE timecode in both GrandVJ and MediaMaster. This summer, ArKaos added support for timecode over Art-Net.
The first adopter of TrackDJ is ShowKontrol which allows GrandVJ or MediaMaster to communicate with the op level of Pioneer DJ players which are one of the universal industry standard brands.
ShowKontrol supports Pioneer’s most versatile and powerful DJ players including the NXS2 and TOUR1 ranges and upwards
ArKaos will also show Mixxx at LDI, the popular free open-source DJ software application, which has been updated to send this TrackDJ information.