Avolites Storms Prolight + Sound 2018 with a Series of New Product Launches

	Avolites sales manager Stephen Baird-Smith introduces Synergy on the Avolites stand at Prolight + Sound 2018. Photo courtesy Avolites.

Avolites experienced its most exciting Prolight + Sound show yet, with a series of world-class product launches from the award-winning brand including the world premieres of new compact media server, the Q3 and launch of light and video integration feature set, Synergy.

Avolites kicked things off on the eve of the exhibition by hosting its annual distributor summit and awards. The company introduced its latest product developments to the 68 sales partners who attended from around the world, and afterwards presented a number of awards to its highest-performing partners.

"The response from the international team was excellent," says sales director Koy Neminathan. "They were genuinely excited about the Q3 media server and what Synergy offers to their customers. The Avolites Academy was also an area of key importance as we are now rolling out certified Avolites training via our global distribution network."

Following this success, on the opening day of the show sales manager Stephen Baird-Smith introduced Synergy to excited crowds at the company's packed press event. Key features of the Synergy platform include the ability for users to connect and configure their Ai media server from the Titan interface.

Synergy's Lightmap feature means that users can stream Ai video color data through any fixture group, including both RGB and CMY fixtures, to instantly integrate them into a larger video canvas -- meaning that everything from high-res LED screens to LED fixture groups can be controlled from one intuitive User Interface (UI).

"We were inundated with people asking us for more information about Synergy," says Baird-Smith of the show. "It is great to know that the industry is as excited about lighting and video integration as we are."

Also launching at Prolight + Sound on the Avolites stand was the Q3 media server, a compact server designed for use in shows, installations, and corporate events. Though small, the Q3 packs a punch, unlocking 4k playback through a single DisplayPort 1.2 connection with two DVI outputs for HD displays. The server supports EDID for all three outputs, configurable via a dedicated front end UI. The server allows for visually lossless playback with Avolites' unique AiM codec. Like with Avolites' larger severs, the Q3 has native Notch support as well as a powerful inbuilt effects engine.

Paul Wong, Avolites' new managing director was on stand throughout the show to meet visitors and stakeholders and listen to their feedback on the products. "I am extremely pleased with the feedback that we received on the Q3 and the integration that Synergy provides between Titan and Ai," says Wong. "I'm proud of our team in developing another industry first ... the ability to seamlessly integrate lighting and video and to control both from a single console."

Two Avolites software updates also went live at Prolight + Sound this year. Titan v11 updates Avolites' industry standard lighting control software, Titan, and Ai v10.2 brings new features to Avolites' media control software.

Extending Titan's color features, v11 updates the platform to handle seven color systems plus HSI channels and gel libraries from ROSCOLUX, LEE, and GAM.

A number of new features increase Titan's intuitive functionality: users can now specify the number of times to run shapes, key frames, and pixel maps to loop, including once-only. The software's timeline feature now also allows for up to four separate timecode streams to run simultaneously.

Zoom palettes with Titan v11 have now been made global: users can create one zoom palette and apply it to work across all fixtures. Multi-select for playback options means that options can be group selected and changes applied across all simultaneously. New lighting programming modes, including mirror and wings, have also been realized, making creating fixture positions faster than ever.

Ai also saw a major lift with Ai v10.2, key features of which include NDI output, allowing video to be outputted over Cat5. Users can now also stream ACN output for modular LED fixtures, allowing for more lines of DMX over the same network. LTC timecode via line in means that analog timecode can now be utilized within Ai's license-key products as well.

Making the programming platform more intuitive for users is the toggle timecode range that tracks on/off so users can switch from locked timecode to free-run for when the artist decides to freestyle during a show! Aspect correction mode enables users to scale after cropping, allowing more flexibility when working with different aspect ratios.

Following the successful launch of Synergy, Q3, Ai v11, and Titan v10.2 at Prolight + Sound this year, Avolites will be demonstrating all of these developments next month at PLASA Focus Leeds, May 1 - 2, on stand N-D01.