coolux to present new Pandoras Box Version 5.7 and Widget Designer Version 4.7 at PLASA

coolux will present their new Pandoras Box Software Version 5.7 at this year's PLASA exhibition at the London ExCel, in addition to showing the new Widget Designer software version 4.7.

One of the new Pandoras Box Version 5.7 features are the so called "Venue Sites."

"Venue Sites" are used for visualizing complete stage-, installation and show-setups in real-time, using 3-D models.

Media content can be pre-programmed per output and can then be routed to different 3-D models this way.

Instead of just offering a standard 3-D mapping approach for pre-visualisation, one can now use a real-time compositing environment as a complete whole to simulate video projectors virtually, using a light projection approach.

Media content and content compositing can be used completely independently from the visualized 3-D scenes.

The ability to seamlessly switch from one Venue Site to another makes comparing different design scenarios very easy and helps to save valuable time and costs, the company says.

Another aspect of "Venue Sites" relates to being able to test and play around with the simulations of complex media installations. This way, one can for example train oneself to set up a spherical projection or a softedge projection without having to use real projectors in the process.

Version 5.7 includes a completely re-designed text editor.

Different font styles can now be used within a single text asset. An automatic horizontal and vertical scrolling capability is also part of this crucial tool's latest development.

When working with the new text editor, one can even use and add an unlimited amount of text to a continuous text stream.

The latest Pandoras Box audio feature development makes it possible to input ASIO sound as well as HD-SDI embedded audio, opening up a whole new world of real-time media compositing.

Users can route, delay, and record ASIO inputs. Sound data can be used on ASIO tracks and programmed to the timeline, including different delays for different output signal chains.

Audio inputs can now be arranged on any Pandoras Box timeline, or can alternatively be triggered via external commands.

In addition to these features, a whole range of helpful improvements for a "Pixel-Oriented Workflow" were integrated as well, in order to reflect the Pandoras Box's pixel accuracy even more, the company says.

Users can now decide to scale all content to the native resolution, even across several machines and across different resolutions. Pixels can be entered directly into the interface, in order to position layers and cameras. These settings can then also be applied directly by creating a new project without any further user action being necessary.

Using this decidedly "Pixel-Oriented Workflow" makes it easy to set up and use split pictures, and also aids the communication flow between operators and content designers, who are used to thinking in terms of pixel values.

Some of the new Widget Designer Version 4.7 developments include the following feature highlights:

ID TAG Tracking (Widget Designer PRO + ULT):
Users can now set up and create tracking scenarios using ID Tags and route the respective data to the Pandoras Box 3-D compositing space, MA Lighting PSN tracking spaces, and comparable 3-D spaces.

Canvas Support (Widget Designer PRO + ULT):
It is now possible for the Widget Designer software to feed data to the Pandoras Box Canvas asset. Users can transfer mouse or touch data for painting onto a virtual canvas, or to create multiple text and graphics items as part of a canvas composition.

VISTA SPYDER Touch Panel (Widget Designer PRO + ULT):
This touch panel function can be employed for remote controlling Vista Spyders for adjusting layer positions and scaling.

AirScan Manager (Widget Designer ULT only):
The AirScan Manager feature can be used for managing up to 8 AirScan units simultaneously, by creating one large 2-D canvas. Distance improvement and better coverage are just two aspects that make using this new feature a great time saver for realizing large scale touch- and tracking-applications.

coolux GmbH PLASA Booth number: # R10