Avolites Releases Synergy Software During Worldwide Synergy Day
Having already been used on some high-profile projects in its beta stage, as well as won industry awards, including the PLASA Innovation Award, Avolites officially launched its Synergy control software on Oct. 16, 2019, which they dubbed worldwide as Synergy Day. The new software integrates lighting control with video display in the same user interface for the first time. Effectively a free V12 software upgrade to both its lighting console and media server ranges, Synergy unites them more completely than previous software, giving designers full visibility and fine control over both the lighting and video components of a truly singular multimedia performance.
Rolling Out Around the World
Designers, programmers and operators were invited to see V12 Ai and Titan, as well as to witness Synergy in action. A global event, Avolites’ Synergy Day started in Tokyo, Japan at 4 p.m. Throughout the day, Synergy launch events were held from Holland to Trinidad, including in Dubai by Procom; in South Africa, Cape Town with Backstage Distribution; in The Netherlands with Fairlight; in London at the Avolites HQ; and in New York with Group One at See Factor. Synergy Day finished in Las Vegas with Group One at Melt Creative. All of the events featured demos of the V12 software upgrade and detailed explanations of Synergy’s capabilities.
Seamless Integration
Synergy allows users to quickly and simply pull control of pre-created screen surfaces and layers into Avolites’ Titan-based lighting consoles at the touch of a button, and vice versa — creating surfaces in an Ai media server from within the console interface. All operations occur seamlessly using Avolites’ proprietary Titan Net protocol and take place on whatever Avolites hardware the user is running, from Titan USB interfaces all the way up to the Sapphire Touch console, and from Ai software licenses all the way up to the Q4 media server.
“We see lighting and video technology coming together on stage more and more. And as such, it makes sense to integrate the control of these two technologies,” comments Avolites sales manager Stephen Baird-Smith in the Avolites overview video for Synergy. “Avolites is in a unique position to offer this, developing both a cutting-edge media server and a really powerful lighting console range. Synergy is a unique feature set offered by Avolites when using our Ai media server products and our Titan console products together to treat the entire stage as one visual canvas.”
The creative possibilities for lighting design that are unleashed as a result are endless. The software’s new Lightmap feature allows users to stream Ai video color data through any color-mixing fixture group, to instantly integrate these elements into a larger video canvas. As a result, everything from high-res LED screens to LED fixture groups can be controlled from a single intuitive User Interface without the requirement to create and arrange fixtures in the media server or create Art-Net merges. Users can simply select the group and choose Ai in the pixel mapper.
Synergy also allows for live video previews of up to six simultaneous streams from the media server, inside the Titan interface, giving users full control whether the servers are located FOH or elsewhere. These can be either layer previews or screen outputs. And Synergy’s media browser allows content to be selected and uploaded to specific locations on connected servers from the console interface. This content then appears on the bank with a thumbnail ready to play as soon as it’s uploaded and/or converted to AiM.
So, what hardware do you need to take advantage of Synergy? “Well first of all, we need an Ai media server, so that can be any of our license keys and any of our Ai server hardware,” Baird-Smith explains. “Then we need to connect that to a Titan console. And that’s anything from the range; from the Titan One all the way up to the Sapphire Touch.”
The media servers and console are connected together on a gigabit network. Baird-Smith continues his system overview, “You can add up to four Titan net processors in any Titan system, and it’s the same case for Synergy as well. Synergy allows us to map video to LED fixtures without the need for external data merging. Also, because we brought the video control inside the lighting environment, we can seamlessly merge from video control to traditional lighting control and back.”
The first part of Synergy that users encounter is the connection screen. “We wanted to make it fast and reliable to connect the media servers and the lighting console,” says Baird-Smith. “In the Synergy interface, you’ll see the media servers on the network down the left-hand side, and then any surfaces that you’ve already created in the center of the interface. For a new show, we would pull the surfaces that we’ve created from the media server into the console.”
Proven on the Road
The beta version of Synergy has already impressed users with work on the last Gary Numan tour; on the Temple Stage at Glastonbury; and at September’s Hospitality in The Park & Abode, which took place at Finsbury Park in London. The beta version has also been used by Everlast Productions in the U.S. to projection map a simulation of the White House during a corporate event.
“From high-profile rock shows to corporate presentations, lighting designers are being asked to increasingly combine lighting and video elements together for maximum impact,” says Baird-Smith. “As the only company in the industry that has both a lighting console platform and a media server range, we are ideally placed to bring them together into the same interface and are delighted with the new creative possibilities we have already seen realized from the beta program.”
Try Synergy for Yourself
Avolites noted that the Synergy Day rollout event was a great success and that company staffers and representatives were excited to officially release this innovative software solution. Avolites also recently unveiled a new showroom at their headquarters in London. It has been equipped with the latest equipment for potential customers to experience hands-on just what can be achieved with the new software. In closing, the Avolites team gave a shout-out of thanks to GLP, Robe and the AED group for providing the screen and fixtures for its Synergy Showroom, and they also thanked the people running their Synergy Day host locations around the world.
Follow Avolites on their social media and website to learn about where and when you can get training or a demo to see Synergy for yourself. For more information, visit www.avolites.com.
