coolux, the creators of the Pandoras Box product family, released the new Pandoras Box Version 5.7 software at the beginning of July. The new version introduces “Venue Sites,” which promise to let users visualize complete stage, installation and show setups in real-time, using 3D models.
More details from coolux (www.coolux.com):
New Pandoras Box 5.7 Software Features include:
Venue Sites
One of the most impressive new Pandoras Box features is without doubt the introduction of the so-called “Venue Sites”.
The Venue Sites are used for visualizing complete stage-, installation- and show-setups in real-time, using 3D models.
Media content can be pre-programmed per output and can then be routed to different 3D models this way.
What is special about Venue Sites is that instead of just offering a standard 3D mapping approach for pre-visualization, 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 3D 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.
Another important 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.
New Text Editor
Pandoras Box users will also be delighted to discover that the new 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 input.
Advanced ASIO and HD-SDI Audio Routing
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.
The Pandoras Box timeline now acts as an automated audio desk, or can alternatively be triggered via external commands.
In addition to these major features, a whole range of helpful improvements for a “Pixel-Oriented Workflow” were integrated as well, in order to reflect the Pandoras Box’s true pixel accuracy even more.
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.
