New In Designer 2.4

TPS: support for the new Touch Panel Station.

The TPS is a remote user interface — like the Button Panel Station — but with a fully customisable touch screen. It has the same form factor as the TPC, and the same bezel and overlay options. It only requires a PoE connection allowing it to be deployed anywhere in the control system.

The TPS can use the same visual interface configuration tools in Designer as the TPC, and the relevant triggers have been renamed “Touch” as they can now be used with both TPC and TPS products. The TPS is the first of a new class of device — the Touch Device — and only functions as part of a project alongside one or more Pharos controllers, as it is purely a touch interface and does not output DMX/eDMX itself.

IO Module support: a new framework supporting imported plug-in modules that expand the capabilities of Pharos Triggering. IO Modules make integration with third-party products, protocols and web resources much easier, as well as providing automation for current complex triggering requirements.

Each IO Module adds its own application-specific triggers, conditions and actions to Designer, extending its core feature set. A variety of IO Modules may be downloaded and quickly added to a Designer project, or you can create your own to address a custom requirement.

Until now, custom integration with a third-party device over Ethernet typically required a combination of Ethernet triggers and actions that had to be created on a per-project basis. These could be complex to create and even harder to maintain. All of this complexity can now be packaged within an IO Module, providing you with a simple, familiar UI, based on triggers, conditions and actions.

IO Modules will allow integration with equipment such as AV equipment, building management systems, consumer electronic gear and smart home hubs, and web-based integrations with sites that can provide weather, sports scores and public & private information via an API.

• Click Modules on the Trigger toolbar to open the IO Modules management tool
• Import the .iom file for the device required
• New triggers, conditions and actions defined by the IO Module will be available for use in your project in the normal way

New IO Modules: plug-ins available in v2.4:

• Philips Hue — provides actions for controlling a Philips Hue system via a Hue bridge on the same network
• Philips Color Kinetics Keypad — enables a PCK Ethernet keypad to trigger a PharosMosaic system and to have its LEDs set from PharosMosaic
• Brompton Tessera Discovery — use this module to monitor whether Brompton Tessera LED video processors are online or offline
• Counter — counts triggers and fires its own trigger after a defined count
• Random Timeline — start a timeline randomly selected from the range provided
• Random Trigger — fire a trigger randomly selected from the range provided
• Repeat — fire a trigger then wait and repeat
• Wait — fire a trigger after a specified delay
• Watchdog — fires a trigger if no tickle action happens within a defined length of time

Authoring tools for IO Modules: APIs are available to allow you to generate your own IO Modules, including a Create New Module wizard. APIs available to IO module authors include:

• Mailgun API
• Controller Lua API
• Timers
• Ethernet socket & server API
• HTTP API

HTTPS and WSS: HTTPS support will allow the controller web interface to be accessed over a secure connection.

• It will also allow IO Modules to connect out to web services that use HTTPS such as IFTTT
• You may upload your own SSL certificate to a controller
• Secure websocket support will allow the controller web interface to work on IT networks that block insecure websockets

VLC mapping enhancements: additional flexibility when mapping effects onto multi-sided façades and stadium perimeters.

• Create multiple compositions, so you can change the geometry of the primary content target for different presets. For example, you may want to display live video at a different aspect ratio than for generated effects
• Create multiple instances of the content target, allowing you to show the same content multiple times across your layout of fixtures. This is particularly useful for applications like stadium perimeter lighting, where the fixture layout is long, thin and is not viewed as a whole, or for lighting buildings where you want the same content on each side without requiring additional controllers
• The VLC supports a maximum of 2 active players at one time, allowing crossfades between presets and between timelines

VLC DVI output: DVI out support on the VLC and VLC+ allowing control of DVI fixtures and for monitoring the controller output.

Fixture templates: a new tool that enables you to create a composite fixture that is an arrangement of any single-element library fixture. This allows strings and tiles to be built up from individual nodes into reusable templates, speeding up commissioning.

• Right-click on a fixture in the library, and select Create Fixture Template
• Give your template a name and customise its geometry, first fixture position and patch direction
• Set an irregular start offset, multiple patch points, etc. if required
• Your new fixture will be available in your project’s fixture library under Templates

DALI RGB: native support for DALI Type 8 fixtures, including colour control.

Intensity-only fixtures on VLC: the VLC can now support LED fixtures with only intensity elements (i.e. single colour or white).

New Patch UI: major overhaul of the patch workflow to benefit both large and small projects.

Improvements include allowing faster patching, quicker and safer copying or moving of patches between controllers or protocols, better navigation to view fixtures in layout and patch, and filtered patch views.

• Adding a controller to the project populates the patch table. Physical DMX universes are automatically added, and you can add required universes for eDMX protocols
• You can then drill down through a hierarchy relevant to each protocol (e.g. power supply / subnet) to view or patch to universes
• Selected universes are viewed in a convenient scrollable list, filtered by selection
• Quickly move through patch records for the current fixture across different universes and protocols using the controls on the toolbar
• Right-click selected universes to copy/paste across protocols

Real time timelines: program against the clock — real time timelines will run based on the time of day of the controller making it much simpler to schedule lighting changes through the day.

• The New timeline toolbar drop-down menu lets you create a real time timeline with appropriate properties set by default
• These timelines are 24 hours long by default but this can be reduced as required; the Start Time property defines when the timeline begins each day
• Create multiple real time timelines for different seasons, special events and festivals
• Create triggers to start the timelines on startup or on a particular date — real time timelines will remain dormant until their start time
• A real time timeline will always sync its position with the controller’s clock
• Playback rate in Simulate can been increased up to 60x to accommodate longer timelines, so you can preview an hour in one minute

Waypoints timelines: taking real time timelines one step further, this feature makes it easy to create lighting programming that lines up to astronomical events such as sunrise and sunset that change their time through the year.

You add a waypoint marker to your timeline that represents an event such as sunrise. Then program your lighting as though sunrise always occurs at the time of your waypoint marker. At playback the controller will adjust the rate of playback within the coloured sections to ensure that the right point of the timeline is always reached exactly at sunrise. This lets you program effects to accurately track circadian rhythm and other natural cycles.

• To get started quickly, create an astronomical timeline from the New timeline toolbar drop-down menu
• Or, starting from scratch with a new a real time timeline, you select astronomical events from the Waypoint button drop-down menu. The selected waypoint is then automatically placed onto the timeline at a sensible default time (though this can then be adjusted to fit specific situations)
• Adding a waypoint also creates a waypoint section, which by default is 3 hours either side of the marker. A waypoint section defines the region within which the timeline rate will be adjusted to ensure that programming coincides with the specified astronomical events. The boundaries of waypoint sections can be adjusted. In general, the larger a waypoint section, the less noticeable any rate adjustments will be to the viewer
• Waypoint sections are colour-coded to give a visual indication of which astronomical event you are working with. Other event markers can be added to the same waypoint section and, as with astronomical triggers, you can specify time offsets, such as “Sunset minus 30 minutes”
• As with flags and other presets, you can use Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (OS X) when dragging a preset to snap to the nearest waypoint marker or boundary to ensure your programming lines up with the desired events

New timeline presets: Ripple, Crossfade, Burst and 2D Burst have been added. Crossfade will be particularly useful on waypoint timelines to fade from one colour to another between astronomical events.

Arabic & Greek character support in text preset: the text preset can now display Arabic, Greek and other non-latin characters.

• When you select the font for a text preset, you now have the option of choosing a different character range
• Support extends to live text updates via the web interface or the controller API

Lasso select on Timeline: click and drag on the timeline to select multiple timeline presets.

Gradient generator & tools for presets: gradient tools are now available on a handy toolbar — including save and load options — and a pop-up gives you fine control over a new random gradient generator.

More timecode buses: now supporting 12 timecode inputs to accommodate the requirements of complex themed shows.

Video black level: on a content-by-content basis, live video and media presets have a new black threshold setting, where any pixel with an intensity less than the level specified will go to true black. This is primarily used to filter out noise in dark areas of video or situations where the black in a video is actually dark grey when viewed on LED fixtures.

Live video trigger: a new trigger for detecting the presence or absence of live video input. This can be used to start substitute content if a live video signal disappears, or to switch over from internal programming when live video starts.

Disable Output action: a new trigger action to enable/disable output by controller and protocol. This has been requested primarily as a useful tool during commissioning.

Searchable trigger type pickers: trigger, condition and action type pickers now include a search box where you can start typing and the list will immediately filter for quick selection.

Install replication: allowing the same project file to be sent to multiple identical (or very similar) controller sets. These cookie-cutter installations may be remote or may be on the same local network — either way, they will run independently without trigger crosstalk.

Single edit for digital and analog ports: LPC, EXT and RIO input and output configurations are now editable together by default, allowing one setting to be applied across all ports for a device. Of course you can still choose to configure ports individually if you need to.

Live video monitor: the current frame of live video input is now displayed on the controller web interface to aid troubleshooting during commissioning.