Alcorn McBride Prepares to Announce Four New Products at IAAPA Show

Alcorn McBride has announced the introduction of four innovative products for the themed entertainment industry. New items include two iPad apps for lighting and show control and two audio playback systems. All four will be shown in booth 465 at the upcoming IAAPA show in Orlando.

New iPad Apps — Touch, a user-friendly drag and drop utility for creating show / media control applications, comes to the iPad for portability and wireless convenience. Touch allows users to design full-featured touchscreen user interfaces for applications of any size; its platform includes a large library of virtual switches, buttons, indicators and displays. With the Touch app, the iPad wirelessly obtains real-time information from the show controller and allows the interface programming to be archived and retrieved from the controller. For users wanting a stationary Touch interface, Alcorn McBride offers ShowTouch, a rugged touchpanel with an armored resistive screen and rugged metal housing. LightingPad™ is used to control lighting for small shows or for installing and testing lighting systems; it may also be used to program Alcorn McBride’s LightCuePro™. The LightingPad controls 512 channels of DMX and stores up to 100 cues with independent fade times. With the Art-Net DMX-over-Ethernet protocol it can automatically search and display any Art-Net device.

ProTraXX — The ProTraXX plays eight independent stereo tracks from a single economical rack mount unit. Enhanced features include Ethernet for remote updating and microphone/auxiliary inputs for zone paging. ProTraXX offers high quality MP3 audio playback in a compact, solid-state unit. Hours of audio clips can be stored on CompactFlash cards for years of reliable service. Each track is designed to operate independently and can be individually triggered by a dedicated discrete input; this allows direct connection to proximity sensors or switches. All tracks can also be controlled from a single RS-232 or Ethernet port.

8-TraXX – This updated version of Alcorn McBride’s popular audio playback unit now offers Ethernet control and remote update along with contact closure, voltage, RS-232 or MIDI control. With the 8TraXX, users can access eight independent stereo tracks from a single, economical rack-mount unit. Tracks are individually triggered for maximum flexibility in attraction designs.

Also on display at IAAPA 2010 will be Alcorn McBride’s current suite of audio, video, lighting and control products for themed entertainment. Products at the show will include the V16 Pro Show Controller, ShowTouch, the GPS-enabled Digital Audio Machine and Digital Video Machine HD, the eight-channel Digital Binloop HD, LightCue Pro and the DMX OverRide.

You can learn more about Alcorn McBride’s products by visiting their website at www.alcorn.com.

Alcorn McBride Releases LightingPad for iPad

After doing a little searching on iTunes, I noticed that Alcorn McBride released an iPad app back on June 26 to the iTunes App Store, LighingPad. If you didn’t know, Alcorn McBride produces some pretty interesting control and playback devices for the entertainment industry.  And not just lighting either!

But I digress, what about the LightingPad App… The app is universal and works on both the iPhone iPod Touch and the iPad. It is a simple DMX lighting console with the ability to control 1 universe or 512 DMX signals via Art-Net.  Now you do need a little bit of networking products in order to send signal from your Apple device of choice to your fixtures/dimmers so do a little home work here.

LightingPad also offers the ability to store up too 100 cues with independent fade times.  On top of that, you also have the ability to save and load cue stacks or files from your computer. What is really cool, is the ability to “roll” through your cues and then execute them.  It kind of reminds me of AvoLites Roll-a-Que!

Now, one thing I did notice right off that bat after downloading and playing with the LightingPad app is there is no way to patch anything.  Channel/slider equals DMX address one so all of the sliders are patched 1 to 1.  Kind of limiting but at then same time, it could be used as a diagnostic tool rather then running a complicated rig.

For more information on Alcorn McBrides LightingPad app for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, visit their web site at www.alcorn.com.  You can purchase your very own copy of the app from the iTunes App Store for $9.99.  Here is a quick tutorial from Alcorn McBride on how the LightingPad App works.

Alcorn McBride Set to Announce LightCue Pro

Alcorn McBride, the makers of audio, video and lighting control products for themed entertainment such as theme parks and museums is set to announce their latest lighting control product, the LightCue Pro. The new LightCue Pro expands on their current LightCue product by offering four universes of DMX verses the one universe DMX offered on the LightCue.  Other included features include control and updating of the LightCue Pro over Ethernet, MIDI control and a real-time clock. The LighCue Pro also offer a new DMX override function which allows for fast and easy manual control of DMX fixtures.

The LightCue Pro provides simple capture and consistent playback of DMX data. Over 100 hours of playback may be stored on the LightCue Pro. The unit can be operated via front panel push buttons, SMPTE, RS-232, Ethernet or parallel contacts. It can also pile-on up to 40 cues simultaneously. Users can create a schedule to trigger playback using the built-in real-time clock and use the unit’s cue management software to examine and edit the recorded DMX data on a PC.

Alcorn McBride is set to announce the LightCue Pro at the LDI Show this year in Orlanndo Fl on November 20.  If you are attending the LDI Show this year, stop by the Alcorn McBride booth, 464 to see the LightCue Pro in action.