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FocusTrack’s New ‘Paperwork to Go’ Functionality

Paperwork is increasingly not ‘paperwork’ but virtual paperwork carried on laptops – until actually working in the theatre when real paper printouts have often been the most convenient way to access show information while walking around the stage focusing the rig.

Now FocusTrack, the production lighting documentation system, offers Paperwork To Go – keep your paperwork in electronic form, and carry it with you on your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch.
With the purchase of one low-priced enabler app ($19.99 for iPhone/iPod, $39.99 for iPad), any of the FocusTrack data files – FocusTrack, containing information about the positions used by the moving lights in the rig, RigTrack, containing all of the information about the rig as a whole and the focus of conventional lights, and Cue List, containing the show cue data from the lighting console, along with all of the focus and cue reference photographs, can be transferred to any of Apple’s portable devices, referred to or edited while on the go, then returned to a main computer – Mac or PC.

“Apple has done a remarkable job of making the portable paperwork tools lighting people have been waiting for – lightweight, easy to carry, long battery life and much easier than paper to read in the dark!” notes FocusTrack’s Rob Halliday. “We’re delighted that FocusTrack can now complete the equation, letting you easily take all of the information about your rig, your moving light focuses and your cues with you wherever you are in the theatre. We think it will be the perfect choice for those moving around the stage re-focusing conventional lights, or for rep rigs where multiple electricians work to re-focus the rig between shows and will now be able to carry accurate, up-to-date focus information with them – even in their pocket if using an iPhone or iPod Touch.”

FocusTrack is the solution for those looking to produce complete, accurate, comprehensive show lighting documentation. FocusTrack can import show information from ETC Eos, MA grandMA and Strand 300/500-series consoles, automatically working out which moving lights are used in which positions, which colours or gobos are actually used, which lights have never been turned on and more. FocusTrack can import the complete patch from the console or other sources including Lightwright, and imports the show cue list from the console. FocusTrack is already in use on a range of shows, including the new US tours of Nine To Five, Spring Awakening and Hair, Billy Elliot worldwide, The Addams Family in New York and more.

Further information about FocusTrack and its Paperwork To Go functionality for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch is available online at www.focustrack.co.uk.

New Purchasing Options for FocusTrack Software

FocusTrack, the production lighting documentation system, is pleased to announce a new purchasing option designed to make FocusTrack even more accessible than before. FocusTrack’s new Single Show option enables the purchase of FocusTrack for one single production for a cost of just UK£245 – US$375.

This compares to the original Full FocusTrack licence at UK£400 or US$600. That licensing option is still available for those looking to use FocusTrack to document multiple productions. In addition, FocusTrack is available to students for UK£90 or US$140.

“When we first launched FocusTrack, I thought that programmers would be the ones to buy it, since it directly saves them time and effort in tidying up and documenting the shows they work to create,” comments FocusTrack’s Rob Halliday. “In fact, in most cases programmers have persuaded the show to purchase it. Our new purchasing option is designed to ensure show producers offer less resistance when the lighting team decide to obtain FocusTrack for a show. As before, it will mean there ends up being an easily created, accurate record of the show lighting, allowing that lighting to be precisely maintained over the run of the show. It’ll just cost a little less to achieve that! At the same time, designers, associates or programmers who want to work with FocusTrack across multiple productions can continue to do so exactly as before with the Full option.”

FocusTrack can be purchased from the FocusTrack website, www.FocusTrack.co.uk. The latest version of the software, which adds a host of new features including Fault Logging and support for use on iPhones and iPads, can also be downloaded from the website. The software, available for PC or Mac, offers s demo mode, allowing it to be evaluated prior to purchase.

FocusTrack Now Includes PowerTrack

I have mentioned FocusTrack in the past here and here. It seems like the software is getting more and more powerful.  Rob Halliday sent me a message about FocusTrack and it’s integration of PowerTrack function for calculating the power usage of a show. Here is more from the Press Release:

PowerTrack takes the information about the levels lights are at in cues, which it extracts by importing show file data from ETC Eos/Ion, MA grandMA or Strand 300/500-series consoles, and combines it with information about fixture types and their power consumption that is available from the RigTrack rig management module. This means that it can calculate the approximate load of any given cue – in doing so taking into account not only the level that tungsten lights are at and the constant background load of discharge fixtures, but also the status of more complex fixture such as moving lights that reduce their discharge lamp’s output power when the mechanical dimmer is closed.

In addition to calculating the load cue by cue, FocusTrack can also calculate the overall power usage of a show. To achieve this, it can now learn the timing of a show’s cues during the course of a performance. Based on this timing information – the time in each state and the transition time from state to state, it can calculate the overall consumption of the show.

PowerTrack was added to FocusTrack after requests from a number of theatres who were becoming required to track the power usage of their lighting systems for environmental audit purposes, but whose dimming systems are tied into the overall building power with no separate metering available. The system will also be of use to those taking large scale West End or Broadway productions and working to prepare them for tours, allowing a more precise guide as to the power required than previous ‘guesstimates’ or total connected load calculations.

PowerTrack is now a standard feature of FocusTrack, available in the current version, 2.120, which can be downloaded from the FocusTrack website at www.focustrack.co.uk. FocusTrack is available for Mac or PC; it can be run in demo mode to allow its functionality to be explored. FocusTrack can be found on a wide range of shows around the world, including Billy Elliot worldwide, Come Fly Away, The Addams Family, Mary Poppins and Red in New York, Love Never Dies in London, South Pacific touring the US, and Cirque du Soleil’s Zaia. Further information about FocusTrack and its companion program SpotTrack, for producing followspot cuesheets, can be found at www.focustrack.co.uk.

FocusTrack 2.100, Available Now with QuickFocus

FT21QuickFocusFocusTrack, the software that tracks the position and movement of your lights through your show has just recently been updated to include QuickFocus within the software. FocusTrack adds QuickFocus, for quick manual documentation of focuses and creation of cue-by-cue focus summaries.

More from the Press Release:

Continuing to respond to the needs of lighting professionals, the new version adds QuickFocus, a new, dual-purpose and invaluable function for documenting and then viewing the use of each moving light in each cue.

“FocusTrack was conceived as a way of creating precise documentation of show lighting, making use of the information available from the lighting console once the lighting was nearing completion,” explains FocusTrack’s Rob Halliday. “When used like that it works fantastically well. But we know that a lot of people still prefer to track what their moving lights are doing as they are making the show, with either the designer or programmer jotting down notes of their own, or on larger shows with this task being undertaken by a moving light tracker. They could use FocusTrack, but it was a bit awkward. QuickFocus was conceived as a way of making their work easier.”

QuickFocus presents a grid for each cue in the show; into that grid can be placed an image for that cue, so a storyboard, set drawing or, once things are a little more advanced, a photograph of the lighting state. Channel numbers can then be placed on that grid in the spot where that light’s beam lands; the focus palette the light is using can also be recorded, and a focus note can be added. This gives a very clear overview of what the lights are doing in each cue, and one that is easy to fill in as the cue is made.

If the show is subsequently imported from the console showfile, FocusTrack can reconcile the focuses in the QuickFocus grid with those imported from the console to provide. Alternatively, those using FocusTrack in its original manner can use the grid to define where each light falls in each focus; FocusTrack can then build a QuickFocus grid for each cue.

In every case, it is now possible to quickly and easily produce paperwork summarising what each moving light is doing in each cue – a great reference for designers, associates, programmers and those running the show from day to day. In addition to QuickFocus, FocusTrack 2.100 continues the software’s ongoing evolution, with screen displays re-designed for greater clarity and other refinements and improvements.

For more information, download a demo show or to purchase a copy of FocusTrack, visit their website at www.focustrack.co.uk.

New Software: SpotTrack Followspot Cue Software

SpotTrack Main ScreenRob Halliday, the creator of the FocusTrack software has announced the release of a new tracking software package called SpotTrack.

SpotTrack is a new program for making and managing followspot cue sheets – something that has traditionally been done in Excel or Word using ad-hoc documents created from scratch as required. SpotTrack, by contrast, has been built for the job – managing shows with one to four spots, and making it easy to do things that have traditionally been hard, like printing the cue sheets for each spot without it being full of blank lines occupied by cues for the other spots. At the same time, SpotTrack breaks up the cue sheet into scenes or songs, making it easy for the caller and all of the spot ops to find their place when jumping around the show during technical rehearsals.

SpotTrack also aims to reduce the amount of typing required of whoever is running the spots – the LD, associate or spot caller. Clustered around the main cue sheet area are shortcut buttons that can be customized with character names, beam sizes or regularly-used instructions – ‘iris in’, ‘fade out’ or whatever. All of those things are then just a click away.

SpotTrack provides a home for lots more information than just the spot cues themselves: it can store the setup for each spot (type, colour load, operator), details of the characters in the show (name, cast name, understudy name), pictures of the characters, and even the show’s cue list, which can be imported from FocusTrack which can, in turn, import show data from ETC Eos/Ion, MA grandMA and Strand 500-series consoles.

SpotTrack is available on a “per Show” license through SpotTrack.co.uk at £45 UK or $72. USD.  What makes purchasing a copy of SpotTrack unique is that a portion of the purchase price goes to either ESTA’s Behind the Scenes or the UK’s Light Relief to help our brothers and sisters who are unable to work. For more information, download a demo or to purchase a copy of SpotTrack, visit their website at www.SpotTrack.co.uk.

FocusTrack 2.0 Software Announced at USITT

focus_track-20FocusTrack, the Production Lighting Documentation software is set to announce the release of version 2.0 of FocusTrack at USITT today. FocusTrack is a database system designed for keeping track of how lights are used within a show. It offer a complete lighting rig management system for recording every facet of both conventional and automated lighting fixtures, including set-up, dimmer set-up, gobo and color loads in addition to focus.

From your showfile, it can figure out how your show is made: which moving lights are used in which focuses, which scenes they’re used in, which bits of scenery those focuses are for. Which conventional lights, colors, gobos and more are actually used. No more trawling through the off-line editor manually making lists.

It can help you document your focus with digital photography, a precise record, not a written description; FocusTrack will bring up lights in the right positions for you as you photograph them, then import those pictures. No more perching a laptop on one knee while you call up channels on the radio to take their pictures.
In version 2.0, FocusTrack, functionality is extended to include ETC’s Eos, Ion consoles and the MA Lighting, GrandMA consoles.

If you are attending the USITT Stage Expo, make sure to visit the FocusTrack booth, 81.  FocusTrack will be ready for download the week of March 23, 2009.  A full licence of FocusTrack run UK£400 or $580.00.  Visit FocusTrack’s website at www.focustrack.co.uk for more information and screen shots.

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