Lightwright Touch iPad App Released in iTunes App Store

Yes, the day has come. When the iPad was announced over a year ago, people went ecstatic. Then came the dreamers, what can we do with the iPad, how can it make our lives easier? In the lighting industry, it was easy, put Lightwright onto the iPad. It took almost a year since the iPad was released into the wild, but that dream has become a reality. At LDI 2010, we got our first look at Lightwright on the iPad, four months later, I am giddy as a school girl updating my patch and focus notes on my iPad, in Lightwright!

West Side Systems, the app developer that has brought us such wonderful apps like BeamCalc, Power Saver and more has just released their latest iPad app into the iTunes App Store, Lightwright Touch.

More about Lightwright Touch

Lightwright Touch provides mobile viewing and editing of Lightwright® 5 lighting equipment data. If you use Lightwright, or schedules and hookups printed from Lightwright, this is the portable, navigable, editable worksheet tool you have been waiting for.

• Export shows from Lightwright 5 and sync to Lightwright Touch through iTunes, or email, or file sharing
• Store multiple shows on Lightwright Touch
• View and Sort your worksheet using familiar Lightwright functions
• Columns can be added, removed, and rearranged to best suit your mobile needs
• New “Log” feature speeds selection of prior view/sort displays
• Edit worksheet data quickly with popup lists
• Add a note to any worksheet row, or to a general notes page
• Transfer shows back to Lightwright for reconciliation with the original show file
• View and email notes or your changes

Works with files exported from Lightwright 5.0.22 or later, but you do not need to own Lightwright to use Lightwright Touch. You can download Lightwright 5.0.22 or later from John Mckernon’s website www.mckernon.com. Lightwright Touch is available through the iTunes App Store for $49.99 USD.

Give The Gift of Lightwright Touch This Holiday Season

When you read that headline, did you get overly excited? I did too!  You may have heard this before, like around LDI that West Side Systems, an iOS developer, has been working with John McKernon, the developer of Lightwright, to create Lightwright Touch for the iPad!

This is where you get super jazzed up…

Lightwright Touch is a companion app to Lightwright 5, and enables viewing and editing of your Lightwright worksheet on a mobile device. With your lighting data literally at your fingertips, you’ll glide through your paperwork using the Lightwright functions you know in the iPad interface you love.

How awesome right?  Well, why not give your favorite lighting design/tech the gift of Lightwright Touch this holiday season?  Bad news, Lightwright Touch will not be released in time…WAIT, don’t leave yet!!!

As of right now, there is an introductory price of $49.99 USD if you pre-order right now, you pay $39.99.   That is a $10 USD savings over the price of the app when it hits the iTunes App Store. Lightwright Touch is expecting to hit the App store early 2011.  Might be January 1, might be January 31 or even later, no one knows but West Side Systems. I do have a hint though…. Keep an eye out for an update to Lightwright 5. The release of Lightwright Touch should follow that pretty quick.

If you are giving Lightwright Touch as a gift this holiday season, West Side Systems has a present that you can give your giftee, a hi-res, 8×10 screenshot of Lightwright Touch in action.  All you have to do is download it, print it and wrap it up.  You LD/techie will love it!

Learn more about Lightwright Touch for the iPad by visiting West Side Systems web site, www.westsidesystems.com.  To learn more about pre-ordering Lightwright Touch and saving some greens, visit www.pocketlighting.com.

West Side Systems Updates All Their iPhone Apps for iOS4

Looks like West Side Systems is leading the pack in the lighting apps with updating most of their iPhone apps for iOS4 and multitasking. So all of you iPhone and iPod touch users that have taken time time to update your devices with Apple’s latest iOS update, head over to iTunes or the app store app on your device and get the free updates from West Side System.  That is if you have already purchased and downloaded them.

Just last week, Apple released it’s latest version of the iPhone and iPod Touch operation system which has been named iOS4.  The new iOS is geared towards Apple’s latest iPhone, 4G.  But Apple didn’t leave it’s current iPhone users in the dark.  Owners of 3G, 3Gs and iPod Touch devices are able to upgrade for free and get some of the great new features Apple added such as multitasking.

Multitasking gives us iPhone users the ability to run multiple apps at once now rather then opening one, going back to the home screen and opening up and another and so forth to work with multiple apps. The catch being that not only do you have to have iOS4 installed, but the apps have to have the multitasking support.  West Side Systems is the first lighting app developer to update and release their apps in the iTunes app store with the multitasking support.  I am expecting many of the other lighting app developers to follow suit very shortly.

In addition to getting multitasking support, BeamCalc also got a few updates to improve how it renders and draws beam projections.

West Side Systems Updates DMXCalc App for iPad

That is correct, West Side Systems is leading the pack on native lighting apps on the iPad.  West Side Systems just announced the release of the iPad update to their DMXCalc app in iTunes. The iPad version of the app combines the address calculator, DIP switches, DMX level reference, and a new block addressing display on one screen. The new Blocks page, on both iPhone and iPad, is a huge help when addressing a sequence of moving lights, dimmer packs, or other devices. Loaded with a start address and a block size, it lists all address blocks in the current universe, and can display a breakout of the local and absolute addresses for each slot in the block.

Standard features of DMXCalc include translation between local and absolute addresses in any universe; DIP switch display for setting device addresses or decoding the address of a device; and a DMX level reference listing hexadecimal, percentage, and MIDI values for all 256 DMX levels.

DMXCalc is a $ .99 download from the iTunes store.  For current owners, the update is a free download. To learn more about the DMXCalc for the iPad, visit West Side Systems web site at www.westsidesystems.com. Here are a couple screen shot of DMXCalc running on my iPad in my favorite orientation, landscape.

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West Side Systems First with iPad Lighting App – BeamCalc Updated

The race for the first iPad lighting App has been won.  Let me re-phrase that, the first iPad lighting app TO MARKET, has been won.  I have heard about a bunch of great idea’s for iPad apps as well as seeing a couple of neat beta’s.

West Side System’s is the first to bring a native iPad Lighting App to the iTunes App store with an update to their BeamCalc App. BeamCalc has been updated to version 2.2.1 for both the iPhone/iPod Touch and the ipad.  The major news with the update is that is runs on the iPad nativity along with 40 additional fixture types, positioning the light source by entering the throw distance for quick calculations, selecting a light by simply tapping the source or target and improved drawing page data display.

More about the iPad version… HOLY MOLEY BATMAN, it is gorgeous! The iPad version takes full use of the larger display.  Very similar to the mail app on the iPad, there is a menu system off the the left that you can quickly change you light source from a different manufacture, fixture type and lamp size.  All of the calculations are updated quickly and displayed on the cross section.

The app runs $14.99 for either the iPhone/iPod Touch and ipad. The update is free for current users.  But is the app worth the money for a new user… I would have to vote yea.  Check out some of the screen shots I took of the app running on the iPad, just awesome! Excellent work West Side!
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Two New iPhone Apps from West Side Systems

The developers of such iPhone apps as BeamCalc, PowerCalc and DMXCalc has announced the arrival and release of two new iPhone apps for the entertainment industry.  West Side Systems just announced the release of Step Timer and Show Timer iPhone apps.

Show Timer is a multi-purpose timer designed specifically for stage and event managers.  The stopwatch timer provides basic start, hold, continue, and reset functions.  Use it to time rehearsals or performances.

Show Timer keeps a log of all timing starts and stops.  The log is fully editable and in it phrase book can define phrases like “Act 1” or “Intermission” to paste into the log without typing.

Show Timer runs $2.99 via the iTunes App Store.

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Step Timer is a basic timer for mapping out simple or complex multi-part timing sequences in sound, lighting, projections, animation, video and film.

Tap Start to start the timer, Each time you tap Mark it will record both the total elapsed time and the interval since the last mark.  Set accuracy to 1/10 or 1/100 of a second, or to 24, 25, or 30 frames per second.

Step Time runs $0.99 via the iTunes App Store.