We recently wrote a rumor mill posting about Barco and High End systems getting ready to release a new version of their software for the Digital lighting family, the DL3  and Axon media server.  That rumor was put to bed this morning with Barco/High End latest press release.

More from the Press Release:

Rancho Cordova, CA — 27 April 2009 — Digital and Automated Lighting pioneer Barco announced today that new software is now available for the High End Systems Digital Lighting family, including the DL.3 Digital Light and the Axon media server.

The v1.5 software release expands feature functionality and provides a host of improvements and updates. Major features include frame blending, for smooth, slow motion playback, and the expansion of Collage Generator™ capability, which allows users to create a setup that is now up to 16 fixtures wide by eight fixtures high. A new Segmented Collage feature enables advanced users to pre-slice their content in order to create large collages with very high overall resolutions.

Another new feature is automatic content encoding validation. This unique process scans content as it is being loaded into the system, in order to ensure correct encoding, trouble-free playback, and the elimination of performance issues that might result from encoding errors.

Other features include new Graphic Effects, PAL support for the SDI input, plus the ability for users to add HD-SDI cards in the Axon media server. In addition, the Content Management Application (CMA) now displays more detailed data, such as movie length, resolution, frame rate and frame count.

“Version 1.5 is an exciting release that brings a number of often-requested and powerful features to our users,” notes Chris Colpaert, VP of Creative Lighting. “These features open even more creative possibilities for the product family and its ease of use. Our team is already hard at work on our next major release which will bring even more exciting capabilities to the product line.”

The v1.5 software is now available for free download at http://www.highend.com/support/digital_lighting/dl3.asp