Hi guys,
I am about to return home from The Netherlands, after presenting at the ILDA meeting and subsequent Pangolin User Meeting.
By the way, thank you all for coming to the Pangolin User Meeting. Did anyone get any pictures of the meeting? And I am sorry for not being able to come to the recent LEM that took place shortly before the Pangolin User Meeting, but there was a scheduling conflict...
OK, let me see if I can quickly review what was discussed. More details will be coming, but I do want to give everyone a quick review.
1. LD2000 version 5.0 will be released soon, and available for download from our web site. There will be an addiitonal 20 shows (so, 120 total) with 4 of these shows being the most recent Pangolin Prize winners (some of you have already received these through the back channel...), and nine of them being updated versions of shows done by Rupert Morse.
There are a number of changes, but the most siginificant new features of LD2000 version 5.0 are updated media player, and a link to Light Converse. I won't expound on this right now. Just keep an eye on the "what's new at Pangolin" section of our web site for details.
I will take just a moment here to point out what is obvious to Pangolin users, but perhaps not obvious to others. LD2000 was released in November of 1999, so it has been out for nearly 10 years. Over the course of those 10 years, we have had 487 feature ADDITIONS, plus an addiitonal number of programs added to the system. For example, in 1999, we did not have TraceIT, Lasershow Converter FLASH, Lasershow Converter 4D, VST2002, Asteroids, the Winamp plugin and many others. These were added to the LD2000 distribution as they were developed. If someone had purchased LD2000 in November of 1999, and only downloaded new software from the internet, it means that they will have received 10 years of updates, additional programs, and shows FOR FREE!!! So, when we talk about free updates, that's what WE are talking about.
Recently there have been other companies come out with new versions of their software -- new versions for which they want you to pay more money. We will be watching the marketplace to see if their customers deem this as an acceptable practice, by actually buying those programs. After all, if we did this, I am sure we would make more money...
2. Lasershow Designer Quickshow is our latest version of software. It is built on the BEYOND (tm) softwware fondation, so there are a lot of cool new ways in which to create laser imagery and beam shows, and also we are controlling the scanner in a fundamentally new way. There's simply no way I can describe this by words, so I will make a few demo videos so you can see what it does and how it works.
About the easiest way I can describe it is to say that it looks like easy-to-use, live software, but goes far beyond that. Lasershow Designer QuickShow includes a very easy (we call it "quick") way to create text, waves, abstracts, beam effects, DMX, and trace images. It also includes a full timeline-based user interface so you can make complete shows (not just little snipets). So this is a pretty complete software package that has some live features that are more capable than LivePRO.
This is completely new software written from the ground up. Everything is new, and most things are done in a new way.
Currently this works with the FB3, but later this year we will also add the capability for it to work with the QM2000 as well. After that, you will be able to mix and match QM2000 and FB3 controlled by this softare.
The price? ABSOLUTELY FREE!!! If you already have a FB3, you will be able to download this software from our web site, along with the workspace (which, once loaded into the computer's memory, is more than 1GB!).
So again -- that's how WE do business...
The FB3 was awarded ILDA's product of the year award in 2006. If someone had purcahsed our FB3 in 2006, and only download softare updates from the internet, clearly they receive a lot of value for their money. Not only free updates to the software they originally received when they purchased the FB3, but also additional new software with brand new capabilities.
3. ADDING NEW DIMENSIONS... Some people have been wondering about this since we announced it a few weeks ago. To be brief, we showed the latest version of our "Beam Brush" device, which allows you to control the diameter of the beam in real time, while scanning. I will post some pictures and videos of this as time permits. In the mean time, perhaps Banthi or Lynx can comment about what they saw at the ILDA meeting and Pangolin User Meeting.
As an aside, I'll mention that I was surprised to see some people on PL making comments like "hmmm, beam size, wasn't that done before?". Well, Pangolin invented Beam Brush in 1992 and we have patents on several devices capable of doing this.
Making a beam brush device is pretty damn difficult actually. You have to make something that is just as fast as scanning, is affordable, and doesn't infringe any existing patents. Each one of these things (fast, affordable, and non-infringing) is difficult in and of itself, and we have accomplished all three with this latest device.
More to come later...
Best regards,
William Benner