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Hi, I'm Sarah Clausen, and I'm the product manager for the Congo family of lighting control products.
This video includes a description of some of the new features coming in Congo version 6.3.
Version 6.3 is an exciting version in many ways. We've been working a lot on
the user interface to make it more intuitive, to give you a tool for managing sequences
better on the main playback, and to give you an easy and flexible organizational tool that
you can also use for importing data from other show files. Many users have told us that they
chose Congo because it has a simple and intuitive user interface. Once you've understood the
basic structure of our commands, it's pretty easy and fun to guess the commands.
One example of this is the way the RECORD key always works in combination with other keys.
RECORD by itself records a preset, RECORD plus the group key records a GROUP, RECORD and the FOCUS key
will record a Focus Palette, and so on. It's fast, it's logical, and it's simple,
but you have to start off knowing that the RECORD key is the one you need to start with.
So, if you don't know that information, it can seem a little intimidating at the beginning.
We have a help system where you can press the question mark button and any other key
and get a short description of that key, but what we've really wanted to do in this version
is really open up the command structure of the system, and the way that we've done that
is by implementing what are known as "context menus". Context menus appear on the graphic display,
and they appear in context of where you're working. So, for example, I've just
opened up a context menu on the presets node in the browser, and it gives me commands that
I can use within that context, like expand, which expands that node. If I open up that
context menu again, now because the node is already expanded, I can compress it.
So, these are of course functions that you can do with commands on the keypad, but we
tried to make it easier for you to find those commands without having to learn all the shortcuts
in the Congo system. The way that you can open these context menus is to simply use
the Select key on the face panel of the console. Pressing it twice on a focused item opens
up that menu. I can then arrow down through the menu and press MODIFY to perform that
command. Hitting Select again twice opens up the context menu again and I can
perform that function. If I'm in Live, for example, and I go to a channel format, if I press Select
twice here I get a different context menu. And, these are commands that are related to
selected channels. You'll find that context menus appear in all sorts of places
in the software. Some of them are accessible using this double-tap Select function.
Another way to get to them is to use a mouse. So, if I'm here in the Live view with my mouse
and I hit my right-click, I get that same menu. And, now I can use the mouse to pick
a function. Clicking outside the menu gets rid of it. So, if I Select these two lights,
for example, one and four, I right-click, I can set those lights to 100 percent,
I can right-click, I can RECORD these lights as a group, and I can do all of these things
now directly on-screen using a pointing device. This is really helpful when you're working
offline or if you're using a PC client with your Congo system. Another new tool that we've
developed in this version you can also get to through a context menu or you can get to
through the Sequence List Editor. And that's a concept called a "Sequence Section Marker".
And, a section marker is simply a flag that you place on a step within a sequence. So,
if I'm over here in the main playback tab and, for example, I right-click on step three,
you'll notice one of the options here is called "Section Marker." If I click on that, you'll
notice that this step now is displayed with a blue highlight on it, and there's this nice,
really obvious oval that's around the text on that step. That's really all this is, it's
an indicator of the sequence on the main playback. And, it's a great visual cue for the beginning
of a song, or the beginning of a scene, any place that you want to have an indication
that this is an important part of my show. One of the other advantages of this tool is
that you can jump to these section markers by very easily placing them on the Direct Selects.
So, any place where you have a Section Marker in your main sequence, if Section Markers
are on your Direct Selects, you'll get a button that corresponds to that marker, and the text
of that step will be indicated on the Direct Select.
Very simply stated, if you need to jump from one song to another, or one scene to another,
in a rehearsal, you can just go to the Direct Select, hit that button, and it will jump
the sequence directly into that step. It's like using GOTO without having to know what
the preset number or the step number is. So, it's very quick, very easy to jump around
in your main list using that tool. If I want to get rid of a section marker, again, very
simply, I can use my context menu and just click that command again, and it removes the
section marker from that step. Another new tool that we've developed in this version
makes it easier to manipulate the show data in your current play, but it's also very useful
when importing data from another play. That could be a backup version of your play, it
could be another play entirely, however you want to manage your data.
Basically, this opens up the concept of the browser into a tab view and gives you a lot
of tools for copying and moving and viewing data of your entire show file all in one tab.
So, if I go into the browser, under main show data you'll notice I have two options called
"organizer," one tab or two. I'll start very simply by opening the single tab version,
and you'll see that it opens up a tab that looks like our channel view tabs at the top
half, and it looks a lot like the main show data section of the browser on the bottom half.
And, inside the organizer I can use arrows or I can use the mouse to navigate.
So, if I open up the presets node, for example, I can see all the presets in my current play.
If I arrow down or if I click on a preset and open that node up, I'll get even more
information. So, right now you can see that this preset 103 has two channels in it, 11
and 14, they're both at 50 percent. I happen to know they're also both Mac 300s. Down in
the bottom half of my screen you can see that 103 has information for two devices.
If I open up that node, same way I open up in the browser using the right arrow, I get
more information. I see two channels have intensity, and there are two devices with
attributes recorded. If I open that up, I can see that those two devices are both Mac
300 mode 4. And, if I open that node up, I see that they're channels 11 and 14. And,
you'll notice as I go from one channel to the next, the selection in the top half of
the screen changes, and if I open that node up, now I can delve even deeper into channel
14, all the way down to what's recorded for pan on channel 14 in preset 103, which is great.
But, the really cool thing here is I can actually use this Organizer tab to move
information around. So, for example, if I said that these channels, 11 and 14, actually
should be preset 102 instead, what I can do here is I can simply click and drag on the
devices and drop them into preset 102.
And, at this point, I can choose whether I'm making a copy of the information -- in other
words, I want to leave the data in 103 and copy it into 102 -- or do I want to move the
information out of preset 103 and place it into 102. So, if I hit move, you'll now notice
that preset 102 shows that it has two devices, and preset 103 only has intensity information.
So, you can use the Organizer to drag-and-drop information from one preset to another, you
can drag-and-drop steps within sequences, you can drag-and-drop information into recorded targets.
It's a very, very, very quick and easy way to manipulate the data of your show
in a very graphic, in a very direct manner. If I close that Organizer, I can actually
open up the Organizer with two tabs. And, what this does, is it's literally two views
into this current show file, and that allows me to have one tab focused on one part of
the show -- for example, sequence two -- and another tab focused on a different part of
the show file -- let's say, sequence six. I can use my select key and my arrow keys,
or if I'm using a keyboard and mouse, I can use the shift key -- just like I would to
multi-select cells in Excel, for example -- to select multiple steps. I can then drag those
four steps over into sequence six. And, again, I'm given the option of copying the information
or moving the information. I'll choose copy this time. And, now you can see sequence two
still has all of those steps in it, nothing's changed.
But, over here on this side where I'm looking at sequence six, I can see that now those
steps have been added into my sequence. So, it just becomes a much more graphical and
obvious way to manipulate data if that's what you need to do in your particular show file.
Using this two tab method, I can also import data from another show file. So, in this case,
I'm actually going to start from an empty show just so it's very clear what's happening,
and I'm going to import from a show on my hard drive. So, we'll go down here to demo theatre.
And, now when I choose "import from" I don't get the wizard that we had before,
I get two Organizer tabs. One tab is shown with a blue bar on it like we show in blind.
This tells you that that's the "import from" side, that's the show file that's one the hard drive.
And, you can see here at the top of the bottom half of the tab that it's on the play archive
in the demo plays folder, and it's called "demotheater.asc." The other tab is the play
in memory -- in other words, the new show file I just created that's completely empty.
And so, if I go over here now to presets and say, "I want to bring in preset 103 from
the hard drive into my current 'empty' play", I can copy that information in. And, what's
new is that copying a preset in using import, you used to have to know that you needed the
patch and the definition of the fixtures and then all the palettes, all the preset information
in order to get a sequence in that made any sense. In version 6.3, we've improved this.
And so, what this dialogue is showing you is that by simply dragging preset 103 from
that demo play into this new play, all of these items -- a Color Palette, Device Patch,
Focus Palettes, and a template for my Mac 300s -- have all been brought into my current
show file. So, all the dependencies are managed for me, which is a great help when I'm trying
to bring information from, for instance, a default show file into a new show file.
I want to get all that patch information and all those palettes automatically without having
to do all of that importing manually. So, import is greatly improved in this version as well.
So, you saw me do some drag-and-drop work in the Organizer tabs, and I've just
reopened the demo show file so I have some show data again. And, there are other places
where I can do drag-and-drop editing in this version. One of those places is in the main
playback tab. So, if I'm focused on that tab, basically without having to go into the Organizer
or into the sequence list -- although it works in both of those places as well -- I can just
click on the playback tab and drag-and-drop steps of my sequence. And, the dialogue will
tell me that I'm dragging preset 105 and I'm dropping it on preset 102. And, again, I can
choose whether or not I want to make a copy of this step or if I want to move the step.
And, you'll notice up at the top here we have an advanced tab. In this tab, I can choose
even more advanced functions, like where should the new step go. So, here's a drop-down menu
that says, "I want that preset 105 that I've dropped on preset 102 to be inserted before
the target, I want it to replace the target, or I want it after the target."
So, I get to choose that destination using this particular tab. So, if I stay before
the target step and click copy, you'll notice that I now have a new step two with preset
105. It's a copy of this one here, with all the information -- including the text and
the times and anything else that's associated with that particular step -- and it's dropped
in here before preset 102, which is my blackout. So, I can do all that drag-and-drop editing
right here inside the main playback tab. I can also use context menus. So, for example,
if I right-click on preset 101, I get the option to open that preset either in the traditional
editor or in the Organizer. I can go to that step or I can place that step in the B field,
ready for me to press go, or I can apply that section marker if I want. I can also double-click
on items inside the playback view.
So, for instance, double-clicking on a device number on a step will open up the
Preset Attribute Editor for that particular view. If I double-click on timing, I get the Time Editor
for that step. So, the playback tab is no longer simply a display of information. It becomes a little
more interactive by using a mouse to click or right-click on various parts of the screen.
Other things I can do with drag-and-drop, or rather with context menus and drag-and-drop,
is I can manage Docks. So, if I'm over here on my screen with my Live tab and I want to
open up a Dock view, I could press setup in browser, which is the keyboard shortcut for
that, that hasn't changed. Or I can right-click down in the Dock area where I want to assign
that Dock, and then just pick the type of Dock I want to assign and click on that.
And, now you'll notice that I have a Master's Dock at the bottom of the screen, which is
awesomely cool, because one of the drag-and-drop things we can do now, is I can move data from
one master to another by simply clicking and dragging on it. So, I'll do that again. I'm
clicking and holding on master five and I'm dropping on master seven. And, you'll notice
that preset 801 is moving around on my master page, so that's kind of fun. I can also select channels.
I can use my right-click to set a level. I can drag those channels onto a master.
And so, those channels at those levels are assigned to master seven. So, these are
just a couple of the things that you can do by dragging and dropping in this version of software.
So, everything I just describe is of course in the new online help system, and you can
get into that help system by just pressing the question mark button on your console.
And, if you want to find all the places in the help system where we've made a change
in this version, you can press the text button on your console, and type in the version number,
6.3, and hit the MODIFY key. And, that will search the help system and give you a list
of results showing every part of the help system where we've made a change or an adjustment
based on a new feature or a changed feature in this version of software. All of the features
that I just described are very shortly described with links to the part of the help system
that describes them in detail in a section called "this software version 6.3." So, I
invite you to go and find out a little bit more about all the new stuff we've put in,
and I hope you enjoy your time using this new software. Thank you.