Combining video, lights and laser: Rebel Overlay at Hydra
When we released Arena 5 with the added options for DMX output, we were expecting you guys to do amazing things with it. Still, Spencer Heron from Rebel Overlay recently sent us a video that exceeded our expectations and then some.
Their setup has video, lights and laser, all controlled by a single instance of Arena. Combined with Rebel Overlay's trademark minimal design, it looks downright amazing.
Read more about Rebel Overlay and how they made this happen below.
[fold][/fold]
Who and what is Rebel Overlay and where can we find you online?
Rebel Overlay is a London based visual design company, we specialize in live visuals, content creation and creative visual setups for events worldwide. We’re formed of three core members, Spencer Heron, Philip Rust and Ben Field.
You can find our work online at http://www.rebeloverlay.com, http://www.vimeo.com/rebeloverlay and http://www.facebook.com/reblovrla
How did you start VJ'ing?
Rebel Overlay started back in around 2005 while I was studying Film Production at the Bournemouth Screen Academy, UK. I needed more of a creative outlet for my ideas and video experimentations. Back then the VJ scene in the UK was building up some momentum, and the emphasis on experimenting with visualizing audio was a popular medium I had a lot of interest in. My first real love of visuals came when I would be glued to the television at 3am on the weekends watching a TV series on terrestrial television produced by Addictive TV, titled ‘Mixmasters’. It was a late night music show that featured audio-visual and DJ:VJ mixes produced by hundreds of different music labels and visual artists worldwide.
I wasn’t able to translate the audio and visual relationship too much in to my studies, and so I formed good relationships with event programmers and began doing projection and television displays at my friends events. Since then I moved to the city and the demand for visuals was enough that I could continue to grow the company and we’ve been working in the field ever since.
Can you tell us a bit more about your setup at Hydra?
In the video we’re using 70x RGB pixel battens, a 12mm LED screen, 24x green point lasers and 4x RGB sweeper beam moving head lights. Everything runs from inside the new Resolume Arena 5 software. We’re running the LED screen straight on DVI, while all the other fixtures are controlled using a Showjockey 16way Art-Net to DMX box on 16 lumiverses.
We create animation sequences, for e.g simple flashing boxes, and they are used to control the lighting fixtures. DMX works in values of 0 – 255. So, to translate that in to video, black is 0 and full brightness is 255, and that’s how we work with the ranges of each lighting fixture. The moving heads sweep beam lights only have one axis but split in to two sections per light, which is fairly simple to control in theory but was quite difficult to find a working solution without using more layers. For this, we used a gradient source so we have control of the brightness on 2 sides of a solid layer. We mapped the DMX value for the lights tilting to either side of this gradient, which meant we can use Resolume’s automation controls to sync in the movement, or map the movement to a fader on our midi controllers.
The lasers work on a matrix that any value over 250 switches them on, and the pixel battens act like a low resolution video screen so we can extend the content from the LED screen out over the heads of the audience.
What's Hydra? Does the name have any significance?
The Hydra is an expertly curated series of parties in London, running primarily throughout autumn each year. Created in 2012 from the brainchild of former head of programming at The End Club, Ajay Jayaram, and off-location event pioneer Dolan Bergin, The Hydra has built up an inimitable reputation in the UK and further afield. Hence the name from Greek Mythology, meaning a “beast with many heads”. The Hydra also rears its head at other events across the year in London and overseas.
The Hydra’s uncompromising mission is to collaborate with the finest artists, record labels and collectives from around the world, representing them against a backdrop of superlative sound and production and bringing the very best underground music to London’s doorstep.
How does Resolume fit into all this?
I began using Resolume software around the launch of Avenue, I was drawn to the simplicity of it all and the linear layout where I could have the option of loading all my usable media in to a single composition. The ability to add effects and manipulate a clip, then duplicate it and add more manipulation and still be able to call that content up when required was an extremely valuable asset for us.
The latest Resolume 5.0 release is the backbone of the production we do for The Hydra. We’ve invested a lot in equipment, displays and lighting fixtures over the last year with the idea that we can control most elements of a show live, with all the lighting and video elements working together in synchronicity, in perfect time with Resolume’s BPM tracker and all running from a single laptop. It’s a fairly new and unique approach to controlling fixtures, using an animated composition as the triggers. We simply design our show layouts in 3D, and export image masks to work from and animate on top of. In Resolume we then map all our fixtures in the advanced output of Arena, sending our DMX over Art-Net and the video via DVI.
It’s the scenography element that most interests us today, we want to design shows that aren’t just focused on the screens and visual / VJ element, but how everything else from lasers to moving heads is incorporated in to the design.
Why did you choose Res over a regular lighting desk? Don't you like endless rows of faders and illegible touchscreens?
Being solely from a video background, DMX is still very new to us and we started with absolutely no experience with DMX at all so it was quite a learning curve to get our head around. Lighting desks confuse the life out of me, I don’t really know where to start. On many international events I would work closely with an incredibly good lighting designer named Ross Chapple, (who now works with the likes of Eric Prydz) and he gave some invaluable assistance in the DMX world.
Lighting desks and operators will obviously be the right way to do things, and we’re not trying to over look their use, it’s just for what we are doing on the smaller scale, it makes a lot of sense to keep everything self contained, which is kind of the same thing we’re seeing in opposite with lighting desks now incorporating more elements of video. Only, that our preferred approach to things is from a video background and using the Arena servers to push the pixels.
You're one of the first to push the DMX integration this far. How is it being an early adopter?
The DMX integration has really stepped up our game, having just one software application running keeps the processing down and means a single machine can handle what we’re throwing at it. It’s been a fairly simple process getting to grips with the advanced pixel mapping features, being used to video and pixel mapping with previous versions of Arena, the addition of DMX follows the same principles in the advanced output and that’s made the transition an easy one. The latest release of 5.0.2 is almost there with all the features we will ever need, we’re regularly running a full 16 universes alongside up to five DVI outputs on dual and triplehead2go’s on a single machine, and Arena is handling things very well!
How was the lead-up / tech setup? Smooth sailing or does it still give you nightmares?
The tech setup for the Hydra was initially a difficult process, the animation, layout and processing of things is fairly straightforward with the main difficulty coming from creating a show that can be setup in a short amount of time and be taken down the next morning. The Hydra venue is a photography studio by day and event space by night and that’s where things have become more time consuming, building a system that can be installed and taken down quickly and efficiently. This also limits our creativity, as we have so many ideas to make large scale impressive setups but the budgets and time constraints mean we have to work in a more realistic manner.
Anything else?
The next Hydra show happens on April 29th and will see the Dutch heavyweight festival Dekmantel come to London and showcase the likes of Joy Orbison, Kyle Hall and Marcellus Pittman.
Their setup has video, lights and laser, all controlled by a single instance of Arena. Combined with Rebel Overlay's trademark minimal design, it looks downright amazing.
Read more about Rebel Overlay and how they made this happen below.
[fold][/fold]
Who and what is Rebel Overlay and where can we find you online?
Rebel Overlay is a London based visual design company, we specialize in live visuals, content creation and creative visual setups for events worldwide. We’re formed of three core members, Spencer Heron, Philip Rust and Ben Field.
You can find our work online at http://www.rebeloverlay.com, http://www.vimeo.com/rebeloverlay and http://www.facebook.com/reblovrla
How did you start VJ'ing?
Rebel Overlay started back in around 2005 while I was studying Film Production at the Bournemouth Screen Academy, UK. I needed more of a creative outlet for my ideas and video experimentations. Back then the VJ scene in the UK was building up some momentum, and the emphasis on experimenting with visualizing audio was a popular medium I had a lot of interest in. My first real love of visuals came when I would be glued to the television at 3am on the weekends watching a TV series on terrestrial television produced by Addictive TV, titled ‘Mixmasters’. It was a late night music show that featured audio-visual and DJ:VJ mixes produced by hundreds of different music labels and visual artists worldwide.
I wasn’t able to translate the audio and visual relationship too much in to my studies, and so I formed good relationships with event programmers and began doing projection and television displays at my friends events. Since then I moved to the city and the demand for visuals was enough that I could continue to grow the company and we’ve been working in the field ever since.
Can you tell us a bit more about your setup at Hydra?
In the video we’re using 70x RGB pixel battens, a 12mm LED screen, 24x green point lasers and 4x RGB sweeper beam moving head lights. Everything runs from inside the new Resolume Arena 5 software. We’re running the LED screen straight on DVI, while all the other fixtures are controlled using a Showjockey 16way Art-Net to DMX box on 16 lumiverses.
We create animation sequences, for e.g simple flashing boxes, and they are used to control the lighting fixtures. DMX works in values of 0 – 255. So, to translate that in to video, black is 0 and full brightness is 255, and that’s how we work with the ranges of each lighting fixture. The moving heads sweep beam lights only have one axis but split in to two sections per light, which is fairly simple to control in theory but was quite difficult to find a working solution without using more layers. For this, we used a gradient source so we have control of the brightness on 2 sides of a solid layer. We mapped the DMX value for the lights tilting to either side of this gradient, which meant we can use Resolume’s automation controls to sync in the movement, or map the movement to a fader on our midi controllers.
The lasers work on a matrix that any value over 250 switches them on, and the pixel battens act like a low resolution video screen so we can extend the content from the LED screen out over the heads of the audience.
What's Hydra? Does the name have any significance?
The Hydra is an expertly curated series of parties in London, running primarily throughout autumn each year. Created in 2012 from the brainchild of former head of programming at The End Club, Ajay Jayaram, and off-location event pioneer Dolan Bergin, The Hydra has built up an inimitable reputation in the UK and further afield. Hence the name from Greek Mythology, meaning a “beast with many heads”. The Hydra also rears its head at other events across the year in London and overseas.
The Hydra’s uncompromising mission is to collaborate with the finest artists, record labels and collectives from around the world, representing them against a backdrop of superlative sound and production and bringing the very best underground music to London’s doorstep.
How does Resolume fit into all this?
I began using Resolume software around the launch of Avenue, I was drawn to the simplicity of it all and the linear layout where I could have the option of loading all my usable media in to a single composition. The ability to add effects and manipulate a clip, then duplicate it and add more manipulation and still be able to call that content up when required was an extremely valuable asset for us.
The latest Resolume 5.0 release is the backbone of the production we do for The Hydra. We’ve invested a lot in equipment, displays and lighting fixtures over the last year with the idea that we can control most elements of a show live, with all the lighting and video elements working together in synchronicity, in perfect time with Resolume’s BPM tracker and all running from a single laptop. It’s a fairly new and unique approach to controlling fixtures, using an animated composition as the triggers. We simply design our show layouts in 3D, and export image masks to work from and animate on top of. In Resolume we then map all our fixtures in the advanced output of Arena, sending our DMX over Art-Net and the video via DVI.
It’s the scenography element that most interests us today, we want to design shows that aren’t just focused on the screens and visual / VJ element, but how everything else from lasers to moving heads is incorporated in to the design.
Why did you choose Res over a regular lighting desk? Don't you like endless rows of faders and illegible touchscreens?
Being solely from a video background, DMX is still very new to us and we started with absolutely no experience with DMX at all so it was quite a learning curve to get our head around. Lighting desks confuse the life out of me, I don’t really know where to start. On many international events I would work closely with an incredibly good lighting designer named Ross Chapple, (who now works with the likes of Eric Prydz) and he gave some invaluable assistance in the DMX world.
Lighting desks and operators will obviously be the right way to do things, and we’re not trying to over look their use, it’s just for what we are doing on the smaller scale, it makes a lot of sense to keep everything self contained, which is kind of the same thing we’re seeing in opposite with lighting desks now incorporating more elements of video. Only, that our preferred approach to things is from a video background and using the Arena servers to push the pixels.
You're one of the first to push the DMX integration this far. How is it being an early adopter?
The DMX integration has really stepped up our game, having just one software application running keeps the processing down and means a single machine can handle what we’re throwing at it. It’s been a fairly simple process getting to grips with the advanced pixel mapping features, being used to video and pixel mapping with previous versions of Arena, the addition of DMX follows the same principles in the advanced output and that’s made the transition an easy one. The latest release of 5.0.2 is almost there with all the features we will ever need, we’re regularly running a full 16 universes alongside up to five DVI outputs on dual and triplehead2go’s on a single machine, and Arena is handling things very well!
How was the lead-up / tech setup? Smooth sailing or does it still give you nightmares?
The tech setup for the Hydra was initially a difficult process, the animation, layout and processing of things is fairly straightforward with the main difficulty coming from creating a show that can be setup in a short amount of time and be taken down the next morning. The Hydra venue is a photography studio by day and event space by night and that’s where things have become more time consuming, building a system that can be installed and taken down quickly and efficiently. This also limits our creativity, as we have so many ideas to make large scale impressive setups but the budgets and time constraints mean we have to work in a more realistic manner.
Anything else?
The next Hydra show happens on April 29th and will see the Dutch heavyweight festival Dekmantel come to London and showcase the likes of Joy Orbison, Kyle Hall and Marcellus Pittman.
Resolume Blog
This blog is about Resolume, VJ-ing and the inspiring things the Resolume users make. Do you have something interesting to show the community? Send in your work!
Highlights
Resolume Arena 5 Point Ooooh
It’s been 4 years since we introduced Resolume Avenue & Arena 4. In those 4 years we released many many updates which brought a lot of improvements, effects and new features. It was time for something new, and we are proud to present to you: Resolume Arena 5.
We looked at the most important features that needed to be improved and this was clearly video mapping in Arena. Video mapping has taken the world by storm the past few years. We wanted to make this even easier and even more flexible with Resolume Arena 5. With Arena you can take on any size mapping project. Projecting on DJ booths and cars and buildings, as well as pixel mapping giant stages like Ultra. Projection mapping has gone from an artsy curiosity to a requirement in the toolbox of all VJ's.
Zoooooomin
With stages becoming bigger and LED resolutions going up it’s now easier to get everything pixel perfect by zooming in to your slices as far you need to make the final adjustment.
Undo (yes really)
In the advanced output you can now undo (and redo) all your actions. This is incredibly handy because video mapping can become quite complex and is not always an exact science. Sometimes you need to fiddle the sliders until it’s pixel perfect. You can now work on a complex mapping with the ease of mind that you can always go back in time, like Doc & Marty.
Polygon slices (poly what?)
This new way of video mapping is so innovative we even had to think of a name for it ;-) We’re calling them Poly Slices. Draw any shape you want and then warp each individual point. Triangles were just the beginning, young grasshopper.
Snapping
Slices and points will jump into place when they get close enough. So you don't need to find that sweet spot twice.
Slice masks
You can now apply a mask to one specific slice by using the new input masking. You can even draw your own shape from scratch.
Multi Select
Lasso your slices like a cowboy and herd them dawgies to the corral in one mighty swoop.
Led There Be Light
You can now start thinking outside the (box) screen because you can now send your pretty little pixels to DMX fixtures. Let them light up in any color, at any time, in sync with your visuals. Better improvised synchronisation between music and visuals is the very first reason why we started on Resolume all those years ago. It’s a very logical step to add the lights to that as well. This way your shows are even more coherent and integrated.
Output via BlackMagic Devices
Those fancy BlackMagic capture devices can not only bring images into Resolume. With Arena 5 you can also output via BlackMagic devices. This way you can easily output to another screen on a laptop that might not have multiple outputs. And output to professional SDI connections without having to buy a special expensive videocard that has SDI outputs.
Spout
Spout is the Windows equivalent of the hugely popular Syphon on the Mac. It allows you to output and input visuals from one application to the other, all in real-time. So create a sketch in Processing and send that to Resolume or send the Resolume output to the virtual Spout webcam and stream that to YouTube. Spout opens a lot of possibilities because there is already so much other Spout compatible software. Checkout their website.
Pricing
New Arena 5 license: 799 Euro
Upgrade Arena 4 to 5: 269 euro
Upgrade Avenue to Arena 5: 500 euro
New Avenue 4 license: 299 Euro
Log in to your account to purchase your upgrade today.
Avenue?
Because most of these major new features are media server related and only in Arena there is no major update for Avenue. So you can continue to use Avenue 4 without a paid upgrade.
Grace Period
If you bought Arena 4 after September 1st, just contact us and we'll upgrade you to Arena 5.
Much, much, more
Besides all these major new features we have also fixed many small bugs and made many minor improvements. Read below for the full release notes or hit the download!
NEW - AV set and demo footage
NEW - Fixture editor
NEW - Virtual screen routing
NEW - Drag and drop output presets
NEW - Modifiers galore
NEW - Input slice rotation
NEW - Opacity and Bypass toggles on Layer Router
NEW - Preview available as source for Layer Router and Slices
NEW - Create slices and masks by drawing
NEW - Screen output delay compensation
NEW - Screen output opacity & color correction
NEW - Screen folding
NEW - Slice flipping
NEW - Slice Top & Left coordinates
NEW - Slice color correction
NEW - Slice force black background
NEW - New interface colours: Minty Pinky
NEW - Redesigned toolbar for better read- and click-ability
NEW - Windows large address aware for better memory management
NEW - 8 pixel grid on output
NEW - Improved crosshairs
Bug fixes
FIXED - Support more than one webcam of the same type on PC
FIXED - After re-locating a Source, Flash or QC file, any parameter changes are reset to the default value
FIXED - When toggling Mask 1, all other Masks toggle as well
FIXED - BPM Clock pause and resume flips out when using midi clock
FIXED - Audio Clip set to play once and playmode away continue does not restart when finished
FIXED - Multiselect reset param doesn’t work when you click on name
FIXED - Noisy effect: Interpolate does not work until show UV is turned on and off
FIXED - DeckLink device with no inputs causes other devices not to load
FIXED - BPM set audio clip not responding to pause/BPM after deckswitch.
FIXED - BPM Synced parameter also occasionally flashes last 'frame' on Resync
FIXED - Blend Modes are not correctly displayed on Layer Panel
FIXED - Deadlock: Opening preferences with cmd + , while audio is playing and apc40mk2 is turned on
FIXED - DMX Invert no worky on buttons
FIXED - Retrigger and Continue modes are very confused on AV clips
FIXED - A clip set to 'play once and eject' should not eject the incoming clip during a transition
FIXED - Midi Note piano shortcut on slider should respect min value
FIXED - Add Close button to Timeline popup
FIXED - BPM pause doesn’t work for audio clips that are active but in other deck
FIXED - Mask drag, drop and copy not functioning properly
FIXED - A clip set to 'play once and eject' should not eject the incoming clip during a transition
FIXED - When retriggering the incoming clip in a transition, the outgoing clip should not restart
FIXED - Cross-fader position is not saved in composition
FIXED - Mapping ccs to Crossfader
FIXED - Source duration spinner jumps to min and max when dragged
FIXED - Check for illegal characters in savefile name
FIXED - Alpha on a JPEG? What kind of witchcraft is this?
Upgrade FAQ
I have a Res Avenue 4 license but there’s no Avenue 5! Do I need to upgrade to Arena 5 to get the new stuff?
No. Avenue 4.5 is a free upgrade for anyone with a Avenue 4.x license. It has all the bug fixes and comes with native Spout support.
I have a Res Arena 4 license but Arena 5 is a paid upgrade. Do I have to pay for bug fixes?
You don’t. If you don’t want to upgrade to Arena 5 just yet, Arena 4.2.2 is a free upgrade for anyone with a Arena 4.x license. It has all the bug fixes of Arena 5, just not the fancy new Advanced Output. Download Arena 4.2.2 for Mac and PC.
I just bought Arena 4 last week and now you bring out an update. This sucks!
Don’t worry. If you bought Arena 4 after September 1st, just contact us and we’ll give you an Arena 5 license, no questions asked. If you feel we’ve treated you unfairly in any other way, just drop us a line and we’ll work something out.
What about feature X ?1?!?!. You said it was coming in Res 5. I really need feature X! I can’t live without feature X!
Yeah, that sucks. We wanted to pack so much more features in this release. As it turns out, putting all of that in and getting it stable, would mean you’d have to wait another 2 years for the next version. And we couldn’t let you wait that long. So just make awesome shows with all the cool new stuff that’s in Arena now, and we’ll continue working on all the other things.
We looked at the most important features that needed to be improved and this was clearly video mapping in Arena. Video mapping has taken the world by storm the past few years. We wanted to make this even easier and even more flexible with Resolume Arena 5. With Arena you can take on any size mapping project. Projecting on DJ booths and cars and buildings, as well as pixel mapping giant stages like Ultra. Projection mapping has gone from an artsy curiosity to a requirement in the toolbox of all VJ's.
Zoooooomin
With stages becoming bigger and LED resolutions going up it’s now easier to get everything pixel perfect by zooming in to your slices as far you need to make the final adjustment.
Undo (yes really)
In the advanced output you can now undo (and redo) all your actions. This is incredibly handy because video mapping can become quite complex and is not always an exact science. Sometimes you need to fiddle the sliders until it’s pixel perfect. You can now work on a complex mapping with the ease of mind that you can always go back in time, like Doc & Marty.
Polygon slices (poly what?)
This new way of video mapping is so innovative we even had to think of a name for it ;-) We’re calling them Poly Slices. Draw any shape you want and then warp each individual point. Triangles were just the beginning, young grasshopper.
Snapping
Slices and points will jump into place when they get close enough. So you don't need to find that sweet spot twice.
Slice masks
You can now apply a mask to one specific slice by using the new input masking. You can even draw your own shape from scratch.
Multi Select
Lasso your slices like a cowboy and herd them dawgies to the corral in one mighty swoop.
Led There Be Light
You can now start thinking outside the (box) screen because you can now send your pretty little pixels to DMX fixtures. Let them light up in any color, at any time, in sync with your visuals. Better improvised synchronisation between music and visuals is the very first reason why we started on Resolume all those years ago. It’s a very logical step to add the lights to that as well. This way your shows are even more coherent and integrated.
Output via BlackMagic Devices
Those fancy BlackMagic capture devices can not only bring images into Resolume. With Arena 5 you can also output via BlackMagic devices. This way you can easily output to another screen on a laptop that might not have multiple outputs. And output to professional SDI connections without having to buy a special expensive videocard that has SDI outputs.
Spout
Spout is the Windows equivalent of the hugely popular Syphon on the Mac. It allows you to output and input visuals from one application to the other, all in real-time. So create a sketch in Processing and send that to Resolume or send the Resolume output to the virtual Spout webcam and stream that to YouTube. Spout opens a lot of possibilities because there is already so much other Spout compatible software. Checkout their website.
Pricing
New Arena 5 license: 799 Euro
Upgrade Arena 4 to 5: 269 euro
Upgrade Avenue to Arena 5: 500 euro
New Avenue 4 license: 299 Euro
Log in to your account to purchase your upgrade today.
Avenue?
Because most of these major new features are media server related and only in Arena there is no major update for Avenue. So you can continue to use Avenue 4 without a paid upgrade.
Grace Period
If you bought Arena 4 after September 1st, just contact us and we'll upgrade you to Arena 5.
Much, much, more
Besides all these major new features we have also fixed many small bugs and made many minor improvements. Read below for the full release notes or hit the download!
NEW - AV set and demo footage
NEW - Fixture editor
NEW - Virtual screen routing
NEW - Drag and drop output presets
NEW - Modifiers galore
NEW - Input slice rotation
NEW - Opacity and Bypass toggles on Layer Router
NEW - Preview available as source for Layer Router and Slices
NEW - Create slices and masks by drawing
NEW - Screen output delay compensation
NEW - Screen output opacity & color correction
NEW - Screen folding
NEW - Slice flipping
NEW - Slice Top & Left coordinates
NEW - Slice color correction
NEW - Slice force black background
NEW - New interface colours: Minty Pinky
NEW - Redesigned toolbar for better read- and click-ability
NEW - Windows large address aware for better memory management
NEW - 8 pixel grid on output
NEW - Improved crosshairs
Bug fixes
FIXED - Support more than one webcam of the same type on PC
FIXED - After re-locating a Source, Flash or QC file, any parameter changes are reset to the default value
FIXED - When toggling Mask 1, all other Masks toggle as well
FIXED - BPM Clock pause and resume flips out when using midi clock
FIXED - Audio Clip set to play once and playmode away continue does not restart when finished
FIXED - Multiselect reset param doesn’t work when you click on name
FIXED - Noisy effect: Interpolate does not work until show UV is turned on and off
FIXED - DeckLink device with no inputs causes other devices not to load
FIXED - BPM set audio clip not responding to pause/BPM after deckswitch.
FIXED - BPM Synced parameter also occasionally flashes last 'frame' on Resync
FIXED - Blend Modes are not correctly displayed on Layer Panel
FIXED - Deadlock: Opening preferences with cmd + , while audio is playing and apc40mk2 is turned on
FIXED - DMX Invert no worky on buttons
FIXED - Retrigger and Continue modes are very confused on AV clips
FIXED - A clip set to 'play once and eject' should not eject the incoming clip during a transition
FIXED - Midi Note piano shortcut on slider should respect min value
FIXED - Add Close button to Timeline popup
FIXED - BPM pause doesn’t work for audio clips that are active but in other deck
FIXED - Mask drag, drop and copy not functioning properly
FIXED - A clip set to 'play once and eject' should not eject the incoming clip during a transition
FIXED - When retriggering the incoming clip in a transition, the outgoing clip should not restart
FIXED - Cross-fader position is not saved in composition
FIXED - Mapping ccs to Crossfader
FIXED - Source duration spinner jumps to min and max when dragged
FIXED - Check for illegal characters in savefile name
FIXED - Alpha on a JPEG? What kind of witchcraft is this?
Upgrade FAQ
I have a Res Avenue 4 license but there’s no Avenue 5! Do I need to upgrade to Arena 5 to get the new stuff?
No. Avenue 4.5 is a free upgrade for anyone with a Avenue 4.x license. It has all the bug fixes and comes with native Spout support.
I have a Res Arena 4 license but Arena 5 is a paid upgrade. Do I have to pay for bug fixes?
You don’t. If you don’t want to upgrade to Arena 5 just yet, Arena 4.2.2 is a free upgrade for anyone with a Arena 4.x license. It has all the bug fixes of Arena 5, just not the fancy new Advanced Output. Download Arena 4.2.2 for Mac and PC.
I just bought Arena 4 last week and now you bring out an update. This sucks!
Don’t worry. If you bought Arena 4 after September 1st, just contact us and we’ll give you an Arena 5 license, no questions asked. If you feel we’ve treated you unfairly in any other way, just drop us a line and we’ll work something out.
What about feature X ?1?!?!. You said it was coming in Res 5. I really need feature X! I can’t live without feature X!
Yeah, that sucks. We wanted to pack so much more features in this release. As it turns out, putting all of that in and getting it stable, would mean you’d have to wait another 2 years for the next version. And we couldn’t let you wait that long. So just make awesome shows with all the cool new stuff that’s in Arena now, and we’ll continue working on all the other things.