🌈 10-bit Colour Output!

More and more LED processors and projectors can display 1.07 billion colours (10-bit) instead of 16.7 million colours (8-bit). This means less colour banding — so subtle gradients (like atmospheric effects, light beams, and fades) appear silky smooth instead of showing harsh steps.
A 10-bit colour pipeline is used more and more on stages for live events, especially ones that are also live-streamed, and it's becoming a requirement in broadcast and virtual productions.
There are a lot of variables involved to make sure your entire pipeline from laptop to screen is actually 10-bit. Content, codecs, composition, cables, connectors, configuration — all these C's need to line up to get nice colours on screen.
Be sure to check out our 10-bit support article to help find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. 🌈

🏎️ Faster Composition Loading (again)
In the past couple of releases we have improved loading compositions with a lot of layers, groups and clips. And in this version we're dialing this up to 11. One of our beta testers has a big composition that took 8 minutes to load and this is now just 1 minute with 7.24. Nice!

🎹 Faster MIDI Processing
Big compositions often require a lot of MIDI to be processed too, this is now also much improved. The interface will not lag anymore when processing a lot of MIDI data from and to controllers or Wire patches.

📺 CRT Effect

Crisp, clear gradients are nice — but sometimes you just want some old-school analogue grunt in your visuals, and the new CRT effect helps you do just that. It emulates big, chunky CRT monitors that'll have you feeling nostalgic (if you're over 40 or so 😄).
This effect is completely made in Wire, so you can fork it, look under the hood to see how it's made, and patch your own variations.
While we're on the subject of effects: the Strokes effect now has an image input, so you can stroke your visuals with your own brushes instead of only the built-in ones.

💾 Show Composition Loading, Saving & Closing State

We've always been surprised (and honestly a bit frightened) by the sheer size of the compositions some of you are making.
Do you really need more than 40 layers and 900+ columns!?
We've made loading and unloading compositions quite a bit faster in the past few updates, but it can still take a while sometimes — there's just a lot of clips to load.
With this update, you can now see in the title bar that Arena is busy while opening, saving and closing compositions.

🍎 Updated macOS App Icons

To be a good citizen on macOS, we've finally updated the app icons of Arena, Avenue, Wire, and Alley to adhere to Apple's icon design guidelines.
Can we now complain about the liquid glass UI design of iOS 26 and macOS Tahoe? It's a neat trick, but way too glossy and distracting in our humble opinion.

⏯️ MIDI & OSC Monitor Stop & Resume

Sometimes you have a lot of MIDI or OSC messages coming in and out.
Now, you can pause the monitor for a bit to inspect messages without new ones flooding in.

🌐 REST API Updates
Thanks to REST API power user Allen, we're continually making updates. You can now:
- Load compositions
- Open multiple clips
- Check if files can actually be opened
- Add multiple columns to a composition in one call

🎥 Capture Improvements
Thanks to our new team member Marcel, we can now put a lot more energy into improving capture device support in Arena and Avenue.
We've updated to NDI version 6.1.1 and Blackmagic version 12.1
All capture devices are now capable of inputting and outputting 10-bit colour depth.
Let us know what your favourite capture devices are — we might be able to support more popular choices in the future!

🏴‍☠️ Wire Patch Navigator

The Wire Patch Navigator is a small panel with a miniature overview of your entire patch.
Use it to quickly pan and zoom in and out of your giant spaghetti patches.
We're looking at you here, Chris. 👀

🗒️ Notes Panel in Wire

The Notes panel from Arena and Avenue is now also available in Wire, so you have a nice spot to jot down your thoughts — or your favourite spaghetti meatballs recipe.

🖼️ Texture Preview on Mouse Hover of Outlet

To quickly see what a node is outputting, hover over the outlet — it now also shows texture outputs.
They're only the size of a stamp, but very useful for quick previews.

🔀 Insert Node After & Before Current Node

When an inlet or outlet is wired up to multiple other nodes, it used to be a bit of work to insert a node and reconnect all the cords. Not anymore!
You can now right-click an inlet or outlet and choose Insert… to quickly add a new node and rewire all the connections automatically.

🔎 Node Image in Search Popup

To help you quickly find the node you're looking for, the search popup now shows a full-scale preview of the node with all its inlets and outlets.

🌀 Kaleidoscope and Gaussian Nodes
Every old-school VJ needs a kaleidoscope, and now Wire has one!
Also new in this release is the Gaussian node — it's used in the new CRT effect, so check it out.

🌕 Cylindrical and Spherical Nodes

The From Cylindrical and From Spherical nodes allow you to turn cylindrical and spherical coordinates into Cartesian coordinates — which is a very nerdy way of saying you can generate sphere and cylinder coordinates now.

🧮 Stable Sort
The Sort node now supports stable sorting, which means if two values are the same, their original order is preserved.

↯ Stride

The Texture from Data node has gotten an update and now supports two-dimensional textures by setting a stride value. These function more or less as columns for the generated texture and will give you a lot more possibilities when using the Texture from Data node.

Arena & Avenue 7.24.0 Fix List
#23928 Crash disabling REST API without network connection
#23993 Arena crash when taking multiple snapshots
#20428 Hang on deck switch with capture sources
#23884 MapperGuru Wire patch crashes Arena
#21626 Stop and save recordings when Arena gets closed
#13309 Changing clip transport is not undoable
#16532 Variable font only shows one of the styles
#17011 Undoing font change doesn't restore style properly
#22824 Elgato Facecam not showing high FPS options on Windows
#17902 Piano and Invert overlap with CC shortcuts in Button mode
#23177 Shortcut set to 14-bit mode, then to Button, should show Piano and Invert options
#19529 Envelope fold state not remembered
#20235 Composition tempo gets rounded when entered manually
#23017 Don't move a column by grabbing the play/stop button
#23156 Always show deck list button
#23174 MP4 file with PCM audio doesn't play the audio in Arena and Alley
#23437 Better Effect & Source descriptions
#22462 Alley plays image sequences too fast

Wire 7.24.0 Fix List
#23401 Wire crash loading corrupt video file
#24008 Bypass inlet for Video Sampler node
#22073 Remove Resource option in Resource panel
#17533 Delay node doesn't accept Event to set its delay time
#19487 Bag node cannot be instantiated
#21568 Join node should keep its type when adding connections
#23226 Add Stride inlet to Texture From Data node
#23255 Text Render node doesn't update with empty string in collection
#23134 Sort Node Does Not Maintain Consistent Index Order
#22863 Wire example patches layout overhaul

We’re excited to welcome Shenoka to the label and to celebrate the artists who keep creating new visuals and keeping the scene alive.

Raito by Shenoka


Internal Circuitry by Visual Lab


NeonGarage by Ghosteam


MuddleParade by KRATATA


Agsc10A by Tomika


ShiftClick by NO SIGNAL


SyntezyChromium by Dan Chelger


PrimalSpaces by Moving-Art by Lior Sadeh


Kleur2 by Albertus Luki

We’re thrilled to welcome Liza Renee to the label with her debut release, IsometricDreams, a pack inspired by the harmony and balance of isometric design. Unit44 takes us on a journey with Enter08, while Dan Chelger delivers SyntezyFlux, an analog current of liquid energy. From there, we dive deeper into the DigitalRush, ride through Dawnlight, and get Firey, because we do love a little wordplay.

IsometricDreams by Liza Renee


Enter08 by Unit44


SyntezyFlux by Dan Chelger


DigitalRush by NO SIGNAL


Dawnlight by Artificial Imagination


Firey by Muzencab

So you have downloaded a clip from YouTube, ripped a VHS tape, or recorded yourself messing up in the first stage Mario Bros.

Now you are thinking, "Can I use this in my VJ set?"

This is a question I see pop up regularly during workshops, in online forums, and during post-gig beers.
So I wrote this post to help you understand what you can and cannot legally use in your VJ work.

My goal is to make all VJ's who read this more confident when dealing with this situation.
I will explain your rights as an artist, but also the rights of others.

Disclaimer: This post is not legal advice. The muppet who wrote it went to art school and is not a lawyer. We can’t and won't guarantee that following this advice will keep you out of trouble. If you're doing something high-profile, commercial, or risky, get a real lawyer.

Copyright & Trademark

So what is copyright?
Copyright protects creative works: videos, music, photos, books, games, etc.
If someone made it, they probably own the copyright.
You can’t use it without permission unless an exception applies (we’ll get to that).

But, you might also have heard of the term ‘Trademark’, what's up with that?

Trademarks protect brands and identities.
Think of logos, names, characters, and anything that helps a company sell stuff.
Mickey Mouse, the word "Nintendo", or the yellow Pac-Man shape, those are trademarks.
Even if the video is old and in the public domain, the character might still be trademarked.

In short, copyright applies to the video while a trademark is a brand or character that might appear in the video.

Mythbusting

Before we get to the nitty gritty of it, I want to get my inner Adam Savage out and bust some myths I hear all the time from VJ's I talk to.

I hear VJ’s using content which they don't own the rights to say stuff like: “It's fine because I'm not making any money of it”, “It's only a short clip so it doesn't count”, “I don't live in the USA/EU, so I am immune”, “I found it on the internet, so it must be free” and my personal favourite: “It's fair use bro, fair use!”

All of these assumptions are wrong.

Copyright applies even if you're not making money and applies everywhere.
If it's copyrighted, you need permission, no matter how you found it or what you do with it.
We'll talk about fair use in the next section, but spoiler alert: it doesn't protect you.

Fair Use

If I would have gotten a $ for each time I heard this argument, I could buy a content pack.

Fair use is a legal exception that lets people use copyrighted stuff without permission, but it applies to things like education, parody, and news. More importantly: It does not cover live performances!

Remixing or layering the footage doesn’t automatically make it fair use and you are not funny enough for a parody, so in short: don’t rely on fair use to cover your ass. It won’t.

Next we'll look at some examples of footage and the legal status of it.

Public Domain Footage

Good new Garry here: Yes you can use public domain movies!
Public domain means the copyright has expired or was never claimed.
When used as VJ footage it is generally safe to use, remix, and perform.

But be careful about what you use.
Just because it’s on archive.org doesn’t mean it’s public domain.

Additionally: characters and brands (like Betty Boop or Superman) that are in public domain videos but are still trademarked. See 'Copyright & Trademark'.

When using movies from the public domain, always aim to get the originals.
Some HD-remaster, recolors and re-releases might still hold copyright, so make sure to check that.


Night of the Living Dead (1968) is in the public domain

Creative Commons

Since the dawn of the internet, we have seen a surge in Creative Commons(CC) licensing.

Creative Commons is a type of license that lets people share their work under certain conditions.
Some CC licenses let you use the footage for anything, some only for non-commercial work.

For you as a VJ, this means you have to RTFM, or more accurately: RTFCCL.

You have to follow the rules of the license.
Some require you to give credit (called attribution), others don’t allow remixing and some don’t allow commercial use.

AI Generated Content

AI tools like Midjourney, DALL·E, Firefly, and others can generate stunning visuals and I see more and more VJs incorporating them into their sets.

The copyright status of AI art is a legal mess.

In many countries, AI-generated content isn’t protected by copyright, because it wasn't made by a human.

Additionally, some AI tools are trained on copyrighted material, so the output might unintentionally infringe on someone else’s rights.

Example: If you prompt an AI to generate “a cartoon plumber in red overalls”, you might get something very close to Mario. Even if you didn’t mean to, using that in your set could still be risky.

So, how to safely use AI generated content?

Firstly, generate it yourself and use tools with clear license terms.
Secondly, avoid prompts that copy or imitate famous intellectual properties or real people.

AI is a powerful tool, but treat it like sampling.
If it sounds or looks like something famous, assume it's not safe.


Resolume HQ by ChatGPT

Game Footage

This is what got me inspired to write this blogpost.

I thought it would be cool to record some old NES games for my next gig, but then I got thinking about whether that is actually legal to do.

No.

Gameplay footage is considered a derivative work because the visuals, music, characters, and environments are all copyrighted by the game publisher. So even though you created the screen recording, the underlying assets belong to the rights holder.

Note that abandonware is not an exception to this rule.
The copyright still exists, even if the company went bankrupt or doesn’t care.
Same with VHS rips, old DVDs, or weird clips from YouTube.

Don’t assume that because it is old, that it is free.

News Footage

These sources can sometimes be freely used, but not always.

Public broadcasters like CNN or BBC still own their content.

Additionally, simply because a media outlet is publicly funded doesn’t mean you can use their footage. Other government content might be in the public domain (a lot of the NASA stuff is!)

Archival Footage

Archival footage is a literal goldmine for VJs.
You can find archives online or even go to your local library or historical society.

But you still need to check the license or rights info or ask permission if it’s not clearly labeled as public domain or Creative Commons.

There is one big catch to consider: many archives contain home movies or real people, and even if the footage is old, those people may still have privacy or image rights. Which are separate from copyrights.


Some wicked sexy dance footage I got from my local archive

Permission

So how do you get permission to use copyrighted content?

A short, respectful email works wonders!

Say who you are, what footage you want to use, where it will be shown, and whether you’re being paid. Explaining the context in which you will perform, will generally help the rights-holder to feel safe in giving you permission.

Keep it short and clear.
Most indie creators, archives, and government institutions will say yes, especially for artistic use.
Save the email. That’s your proof.

Conclusion

And that about wraps it up!
Get wild and get creative, but use content with a clear license.
Don’t rely on remixing or glitching to make it legal, it won't.

You don’t need to pirate Disney clips to make a killer set.
There’s a whole world of amazing footage out there that you can legally use.

Know your rights.
Respect others'.
Make sick visuals that go flashy-flashy boom-boom and have fun while doing it!

Parameter Animation Presets
Creating an animation on a parameter often requires the right animation mode (timeline, BPM, FFT, etc.) and the use of an envelope. You can now store the labour of your pointing and clicking into a preset and quickly apply it to parameters all over your composition. We have included a few that are handy for most people, but you can create your own and save a lot of time by just applying the preset instead of re-creating the same animation every time.



Performance Improvements
In this release, we focused mostly on improving the performance of Arena & Avenue on Windows. It starts with launching Arena & Avenue, which is now much faster so you can get to work quickly. And when you're done, closing is also faster — handy when the jet is waiting to fly you to your next gig. You'll find that adding clips, groups, and layers, as well as switching decks, is also faster — especially in compositions that already contain a lot of clips and layers. Optimizing and making things faster is fun and addictive so we're currently working on even more improvements for the next release...

Nvidia Profile Removed
During installation we used to install an Nvidia profile for Arena & Avenue but we are not doing this by default anymore. There is now an option in the Preferences to enable the Nvidia profile should you need it.

Test Card Source Generator
You can always show the Resolume test card via the Output menu or by pressing SHIFT + CONTROL + L. But sometimes it's just handier to put it in a clip, now you can and you'll find the test card generator on the Sources panel.

Transform Anchor Point Now Also Applies to Scale
The Transform node in Wire always had an Anchor Point, but it only applied to the center of rotation. Now, this Anchor Point will also be taken into account when applying scale. This is handy, for instance, when making a bar chart where all bars need to be aligned to the bottom. We know how much VJs like bars, so we're sure everyone will love this feature.

New and Improved Nodes
With the Count node, you can count the number of occurrences in a list of instances. So if you feed it “Aussie Aussie Aussie” and search for “Aussie” it will return 3. This is not limited to strings — it's smart enough to also count floats, integers, bools, and colors.
The Replace Inf node lets you replace all occurrences of inf with a value, similar to the Replace NaN node.
The Anchor Point node has been upgraded to not only take Geometry 2D, Slice, and Box2D, but also Textures.

Instantiated Instantiated Instantiated
Try saying that 10 times in a row for a good tongue-twister. Just like the Shape Render and Text Render nodes, the Slice Render and 2D Render nodes can now also output individual instances, so the result is no longer always slammed into one texture.

Avenue & Arena 7.23.0 Fix List
#23397 Replacing an audio file doesn't change the duration
#22952 Parameter duration does not correctly change with in- and output
#16530 Stripping/adding audio from/to clip, resets transport In/out points
#17088 Shortcuts panel can get stuck after exiting Shortcut edit mode if you tried to hide it manually
#20035 Old composition's Layer automation can get applied to new compositions newly created layer
#20476 Audio click when triggering clips with audio with transition time
#21866 Up the supported Windows version of the installer to Windows 10 from Windows 8
#22029 Copy Image broken on Windows
#22038 Disable animation options for format, input and color settings in capture clips
#22401 16bpc Comp Snapshot creates 8bpc image on Windows
#22403 +/- spinner for BPM speed not working as expected
#22450 Avoid slider scrolling when scrolling layers/groups
#22564 Minimal Interface Layout Preset
#22575 Crash copy pasting lumiverses between these presets
#22652 Arena sends OSC colors as float4 not as color
#22712 Smoother video playback when frame rate is fixed in the composition settings
#22809 Memory leak and freeze with disabled Lumiverse
#22902 Updating thumbnail can freeze rendering
#22921 ProRes 4444 not pixel accurate
#23016 Arena startup crashes right after auto update
#23143 Effects dropped to clip playing from another deck should show up in the clip panel
#23239 Shortcut presets should not get updated on disk unless they were touched in Resolume
#23254 Shortcut presets should be sorted in alphabetical order
#23319 Crash on opening this composition trying to read TIFF
#23320 Arena can crash on start trying to load composition with closed decks

Wire 7.23.0 Fix List
#17536 Remember Wire compile user info
#18519 Gradient Node should work instanced
#19296 Box2D widget in the node panel
#21490 Add clockwise/counterclockwise option to Circle Pattern node
#21811 Hide dimensions attribute from split node
#21840 Make Sample Texture faster
#21849 Repeat node does not work correctly when output aspect ratio is different from input aspect ratio
#21991 Pasting patch from 7.7 to latest, the Trigger in doesn't work anymore
#22183 Some fonts throw name error and don't load anymore
#22266 MIDI devices in Wire preferences are automatically re-enabled on restart
#22526 Convert effects to support Channel2d Type
#22594 Consolidating patch should collect patch license file
#22897 Switch switches from signal to event flow when instances change
#23247 Cord going to Nirvana
#23253 Cannot drag parameter or group underneath a group

Avenue & Arena & Wire 7.23.1 Fix List
#23603 Dashboard dials should get current param value set on first param drop
#23654 Help tab showing non-relevant titles
#23655 Show in Explorer reverts unsaved changes in Advanced output
#23648 Bypass on Chromakey and Ripple disables texture output
#23650 Repeat node ignores patch resolution

Avenue, Arena & Wire 7.23.2 Fix List
#23710 Crash adding more text to the string input
#23671 Crash on deck switch with file that went missing
#23670 Always keep transport in/out point positions
#23677 Layer transitions can appear from old composition in the new one
#23807 Number of displays limited to 8 on macSX

We’re excited to welcome Meta Story and Visual Church to the label, two skilful motion designers whose talent is truly a blessing. Speaking of blessings, GodsVision is upon us.

Whatever is happening behind the scenes in the back of your mind, keep it to yourself, don't start a BossFight. The holiday season has begun, and it’s time to book that Hotel. Meanwhile, Visual Lab returns with StillDerelict, a haunting collection of loops from the ruins of forgotten spaces.

Enjoy!

ConcreteFlow by Meta Story


RoaringGlitch by Visual Church


GodsVision by VersaTale


BossFight by SPYKE.


Hotel by Ghosteam


StillDerelict by VersaTale

Ethnik4 by Laak is out now, and it includes a full tutorial to guide you through using the loops with finesse. Circuit is a pack of 126 loops blip-blipping in the dark. And Unit44 is bursting with happiness in Smileys3000.


Ethnik4 by Laak


Circuit by MIKVIZ


Smileys3000 by Unit44

Upgrade your diet with Metal Madness, a supplement that hits like a sledgehammer and fixes your heavy metal bloating. FLUX keeps your creativity in fluid motion, while VERTYGO naturally rebalances your pH and sense of space.

Metal Madness by Machina Infinitum


FLUX by Data Ghost


VERTYGO by Sebastian M. Purfürst

We're excited to welcome KRATATA to the label! Her first release Sliced Carnival, is playful and trippy like a carnival on LSD. Catmac and Edgar Davey are also back with new versions of their previous releases, like poets who just aren’t done with the topic yet: Abstract Displacement2 and PSYPAGAN2.


SlicedCarnival by KRATATA


AbstractDisplacement2 by Catmac


PyramidOrbs by Edgar Davey

Loading... A visual symphony of Aehterial beauty, SeekersOfTruth in a post-truth society, electric geometry in bold NEONX2 hues, Artificial intelligence, Mars landings, and productivity-enhancing robots in AIRealms, sweet visuals in Cyberkrill and Industrial, inspired by your grittiest dreams.

Aether by Reckless Collective


SeekersOfTruth by VersaTale


NEONX2 by VibesVJ


Cyberkrill by visualprime


AIRealms by MIKVIZ


Industrial by Mapping Theory