FocusTrack at
USITT 2009
FocusTrack 2.00
debuts in Cincinnati
16th March 2009
FocusTrack, the production lighting documentation
system, will be at the USITT Stage Expo in Cincinnati
this week; visitors to stand #81 will be the
first to see the new FocusTrack 2.00, which adds
compatibility with ETC Eos and MA grandMA
consoles.
In the more than three years since its first
introduction, FocusTrack has been put to use on
countless shows, allowing lighting designers and
their teams to precisely document the show lighting -
including focus of conventional and moving lights,
cue looks, rig data and more - to allow them to
maintain the look over a long run, bring the show
back into rep, re-focus it on tour or re-create it
elsewhere in the world. FocusTrack is currently in
use on shows including Billy Elliot in
London, New York and Australia, Mary Poppins
in New York and on tour, Frost/Nixon and
The Wizard of Oz touring the US, and
Miss Saigon around the world, and at
producing companies including English National Opera
and the National Theatre.
From the beginning, a key driving principle of
FocusTrack has been to reduce the amount of manual
data handling and re-keying that lighting staff have
to do. FocusTrack has always been able to
automatically process information from Strand
500-series consoles to generate lists of which lights
are used where and in which cues, which colours and
gobos are used and to give an accurate copy of the
console patch and cue sheet. When photographing
photographs, FocusTrack has also been able to control
the console, bringing up lights in the right place
quickly and efficiently.
In FocusTrack 2.000, this functionality is
dramatically extended to include ETC’s popular
Eos and Ion consoles, and the successful grandMA
console from MA Lighting. This will open the
functionality of FocusTrack up to a much wider range
of console users, giving more people the chance to
reduce the amount of time they spend manually
trawling through their showfiles in off-line editors
to find out what’s used. Early test versions of
the Eos-compatible FocusTrack saw service on
Young Frankenstein in New York, while
grandMA compatibility has been proven on the UK tour
of Mary Poppins and US tour of The
Wizard of Oz.
FocusTrack 2.00 comes in one version that can be
switched freely between use with Strand 500-, Eos and
grandMA consoles; existing users can move to
FocusTrack 2.00 at no additional cost.
In addition to new consoles, FocusTrack 2.00 offers a
wealth of new functions, including the ability to
‘spot the difference’ between the console
patch and a Lightwright file, so simplifying the task
of making sure everything is up to date.
Further information about FocusTrack 2.00 can be
found here - or by visiting
stand #81 at the USITT Conference and Stage Expo
in Cincinnati from March 18-21, ww2.usitt.org.
FocusTrack 2.00 will be available for download
at the beginning of next week.