FocusTrack 2.100
with QuickFocus: Available Now
FocusTrack adds
QuickFocus, for manual documentation of focuses and
creation of cue-by-cue focus summaries.
16th January 2009
The team behind lighting documentation software
FocusTrack are delighted to mark the new year by
announcing the release of FocusTrack 2.100.
Continuing to respond to the needs of lighting
professionals, the new version adds QuickFocus, a
new, dual-purpose and invaluable function for
documenting and then viewing the use of each moving
light in each cue.
“FocusTrack was conceived as a way of creating
precise documentation of show lighting, making use of
the information available from the lighting console
once the lighting was nearing completion,”
explains FocusTrack’s Rob Halliday. “When
used like that it works fantastically well. But we
knew that a lot of people still preferred to track
what their moving lights were doing as they were
making the show, with either the designer or
programmer jotting down notes of their own, or on
larger shows with this task being undertaken by a
moving light tracker. They could use FocusTrack, but
it was a bit awkward. QuickFocus was conceived as a
way of making their work easier.”
QuickFocus presents a grid for each cue in the show;
into that grid can be placed an image for that cue,
so a storyboard, set drawing or, once things are a
little more advanced, a photograph of the lighting
state. Channel numbers can then be placed on that
grid in the spot where that light’s beam lands;
the focus palette the light is using can also be
recorded, and a focus note can be added. This gives a
very clear overview of what the lights are doing in
each cue, and one that is easy to fill in as the cue
is made.
If the show is subsequently imported from the console
showfile, FocusTrack can reconcile the focuses in the
QuickFocus grid with those imported from the console
to provide. Alternatively, those using FocusTrack in
its original manner can use the grid to define where
each light falls in each focus; FocusTrack can then
build a QuickFocus grid for each cue.
In every case, it is now possible to quickly and
easily produce paperwork summarising what each moving
light is doing in each cue – a great reference
for designers, associates, programmers and those
running the show from day to day.
“We hope this satisfies the needs of those
who’ve been enticed by FocusTrack, but have
found it doesn’t quite fit in with the way they
want to work,” Halliday notes. “We are
very pleased with QuickFocus and its ability to offer
a clear, concise summary of how each cue state is
formed.”
In addition to QuickFocus, FocusTrack 2.100 continues
the software’s ongoing evolution, with screen
displays re-designed for greater clarity and other
refinements and improvements. The new version can be
downloaded from the FocusTrack website,
www.focustrack.co.uk; a version with a demo show
pre-loaded can also be downloaded for those who want
to try it with some existing show data.
FocusTrack has been in use on shows around the world
since 2005; it can currently be found providing
precise lighting documentation to the new UK tours of
Les Misérables and We Will Rock
You, the US tour of South Pacific,
productions of Billy Elliot in London and
New York, and many other shows. Further information
about FocusTrack and its companion software SpotTrack, for producing
followspot cuesheets, can be found elsewhere on
this website.