Technology

The software that makes the light

PHOTON, XENON and TACHYON are one codebase and sixteen modules. An operator trained on one can run the others.

In service since 2004

Coming soon, end of October

v12

Release notes

Three servers, one base

  • PHOTONThe all-in-one media server.Every module, every feature. Large installations and world tours, since 2004.
  • XENONArchitectural mapping.The same modules, without the FX Graph, tuned for projection at scale.
  • TACHYONThe compact server.Compressed playback, NDI input. A free learning edition, on its own site.
Singapore National Day · Photo VYV
the flying city of Singapore National Day: dozens of suspended building blocks, each projection-mapped in vivid colours, above a stadium in haze

What it lets you do

Four things every show asks of its media server.

Edit the show while it is still being invented.

The Timeline edits, composes and plays back any number of video layers with the tools of a professional media workstation. It was built to answer a creative request on site, at the speed the room is moving.

Specifications

Familiar editing tools · Multiple Timelines linked to individual screens · Retiming and frame blending · Animation and keyframing · Multilayer compositing
PHOTON Timeline, a show in cue
PHOTON Timeline, a show in cue

Grade a clip once. Recall the look anywhere.

Precise colour control per clip, through an interface anyone who has graded will already know. Storing and recalling looks is what saves the re-render on site, at two in the morning, when the note comes from the floor.

Specifications

Real-time color grading system · Curve editors · Looks storage and recall · Multiclip color correction
PHOTON Color Correction module
PHOTON Color Correction module

Fill a stadium screen with nothing thrown away.

Venue-sized screens need content no codec has touched. The uncompressed playback architecture carries it with no colour-space and no temporal compression, so rich colour and fast motion arrive whole.

Specifications

Image sequence playback · Real-time media splitting · Screen-based conversion and splitting · Frame blending · High-quality interpolation for slow motion · Frame-accurate multiserver playback
V-J Day 75 · Horse Guards Parade, London
V-J Day 75 · Horse Guards Parade, London

Project onto geometry nobody could measure.

Light sensors, cameras, reflective markers and active emitters align and blend arrays of projectors over any surface.

Specifications

Manual calibration · Projection surface auto-calibration · Volumetric auto-calibration · Real-time blending · Mesh warping · LED screen mapping
The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo · Edinburgh Castle

And the rest of it

The same base, on all three servers.

Import once. Every server in the ring has it.

The servers work as one, from import to output. Each PHOTON in a network shares imported content over VYV’s own peer-to-peer protocol.

Specifications

Full network management for every asset · Media playlists and sorting tools · Previsualization of media and 3D objects

Talk to everything already in the rig.

The server controls, and is controlled by, the ecosystem a show already runs on. Protocol was never meant to be the hard part.

Specifications

Projector control · Matrix control · MIDI · Art-Net · sACN · DMX · OSC · TCP · UDP · Live video input · NDI · Notch · Stype · VR (Oculus, OpenVR) · Joypad

Hand the cue to the show, or take it.

Speaks to stage automation, treats what it receives through the nodal logic system, and fires cues internally or out.

Specifications

Interface with stage automation equipment · Cue-based automation · Nodal logic system · Timecode

Rehearse the show before the room exists.

Full 3D project simulation, so the projection study is done and the outcome is known while other crews are still building the site.

Specifications

Projection and lighting previsualization · Projector, camera and moving light array generator · .OBJ import/export · .FBX import · Intensity heat map · Pixel simulation · Shadow simulation · Tracking volume simulation

Follow a performer, and let the light follow too.

PosiStageNet carries 3D position from an ALBION server for anything moving, whether it is driven by automation or wearing a COPERNIC marker, and that position can drive other devices in the rig.

Specifications

PSN · COPERNIC markers · Lightning-fast camera alignment · Moving light and PTZ camera control · grandMA integration

Show the client the projection before a projector is hung.

Export from the simulation, from a rendered video of the virtual stage to a walk-through in a headset.

Specifications

3D Scene view image export · Render · VR (Oculus, OpenVR) · .OBJ projector cones · CSV projector and camera data export

Build the effect as a graph, not a render queue.

A node-based effects system designs generative content live, driven by any input the server already has: position, live video, media.

Specifications

Blending modes · Stack FX · Nodal FX system · Alpha channel support · Particle systems · Nodes encapsulated as Timeline clips

Run the audio off the same timeline.

Professional audio interfaces, every output channel addressable. Load a clip with any number of tracks and map them where you want them.

Specifications

Full ASIO support · Audio wave previsualization · Audio analysis · Multichannel playback

The same on all three

All three servers share the following perks.

  • ✓Colour management
  • ✓Manual 3D calibration
  • ✓Automatic 3D blending
  • ✓Media management, import and conversion
  • ✓External control: MIDI, Art-Net, sACN, DMX, OSC, TCP, UDP
  • ✓PosiStageNet position tracking
  • ✓Timecode
  • ✓Audio playback
  • ✓Ring network, scalable

What changes

The rest, server by server.

What changesPHOTONXENONTACHYON
High-resolution playbackuncompresseduncompressedcompressed
FX Graph and particle systemyesnono
3D tracking through ALBIONyesnono
LIDAR and Voxeliseryesnono
Virtual reality headsetsyesnono
HDRyesyesno
Genlockyesyesno
SLAC automatic calibrationyesyesno
Real-time blendingyesyesno
Video inputsAJA, BMD, BlueFish, Spout, NDIAJA, BMD, BlueFish, Spout, NDINDI
SMPTE ST 2110 over IPyesyesno

Read off version 11.

Three chassis formats

The format is chosen separately from the software. PHOTON and XENON run on all three; TACHYON on the two smaller ones.

  • 2RUThe most outputs and the most storage.Two graphics cards, and room for the disks uncompressed playback asks for.
  • 1RUHalf the rack height.The same software, in half the space.
  • CompactLighter configurations.TACHYON and projects with measured needs.

The number of outputs depends on the licence as much as on the hardware: two 4K outputs per graphics processor, and a port has to be present as well as enabled in the licence.

What the server carries

  • ✓Redundant hot-swap power supplies
  • ✓Genlock over BNC, blackburst and tri-level
  • ✓Frame sync between servers
  • ✓10 Gb networking
  • ✓Remote administration
  • ✓Separate arrays for the system and for the media

What comes with it

  • ✓Three years of warranty on the server, next business day on site
  • ✓Three years of software updates included
  • ✓Phone and email support, Monday to Friday
  • ✓One year on other parts

The rack servers are single-socket AMD Dell PowerEdge, with NVIDIA RTX cards and NVMe disks. Hardware moves faster than a printed sheet, so the configuration is quoted per project.

Try it in the dark

The learning version installs on one machine and carries the built-in tutorials. Nothing to ask anyone for.

DownloadRead the Knowledge Base
NEUTRON

The manager that installs the build and carries its licence. The trial version comes through it, with nothing to ask anyone for.

LUMI

Built-in tutorials and guided lessons ship with the build, so a new operator learns inside the software instead of beside it.