StageLinq, SoundSwitch, and Resolume — Denon DJ’s visual trinity

Video is out — visuals are in. And Denon DJ has dusted off their StageLinq tech and made it plug and play with SoundSwitch and Resolume.

Video is entering a new phase, one where it’s not so much about simply playing the latest pop promo, but more about creating an experience with visuals and lighting. And Denon DJ is putting itself front and centre of this area via their StageLinq technology, firstly by working with their own recently purchased SoundSwitch lighting tech, and a new announced hookup with Resolume, a veritable giant in the visuals arena.

DENON DJ® RAISES STAGELINQ TO HIGHER LEVEL OF FUNCTIONALITY WITH SOUNDSWITCH AND RESOLUME INTEGRATION

Denon DJ’s proprietary communications protocol StageLinq now offers seamless ‘plug ‘n play’ integration with SoundSwitch lighting and Resolume video software, giving DJs unequaled control.

Cumberland RI, USA (August 14, 2018)—Denon DJ (www.denondj.com), a leading manufacturer of premium DJ products and solutions, today announced that their proprietary StageLinq communication protocol now offers seamless ‘plug ‘n play’ integration with their own SoundSwitch lighting and 3rd– party Resolume video software, giving the DJ absolutely unequaled, complete control over all their lighting and video effects.

Following its successful collaboration with ‘Timecode’ software, StageLinq’s ability to feed data to these software plug-ins, coupled with Denon DJ’s Prime Series gear, ensures every aspect of the performance—music, lighting and video—is coordinated and controlled for maximum audio-visual impact. The combination of Denon DJ Prime hardware and the StageLinq-SoundSwitch-Resolume software sets a new standard for the DJ and VJ performance world.

SoundSwitch:

Acquired by Denon DJ in April 2018, SoundSwitch solutions are globally recognized as the originator in unifying DJ waveform-driven lighting control that enables DJs to seamlessly integrate custom and automated lighting into their DJ set. The SoundSwitch software and hardware is trusted by DJs globally to enhance the visual and lighting elements of their live performances, simply and dynamically.

  • StageLinQ Connection to Players and Mixer
  • Scripted Track and Autoloops Playback
  • Mix Audio and Light Using Cross/Channel Faders
  • Four Deck Light Show Support
  • Ableton Link
  • MIDI Lighting Effects

Resolume:

Resolume is an instrument for VJs, AV performers and video artists, which combines all the DJ’s media and visual effects in one place, making it simple to create explosive, spontaneous visuals in the heat of the moment. Easy and second nature to use, there’s no fumbling or searching for the right clip or effect. DJs can just think it and create it!

  • Automatic clip selection
  • Synchronized playback
  • Automatic transitions based on fader status
  • Visualization of player activity

Both SoundSwitch and Resolume will be fully functional and demonstrated at the Denon DJ booth at DJ Expo, Booth 518.

With SoundSwitch

SoundSwitch is a snazzy user-friendly front end for the less user-friendly DMX protocol. T’was ever thus that someone would make the arcane easier to use, and the combination of Prime hardware (MCX8000 support is coming too), StageLinq and the SoundSwitch hardware interface puts a heap of power in the hands of DJs.

StageLinq, SoundSwitch, and Resolume — Denon DJ's visual trinity

This doesn’t exclude SoundSwitch from being used with other bits of software. It happily works with Serato DJ Pro and VirtualDJ too. But the hardware control from faders and jogwheels etc is proprietary to Denon DJ via StageLinq.

With Resolume

Resolume has been around for years, and is what I call big boys toys. It’s specialist stuff, hugely deep in what it can do, and not something to be approached lightly. It’s the thing that has our Ray aka Arkaei saying “hold my coat” and then bragging about the cool thing he just did with it in our Slack channel. One day he’ll even put out videos showing what he can do with it.

If you watch any of the videos on the Resolume site, you’ll soon get an idea of how pro this package is.

StageLinq, SoundSwitch, and Resolume — Denon DJ's visual trinity

The basic idea is the same as SoundSwitch though. Via the StageLinq interface, data is sent through to Resolume, which in turn controls all the assorted arena sized fireworks. As you might imagine (especially after watching the video), the power and complexity of Resolume is immense.

Resolume comes in two flavours — Avenue 6 which is fully featured for the needs of most DJs and costs €299. Arena 6 includes advanced hardware support, the likes of which is usually seen at festivals and, funnily enough, arenas. That costs €799, which is still not insane for what it does and the pro market it’s aimed at. Give it a few years and it’ll probably be on iPads for a fiver, and people will still complain about the price.

THE BIG PLUS

When we first saw SoundSwitch, the biggest feature for me was the ability for individual tracks to drive the visuals. Previously, you have to make an entire AV show, or have people manually triggering the effects and whatnot along the way.

With these two takes on the AV theme, the control is with the DJ, so should they decide to do something entirely different while in the set, provided they’ve set the visuals in those particular tracks, effects will still happen.

It’s also the two-way interface between performer and technicians that is interesting. Those AV techs can see exactly what is going on in the DJ set right down to fader movements. So if they wish, they can react to changes that the DJ might make too.

Basically, StageLinq offers a new level of freedom and flexibility, or indeed full automation. Impressive.

StageLinq, SoundSwitch, and Resolume — Denon DJ's visual trinity

Interesting sidenote — StageLinq hasn’t had a logo up to now, but I’ve noticed that it adopts the same Q device as Denon DJ’s sister brand Marq Lighting. I wonder if this deliberate aligning of brands indicates more activity in this area? We can only hope so. Pushing all this new fanged tech under our noses is one thing, but I’m sure that inMusic would rather you bought their lights and not those of some other brand.

 

Mark Settle
Mark Settle

The old Editor of DJWORX - you can now find Mark at WORXLAB

Articles: 1228

6 Comments

  1. Well now I have another reason to invest in a Prime setup. Damn it. Im gonna be broke between this, the sc5000M and the Xone:96 this year. Anyone wanna buy a couple pairs of Technics we have laying around? :-p

    J/K Im never getting rid of the Technics. My collection will one day be complete muahahahahahahahahaha

  2. Hoping they incorporate the Soundswitch analysis program directly into Engine Prime just like Rekordboxdj for simple autoscripting.

    If a user wants more custom control then the standalone app

    The standalone prep and performance version for other software e.g. Virtual DJ, Traktor, and Serato.

    It will be more seamless to analyse ones library one time for both Audio and light autoscripting.

    I have Soundswitch and I’m just lazy to analyse my entire Serato library plus it struggles a bit with larger libraries.

    Good news still.

  3. Hope they integrate a Soundswitch DMX socket in addition to Stagelinq in a High-end Next-Gen MCX. Wouldn’t be surprised to see Marq & Soundswitch collaborate on a proprietary wireless DMX protocol to gain an advantage over ADJ and Chauvet. Frankly the fewer cables and boxes the better. The ideal is a standalone controller with SC5000-level screens/interface for small gigs then simply add a laptop for bigger gigs in order to get video, lighting and more.

  4. I like the idea of 2x SC5000 & Prime mixer but 3x power plugs, plus ethernet cables, plus Soundswitch box. A lot of unnecessary clutter for quick pop up gigs. I hope they can make an ultra high end all-in-one that’d make for a more elegant SC5000-level setup. Technically could USB-C not simultaneously be used for audio data, stagelinq and power between two players and mixer?

  5. It’s great to see visuals integrating in dj booths… but I can’t stand to say “maxforlive and v-module”. Even Ray could benefeit from these (from OSC to autogenerative content plus video sampling etc etc” and if you need “turntable/cdj control” it’s doable and deeper in flexibility than any of the actual comercial solutions just waiting for someone to step da game… just sayin… ;)

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