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 3^rd– 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.

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.

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.

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.