New Features in Stardraw Control

Software provider Stardraw.com has announced a number of new features that have recently been added to the multi award-winning, software-based system control platform, Stardraw Control 2010.

Project Templates are a selection of pre-configured, pre-programmed projects that are bundled with the Stardraw Control 2010 authoring tool. Each template represents a typical system type, e.g. boardroom, classroom, automated home etc, and contains the devices, their functions and a sophisticated User Interface that is completely pre-programmed and fully-functional. At the same time, each Project Template is fully customizable, meaning that a system integrator can produce a complete control system front- (and back-) end, specific to a particular project, in minutes. The first of these templates will be available in October, with more to follow in the coming months.

Critical to the operation of Project Templates is the addition of the next new feature, Driver Substitution, which enables you quite simply to drag a new driver from Stardraw Control's extensive product list and drop it onto an existing one: this substitutes one product in your already-programmed system for another and Stardraw Control intelligently re-assigns events and actions so that no re-programming is required. Where there may be some ambiguity — after all, it's not uncommon for similar product types to have quite different command sets — Stardraw Control displays a neat substitution grid that allows you to assign the old action to a new command.

Driver Substitution is not limited to use in pre-configured Project Templates but can be employed in any Stardraw Control project, regardless of how it was created. This means that it's easy to re-use system configurations from project to project with a minimum of programming effort; a real 'cookie-cutter' solution.

The third and, arguably, most innovative of the new features is an extension of support for WebServices. WebServices are, despite the name, nothing to do with the internet but are more accurately described as a set of technologies that allow direct machine-to-machine communications across networks (including the internet, but also LANs and WANs). The recent extension to WebService support directly exposes the functions and properties of the devices being controlled so that the UI, or any other process, can communicate directly and intelligently with any part of the system. This means that, say, a button in a webpage can directly call, for example, "Blu-Ray1/Play" without any intermediary programming — no back-end code has to be written at all — which is not only a great time-saver, but also makes it easy for integrators to exploit new UI devices as they become available, regardless of the operating system on which they run.

Commenting on these recent enhancements Stardraw.com CEO, David Snipp, remarked "The extension to WebService support is hugely important for two main reasons. Firstly it means that the developer can choose whether to have an abstracted system with centralized intelligence (which is a huge time-saver in complex systems), or one with distributed intelligence, or even a combination of the two — each of these techniques has its own place and advantages. Secondly it massively reduces the effort involved in deploying non-Windows UIs using iPads, iPhones, Android devices and the like because no intermediate logic is required. Combined with Project Templates and Driver Substitution these enhancements mean that Stardraw Control systems can be rolled out even more quickly and profitably."

Further details can be seen at www.stardraw.com/products/stardrawcontrol

Ends

Notes to Editor

Since 1995 Stardraw.com has been a leading provider of software solutions to the entertainment technology sector, offering a range of award-winning system design, documentation and control applications as well as providing OEM software solutions for corporate customers. With offices in London and New York, regional partners and an installed customer base of almost 30,000 users spanning 82 countries, Stardraw.com is focussed on serving the international marketplace, and delivers leading-edge solutions that exploit the very latest in software technologies.

For more information contact:		Press contact:
Rob Robinson, Stardraw.com Ltd. 78 York Street London, W1H 1DP England T: +44 (0)207 692 7117 F: +44 (0)207 692 7118 e: rob.robinson@stardraw.com		Kiera Leeming, KLPR Ltd. T: +33 (0)684 06 26 42 e: kiera@klpr.co.uk