Key Articles
InAVate Awards Finalists Announced
 We
are delighted and honored that Stardraw
Control has been selected as a finalist in
the inaugural EMEA InAVation awards, in the
category for Most InAVative Control Product for Commercial Use.
Finalists for this prestigious award have been selected by a panel of industry experts
based
on innovation, product excellence and the delivery of real benefits to system integrators.
If, like the panelists and voters at
earlier PLASA and NSCA shows, you agree that
Stardraw Control is
worthy of recognition, please vote for
Stardraw Control today.
The InAVate awards ceremony and dinner will be held at the Amsterdam Hilton
on January 29th 2007, the eve of the ISE show also in Amsterdam. By
following the link above you will be entered in a prize draw for two people to
join the Stardraw.com team at the InAVate awards dinner, to enjoy a champagne
reception, excellent food and wine and premier international comedy and music
acts. It should be a fun night, all the more so if Stardraw Control picks
up this important award, so please do
Vote Today.
Thank you!
Cirrus Logic shows Stardraw Control at AES
At the recent 121st AES Convention in San Francisco, Cirrus Logic Inc. (Nasdaq: CRUS) demonstrated a system based on the CobraCom™ network-powered CobraNet® reference platform. Control over the system was made possible through a custom graphical user interface
(UI) created in Stardraw Control.
 The CobraCom™ Reference Platform is a complete, board-level design kit that demonstrates the simplicity of implementing network-powered CobraNet® digital audio devices. The board includes one RJ45 connector for CobraNet/Power-Over-Ethernet connection, one mic level input, one speaker level output, plus RS-232 and GPIO connectors. Onboard processing includes one Cirrus Logic CS496102 CobraNet interface and 32-bit DSP, and one CS4265 Audio Codec and Audio Interface. For the AES demonstration, CobraCom boards were built into 4 networked talkback stations that each contained a microphone and loudspeaker. Music sources were injected into the network using an Attero Tech CO2 demo kit. The system demonstrated the simplicity and flexibility of audio routing and signal processing using CobraNet/Stardraw Control technologies, and emphasized the growing affordability of such networked solutions.
Base Station Control UI
System Initialization UI
The control back-end and user interface for the system were developed entirely within Stardraw Control. Steve Gray, Applications Engineering Manager at Cirrus Logic, explained, “To control this system we thought we might have to write a custom application in something like Visual Basic but Stardraw Control, with its support for CobraNet, offered absolutely everything we needed. We even used it to create device drivers for the individual components in the system and, once that was done, defining a great-looking UI and its functionality was remarkably easy.” The UI permits selection of point-to-point paging between any of the four stations, combinations thereof, and a “Page All” function. It allows remote level control of Music, Mic and Page sources and EQ/Bypass at any station and also monitors and displays system status e.g. Mic Open at any station.
Gray continued, “What we're trying to show is that CobraNet isn't limited to high-end, pro-audio applications, but offers a cost-effective solution anywhere that networked audio is in use, particularly when coupled with Stardraw Control.”
Stardraw.com marketing director Rob Robinson agrees. "The beauty of Stardraw Control is that it supports many protocols including TCP/IP, RS-232, InfraRed and, of course, CobraNet, and can control any other controllable device that might be included in the system. Furthermore it is extremely simple to use – you don't have to be a computer programmer to design a completely professional, personalized control application with stunning graphics. Finally, it is a highly cost-effective solution in and of itself. As a result, manufacturers like Cirrus Logic are able to save themselves enormous amounts of time and money that would otherwise have been incurred in developing proprietary software that might not have offered support for all the elements required by systems integrators on a large project. By utilizing Stardraw Control, not only have they saved themselves time and money, but they have been able to pass on the benefits of those savings to their customers at the same time as making their own technology more accessible."
Stardraw Control Supports RSS by Roland
Design and control software systems developer, Stardraw.com is now supporting a range of audio products from electronic musical instrument giants, Roland.
 All Roland AR Series products such as the AR-200S and AR-3000R Digital Announcement Recorders can now be controlled from any PC using custom user interfaces designed in Stardraw's award-winning application, Stardraw Control. This software allows users to design and program fully customized, standalone control applications without having to write any code. It supports control of any hardware over any protocol and now includes drivers for Roland's AR Series – world leader in reliable digital audio playback – allowing control from easily designed custom interfaces for museums, theme parks, railway stations, airports, or any application requiring high quality audio playback.
Furthermore, all AR Series products are also available as symbol sets in Stardraw's leading design and documentation application for professional systems contractors, Stardraw A/V. Symbols include schematic views showing all inputs and outputs for engineering diagrams as well as high details Rack and Pictorial layouts with to-scale, vector-based front and rear panel views.
Roland Systems Group's product manager, Neal Tomlinson is pleased to note the collaboration between the two companies. "Everybody benefits from this relationship," he remarked. "It's a positive step for us as it makes our products even more accessible and easy to use in a systems environment, it's good for Stardraw as it further broadens the appeal and applicability of their product, and of course the end user benefits as well. We are convinced that Stardraw A/V and Stardraw Control are extremely valuable tools for systems developers and it is an excellent way for us to demonstrate the versatility of the AR Series in context."
Stardraw's Rob Robinson agrees. "Indeed, the beauty of Stardraw Control is that it can control all elements of a system, whether by TCP/IP, RS232, EtherSound, CobraNet or whatever protocol you want. This means that Stardraw Control offers full system control, including audio routing and distribution, and allows the developer to exploit the versatility of each component in the system for a completely optimized solution."
Introduction to Stardraw A/V - Free Webinars
We are pleased to announce a new weekly webinar: from November
29th "An Introduction to Stardraw A/V" will be held on Wednesdays at
9am PST (12pm EST, 5pm GMT). Covering basic to intermediate
topics, the live webinar lasts approximately 30 minutes, depending
on questions from attendees, and is ideal for anyone considering
Stardraw A/V as a design/documentation solution, or for new users
who want a fast-track to power usage.
Topics covered include:
- Using Block Schematic, Rack Layout, Pictorial Schematic and
Panel Layout environments
- Managing cabling and interconnections
- Managing Attributes, e.g. for job costing, cable
labelling etc
- Generating reports including quotations and cable schedules
- Converting between environments
- Creating and managing symbols
Simply follow the link below to register for the webinar of your
choice. Webinars are limited to 10 attendees per session, and
are strictly first-come first served. We look forward to
seeing you online.
Tips and Tricks - Design & Documentation Tools
This periodic series of tips and tricks offers advice on using
Stardraw Audio, Stardraw A/V, Stardraw A/V Lite and Stardraw
Lighting 2D. Elements covered are based on hot topics
currently under discussion in the
Stardraw Forums, or arise from new
features recently introduced or answers to FAQs and technical
support enquiries.
Getting Around Large Documents
A reasonably complex design can take up a lot of onscreen real
estate, and in such cases there is an evitable trade-off between the
level of detail that can be displayed and the area in view when
showing the whole design. There are a number of shortcuts and
fastkey combinations that can be used to make zooming, panning,
editing and drawing faster and easier.
Use the Mousewheel to Zoom - rolling the mousewheel zooms in/out
at the point where the cursor is. The mousewheel can be used
during drawing and editing actions so you can, for example, zoom
into an I/O stub, begin drawing a Cable, zoom out to see the whole
document, set routing nodes, then zoom into the destination I/O stub
to complete the connection.
Use the Mousewheel to Pan - also available during drawing and
editing, Shift+Mousewheel pans vertically, Ctrl+Shift+Mousewheel
pans horizontally.
Use Function Keys - most commands have a Fastkey equivalent;
use F2 to Zoom In, F3 to Zoom Out and F4 to Zoom to Document.
A full listing of Fastkeys can be found in the Help system under
Stardraw Features | Fastkeys and Shortcuts.
Tips and Tricks - Stardraw Control
Tips and Tricks for Stardraw Control deal with newly introduced
features and answers to FAQs.
Optimizing Form Real Estate with the Panels Control
Satellite Panel
Plasma Panel
The Panels control gives you the opportunity to re-use space on your
form by grouping sets of controls into discrete panels, one of which
can be displayed at any one time. It is similar to the Windows
Tab control (multiple tabbed pages in a dialog) but has the
advantage that any button or event can display a particular panel.
The images show a Form containing the Panels control, each with a
different CurrentPanel.
To use the Panels control, select Panels from the Controls palette
and drag an area on your form for the Panels control. Name the
Panels control by typing a new value into the Name field in the
Properties grid.
To define the panels in your control select PanelsList at the
bottom of the Properties grid and click on the [...] button. In the
dialog that appears name the first panel by typing a new value into
Name field at the bottom of the Properties grid at the right of the
dialog. Click on the Add button to create new panels and name
them in the same way.
Once you have defined your panels you can place other controls
like GraphicButtons, Knobs, Faders etc, within each panel. You
can change the panel that is being displayed in the Forms view using
the CurrentPanel dropdown in the Properties grid.
To program the display of a particular panel when your control
program is in use you use the following action:
Controls | [Name] | SetCurrentPanel to | Variables | [Name]
So, if you had named the Panels control "Panels1" and defined a
panel within it with the name "DVD" the action would be:
Controls | Panels1 | SetCurrentPanel to | Variables | DVD
The key advantages of using the Panels control rather than
loading a new Form are as follows:
- Faster screen redraw as only the Panels control must be
redrawn
- Persistence of variables: variable are Form-specific, so by
changing the CurrentPanel, you are within the same form with
access to the same variables. Changing Forms would require
passing variables to the new Form.
- Seamless UI transitions for the end-user.
For more on the Panels control see the movie "Using the Panels
Control" by clicking on the link below.
Upcoming Events
 |
Event: |
ISE 2007 |
Venue: |
RAI, Amsterdam, Netherlands |
Dates: |
January 30 - February 1 |
Stand #: |
C90 |
|
 |
Show: |
NSCA 2007 |
Venue: |
OCCC, Orlando, FL, USA |
Dates: |
March 15-17 |
Stand #: |
1511 |
|
 |
Show: |
PALME 2007 |
Venue: |
Dubai Int. Exhibition Center, Dubai, UAE |
Dates: |
May 20-22 |
Stand #: |
6F30 |
Symbols Updates
In November the following libraries were updated
in one or more of Stardraw's design/documentation
applications (Stardraw Audio, Stardraw A/V and Stardraw A/V Lite). Click
on a manufacturer name to see full details of that library, or click on a
link at the bottom of the page to update your application
with the latest symbols.
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