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Avolites launches its D4 Desktop system, a fully functional “Virtual” Diamond 4 Console. “D4 Desktop” consists of several components running “Avolites D4” software – the OS for Avo’s top of the range, Diamond 4 Elite & Diamond 4 Vision consoles. 

The highly flexible “D4 Desktop” offers several advantages. It’s a reasonably priced backup for a full console, a fully featured playback system for when a full console is not required and also ideal for offline programming, editing or adaptation of shows. The system can be composed from individual hardware components, to match the customer’s exact requirements.

Avolites Sales Director, Steve Warren “Our virtual D4 Console, the “D4 Desktop” has been designed to address two clear needs – The first being a fully functional and stand alone “Back-up system” for large Diamond 4 shows and also for smaller or “Hands Free” productions where access to the comprehensive control surface of the D4 Consoles is not required. 

At the heart of the D4 Desktop system is a PC, running MS Windows XP with available USB ports.

In its most basic form, the “D4 Desktop” consists of the PC and an Avolites “EZ – DMX” interface which plugs into a USB port providing 8 DMX universes and a MIDI in/thru/out connection for timecode, etc. The D4 software connects to the “EZ DMX unit” via a dongle.
This basic system can run an existing D4 show, or be used to program a new show. Running identical software to the real console, every function is available on the virtual version.

Optional to the system, is a D4 Desktop controller named the “D4 Pilot” consisting of 8 motorised, moving faders and associated buttons that can connect to any bank of faders and become any playback on the desk. Additionally a separate ‘GO’ and ‘Pause’ button are fitted to allow the running of Cue Lists. 

The second optional component is an Avolites Graphics tablet which exactly mimics the D4 Programmer controls, greatly enhancing the speed of plotting and further increasing the attraction of the offline system. This enables the programming of larger shows with the addition only of the low-cost Tablet. The D4 Desktop Pilot and Avolites Graphic Tablet can be used together or separately as required. 

Avolites Diamond 4 - Off Line Editor

The “Diamond 4 Off Line Editor” runs on a Windows 2000/XP platform PC. The program is available free from the Avolites website – www.avolites.com. Every function operates in exactly the same way as the actual console and is user configurable as either Diamond 4 Elite or Diamond 4 Vision console.