Watchout 4 adds Auxiliary Timelines, Compositions, Stage Tiers, Movie and Audio Export capabilities. It bridges to other commonly used systems using familiar DMX512, MIDI, TCP/IP, and serial data control capabilities.

Auxiliary Timelines resemble the main show timeline in Watchout. The big difference is that an Auxiliary Timeline lies dormant until you call it into action— manually or by an external input. Use an Auxiliary Timeline as a backup track or for a quick escape to other show elements if you suddenly have to change tack midstream. Or trigger an Auxiliary Timeline from an external input to interact with your show as it runs.

Composition is a new concept in Watchout 4, designed to make life a whole lot easier for producers. It lets you group a set of cues on their own sub-timeline and then treat them as a single, cohesive media element. It’s a snap to re-use or shuffle show sections, or to apply motion or other effects to the entire group. Use Compositions to re-use or transform complex animations involving stills, video, audio, and other elements, complete with all the powerful effects Watchout has on tap.

External control is your gateway to interactivity in Watchout 4. Use MIDI or DMX512 signals as inputs to trigger tasks and control tween-tracks in your Watchout show. Output DMX512 to control lighting channels and other devices, or send arbitary data from Watchout to other systems or devices via TCP/IP, UDP, or serial data protocols. A simple but practical example: send commands to the projectors in your Watchout rig to put them on standby.

Stage Tiers provide greater control of the display devices in your show. Use tiers to group associated displays—edge blending occurs only between displays on the same tier. Timeline layers can be restricted to specific tiers, allowing you to freely mix overlapping and detached displays with detailed control over which images appear where.

Some of the new features in Watchout 4 are the Export Movie and Audio commands. They allow you to export a stand-alone movie file or a complete audio mixdown, straight from your Watchout presentation. Ideal for sharing ideas with your clients, or for integration with the Dataton pickup audio guide for personalized sound playback.

Watchout 4 also offers numerous additional new features for multi-timeline control, enhanced animation capabilities, geometry correction, large display management, display color correction, motion tracks, timecode synchronization, and user interface enhancements.