Last week, High End Systems launched Axon™, a rack-mount media server featuring the same graphics engine as the DL.2 digital light. Axon will be shown at High End Systems’ booth at the ETS-LDI trade show Oct. 20-22 in Las Vegas.
Axon is a flexible solution for those who already have their own video display device, and want a world of unlimited image possibilities.
"Axon has been a highly requested product since we first released the DL.2 last year," says Scott Blair, director of digital lighting development. "The ability for lighting designers and programmers to use a media server which operates like the DL.2 for other elements of their show represents enormous time savings when programming a show by not having to switch between the programming syntax differences of other media servers. Axon puts all the features of the DL.2 Graphics Engine into a 3U rack mount that can be managed as simply as the DL.2 fixtures."
Axon provides all the functions of the DL.2–including the new Collage Generator™ and Curved Surface Support–but it allows the user to choose their own output device. Axon can feed video to High End Systems' DL.1, LED panels or large format projectors. Because it is controlled exactly as a DL.2, it fits in perfectly on shows with DL.2s needing an extra media server for other video display devices.
Axon comes complete with a stock digital library of more than 1,000 media clips as well as 200 available folders for custom media clips. Because all stock content is locked down and protected, each Axon will always be consistent from rental house to rental house. The XP Embedded Operating System also protects Axon from drive corruption and O/S degradation over time.
As Axon and DL.2 use the same graphics engine, they operate the same way from a DMX console or via Art-Net. This can save lots of time during programming. Axon is also helpful for FOH previewing content and programming. It’s useful for pre-programming DL.2 fixtures because they use the same DMX Library protocol. Axon can connect to another live video display source (such as a camera or DVD player) using an S-Video input.
Multiple Axon media servers may be linked together with communication and content management achieved by High End Systems' Content Management Application.