@MattG Best regards to you too Matt. I try to limit my activities to finding work and paying the bills, as a executive producer, but I also do some day work hiring. Unfortunately that requires me to understand what I need people to do. Lighting is the most important part to video production. I need to choose carefully between lighting for entertainment and production. It's difficult to get both to work well together. I'm still learning, Jim

@Rex Thanks for you comment Rex, You are correct, as I see it, this is the front end of the development process for gathering and building the DB. The data GDTF has, can now be used by a user interface that turns this data into a DMX project file. The first thing you ask a client, in designing a business application is, "What do you want the reports to look like?" Once you know that, you can develop all the tables, records and routines to give them those reports. I learned that from 30 years of application programming. To sell more, lighting manufactures need to find more users who need there products. Unfortunately, the people who need these products the most, are performers and musicians, not lighting directors. I'll bet Garth Brooks could design one hell of a light show, if the process wasn't so darn complicated! He has his own Recording Business because he knows what music fans like, even if they are listing to another singer. Smart... I wish there was a design program, where the user could drag and drop the fixtures on a blank stage, then add a motion for that fixture on a time line, just like you edit video. Save it. Run it and sent it to the console. Done. Your Thoughts? Jim L., Producer Masterworks Studio

LD's and More, I read the Aug' 2019 PLSN article titled "GDTF: Finding Common Ground for an Efficient Workflow" by Vickie Claiborne, interesting. Especially Efficient = $$$ and Workflow = Project Completion Over the years my production budgets have reduced drastically, so anything that can do to reduce cost and save time interests me. Now that I'm here, "Where's the Beef?" - old commercial for Wendy's fast food restaurant chain. Nobody I work with, Bar and Festival Bands, want to spent thousands of $$$ to buy 3D Designer and Preview software to use GDTF to create the MVR files to program the DMX console. I hope I got the Workflow correct ;-) Projection Lights, Lasers and LED Wall prices are now within the reach of "The Average White Band." - It's Disco Baby from the 70's !! Back when I did work for The James Gang, Alice Cooper and The Doors, bands had the bucks to buy anything new even if they had no idea how to use it. Ten-Thousand $ Lasers and MOOG synthesizers come to mind. GDTF needs to focus on the entertainers that can't put the time or money into programming DMX lighting. The Aerosmith crew doesn't need to worry, so much about "Efficient Workflow," if the results look G-R-E-A-T. I'm just saying... Jim L., Producer Masterworks Studios