KLSTR: Technology of Tomorrow

 

We met up at Tomorrowland with Roel Apers from KLSTR. Roel is the man behind KLSTR, a company revolutionizing the way we handle lighting fixture data in events. Let's find out how KLSTR is using GDTF/MVR to create a potential industry landslide!

Q: When did you first come in contact with GDTF and MVR?

Roel: A couple of years ago when we founded KLSTR, we had the dream to build a system that offered a solution for all the challenges we have with setting up and controlling a lighting rig. It had to remove all current limitations we have with DMX — meaning no more 512-channel constraint. It had to be real plug-and-play, redundant, offer cable topology, be scalable, plus have interaction with all kind of consoles and visualizers. It had to be a game changer for all technicians and programmers. For that, we needed to make a universal fixture file format to make lighting consoles able to control our system and some sort of virtual file describing the setup. So, it was on our roadmap to create our own format, and then like a gift from heaven, we found out that GDTF was in the making, and that MA Lighting, Vectorworks, and Robe were in on it, so we were like, okay, that's one thing we don't need to do anymore!

Q: Can you explain to us what KLSTR is and what KLSTR does?

Roel: Before KLSTR, I was working as a global support engineer for a manufacturer of data distribution devices like switches and nodes. Here, I really noticed that light shows become bigger and fixtures become more complex, and the time to set up the systems becomes shorter. What is also remarkable is that there's a lot of innovation in our industry, but we are still configuring the devices the same way we did 37 years ago. So we thought it might be time to invent something new where we can have a faster way to control fixtures and configure a stable network for lighting rigs.

Our vision was that if we can have cable topology information, then we can display it in a very visual and intuitive way. And once we can do that, then we can turn setting up a system into a piece of cake. You simply discover devices, and we show them how they are connected. Most of the time they're on a truss, so they're connected from the left to the right, and the fixture IDs mostly also follow such a logical order. By making this drag box where you just select a couple of devices, then you have the selection order and you assign the first fixture ID and the computer will do the rest, assigning fixture IDs, distributing patch addresses and fixture modes.

And then either you import an MVR file, which we match to the fixture ID and the patch, or you do an auto patch and import it into the console. We've created a super-fast setup system that can patch a couple of hundred fixtures in minutes. So that's what KLSTR aims to do with the help of GDTF and MVR.

But what is KLSTR? It's a new way to control devices and set up systems in minutes. Currently, we have two variants. KLSTR One is based on Ethernet. It's a Gigabit Ethernet card that comes pre-installed by the fixture manufacturer. You can daisy chain, create rings, loops, mixed topologies, or topology. Simply connect your devices via the Ethernet ports of the fixture, assign a fixture ID, and you're done.

Our other application, KLSTR Nano, is placed between the DMX in and the DMX out port of a fixture. With KLSTR Nano on board, we can find the cable topology on your DMX line as well and make the signal flow completely redundant. There's no cable reflection anymore, because every connection between two fixtures is a daisy chain. Normally, it's a bus with parallel devices, but now they're point-to-point connections. It improves the existing hardware and adds smart software functionality.

Q: And so at the heart of this whole revolutionary system are GDTF and MVR. What are the advantages of using the GDTF/MVR format for you?

Roel: They are a crucial piece of the puzzle indeed! KLSTR makes the setup of a show easy for the operator. The fixtures will be discovered either via RDM in the DMX system or via IPv6 in our Ethernet system. Just discover your devices via our software and the console can always download the GDTF from the device. Yes, in our system the correct GDTF is always stored inside the device as well. For each device used in your system, we will have the GDTF file; gone are the days of searching for a correct fixture file! KLSTR knows where all the devices are and how they're connected and patched. We take all this info and bundle it into an MVR file. So, you can simply discover your devices, create your setup, export it to MVR, and upload it to the console. Awesome. But we can take it one step further!

The idea behind MVR is super cool, especially for bigger shows. To take visualization software and a control platform and have them exchange data and interact in both directions created a super handy tool, and I can't see how people would manage to do it otherwise. But this is all in the pre-production phase. It still takes a lot of time to actually patch and address the fixtures onsite. And that's where KLSTR can be the missing link between the GDTF, the MVR, the virtual setup, and the real setup. We can just import an MVR into the system, and then the system will be configured like it is in the MVR. The 3D positions in the MVR are uploaded to the fixtures as well. So if a tech runs a KLSTR system, he also gets the 3D representation of the system directly in the software.

Q: How was the system implemented here at Tomorrowland?

Roel: There are currently three stages using KLSTR Technology. One of them is the Core Stage, which is a stage actually shaped in the form of a gigantic tribal head. There are a lot of flexible pixel strips woven into the structure as part of the stage design. They are connected to a Lucenti Pxl Drive 8, which was the first implementation of the KLSTR Ethernet version, KLSTR One. They're all mapped on a media server running Madmapper. At the Rise stage, we are running KLSTR Nano in all devices. The devices are custom-made set pieces and lighting products that were all retrofitted with KLSTR Nano.

On Main Stage, we are running around 68 devices. These are Ayrton Cobras that were also retrofitted with KLSTR Nano. They work flawlessly, even when placed between common DMX fixtures.

We are here at Tomorrowland to talk to people, show the application, show the user cases, and learn from how techs are using it in the field. KLSTR needs to be a tool for technicians first. We try to be on production sites as much as possible, but at the end of the day, we're a manufacturer, so gathering feedback is not always easy, but we believe it's crucial for the development of our product.

We were talking to the technical director of a stage that has about 1,300 fixtures. He estimated that, on average, it took about one minute per device to set up, which sounds like a lot, but sometimes stuff is not easily accessible or there are other complications, so the total setup time amounted to 1,300 minutes. KLSTR can do this in 20 minutes. Reducing the setup time from 1300 minutes to 20 minutes is quite the time saver. And time is money, especially at events like Tomorrowland, where the pressure is high to constantly deliver bigger and better in less time.

We're thrilled with what the product can accomplish. And alongside GDTF and MVR, and with design and authoring programs like Vectorworks, the industry has access to an incredibly robust workflow that saves them tons of time and effort.