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Spotlight on:

Level Control Systems

 

Meet LCS

Level Control Systems - LCS - manufactures automated audio control systems for theater, sound reinforcement, and location-based entertainment. Their BeOS-enabled systems are used in Broadway Theatre (running the sound for hits like "Ragtime", "Anne Frank", and The New York Shakespeare Festival), themed retail stores (such as NikeTown in NYC and FootLocker in Boston), and dozens of theme parks, cruise ships, and Las Vegas extravaganzas (like "Cirque de Soleil's Mystère", or The Lance Burton Theater.) If you tune in to the the Winter Games in Nagano this month, you will be able to get a first-hand look at LCS's handy work; their system will be running the sound for the opening and closing ceremonies.

Founded in 1991 by sound designer Jonathan Deans and software designer Steve Ellison, LCS has been developing commercial software on the BeOS since the beginning of 1996. This makes them one of the "longest running shows on the BeOS." Their main product is the LD-88, an 8 x 8 audio mixer. As many as 16 LD-88s can be digitally interconnected to create a system supplying 128 inputs and 128 outputs. CueStation software, running under the BeOS, provides the interface for configuring a system and for programming the automation.

 

Here's how CueStation works:
Screenshot 1: A set of mixer windows provide the user with a familiar interface for setting levels, audio distribution, and signal processing.
Screenshot 2: Settings are stored as "cues". A series of cues is a "cuelist". CueStation employs a hierarchical data management scheme that provides a combination of programming flexibility and efficient data storage.
Screenshot 3: Cues may be triggered from external timecode, time of day, or the push of a button by an operator.
Screenshot 4: Cues consist of a collection of subcues. Subcues contain the raw data for changing a set of related parameters.
Screenshot 5: Spacemap™ technology affords the ability to mix all audio sources independently to an arbitrary arrangement of speakers.

 

LCS Auditions the BeOS

LCS first began using the BeOS early in 1996. The company was at a transition point. They had been shipping audio automation systems for about 4 years that used software running under MacOS to control external analog mixers. For their next generation of automation systems, however, they had designed their own external DSP-based mixers. James McCartney, the Principal Software Designer at LCS, had begun working on CueStation for MacOS using Metrowerks, but he had run into some major brick walls regarding multi-threading on PowerPCs. Another problem with developing on the MacOS was trying to write a real time engine to run at the Mac's interrupt level - no mutexes, no system memory allocation, and it was hard to debug.

With his finger on the pulse of emerging alternative operating systems, James suggested they try the BeOS. The BeOS could afford advantages that the MacOS didn't have, such as pervasive multi-threading, multiprocessing, and good, fast graphics performance. Because the BeOS was multiprocessing and fully threaded, it was scalable, which meant that if a customer needed to grow the system, they conceivably would only need to add more processors. By switching to the BeOS, LCS could also avoid the problems associated with legacy code and backwards compatibility. They simply put the things they needed (and nothing they didn't) in the BeBox. The BeOS allowed them to go further, faster than they could have with MacOS in terms of real-time performance.

 

BeOS Gets the Port, er, Part

After what was described as a "very crazy spring and summer," LCS shipped their first systems using the BeOS in September of '96. For the first year or so, they were buying BeBoxes from Be and having them rack-mounted. The racked Bebox running CueStation was sold as a "system controller." (Shortly after PowerMac compatibility was ready, they started shipping the BeOS with CueStation software pre-installed on external hard discs.)

Although the BeOS provided many advantages over the MacOS, LCS had to consider the risk factor in developing for an emerging OS. Their primary concerns were that: 1) Be wouldn't last, 2) Critical BeOS bugs wouldn't be ironed out in time, and 3) LCS users would think they were crazy for going with a relatively unknown OS.

Mindful of these potential risks, LCS made some smart moves to help minimize them in the real world and in the minds of their customers. For example, they designed their mixer to run all of its automation internally. So, while the computer running CueStation on the BeOS serves as a high-performance editor for the audio control, it is not a mission-critical element. Once the show has been downloaded into the LD-88, the computer can be turned off. From a marketing standpoint, LCS used the perceived risk as a litmus test. Since the early adopters of their second generation system would have to accept both a new DSP hardware and a new OS, their reaction would indicate just how much innovation the market would support.

 

Looking for New Material

When asked about what he would like to see for the BeOS in the future, Steve Ellison replied that he'd really be happy to see the BeOS running on Intel. His experience has been that some customers would much rather run the BeOS on Intel machines than run the MacOS on Mac hardware. Often, their customers' computer purchases go through MIS, and their MIS will buy from Compaq or other PC vendors.

Steve also noted that "...one of the toughest pills to swallow for prospective users is that they need to install an entirely new operating system just to demo our software." He suggested that one solution might be to create a BeOS emulator that runs under Windows. "...this would give BeOS application developers a way to strut their stuff in a relatively painless way to prospective clients, and give the offer to 'run native' for much better performance." He used the analogy of what has happened in the Mac world, where many apps are available as shareware in their 68K incarnations, and the PowerPC native version ships as the commercial version.

 

Rave Reviews

The LD-88 has been widely embraced by the sound design community. Today LCS systems host live entertainment, sound scapes, and shows all around the world. Some of these installations have been running 365 days a year, 14 hours a day, nonstop for nearly two years! LCS's CueStation software is exactly the type of leading-edge media-based application that the BeOS is designed for. It takes full advantage of the BeOS's multithreading, symmetric multiprocessing, and superior graphics performance. As a result, LCS is able to offer a superior product to its customers who, because of the nature of their work, must demand excellence.

 

Playbill

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