The new Livid Union version 2.1 was a big hit at the Open Labs booth during the annual NAMM Show in Anaheim, California. NAMM is the leading music products industry trade organization and holds two annual tradeshows which draws over 60,000 visitors from around the world including, music store retailers, distributors, musicians, suppliers, and manufacturers of every music related product imaginable. Open Labs debuted its 3rd generation of workstation controllers including the Miko and Neko units. The Open Labs booth featured a Miko workstation configured for VJ performance using Livid Union v2.1 running in unison with Ableton Live. Open Labs software development team lead and pro video artist Fred Smith performed almost a constant demo of Union and generated a steady stream of industry interest in the Livid powered Miko workstation as the ultimate VJ tool. Livid Director of software Pete Nyboer and director of Hardware Travis Redding were on hand everyday to field questions and demonstrate how Union and Miko together form the complete and ultimate solution for professional live video performance.

After the madness that was NAMM, we were able to catch up with Fred Smith of Open Labs to get a recap of the show.

So what was the reaction you were getting on the NAMM floor?
Having Union running video brought in so many people, they would be walking by and see the live video feed or me mixing the visuals and music and just stop to come in and see what was going on. Having the visual component made them just stop and notice. As soon as I was able to show the software interface running on the MiKo they instantly got it.

What types of people were really into it?
Well there were a lot of producers that were into the MiKo, and a lot of interest from educators. The educational people seemed driven to apply visuals and music.

Where do you see video performance going as integrated with music?
Well about anyone can be some type of musician but today you need an extra component, I think visuals are that extra component. Visuals separate the regular guy and the guys that are really doing it, putting on a show. I think a lot of people are moving away from “eye candy”. The shows I do, I am trying to tell a story with the visuals.

When you are trying to tell a story with the video it takes the right system. We noticed how well the MiKo was able to run video with Livid Union and sound with Abelton Live simultaneously with no real lags in performance from either program, how is the MiKo configured for live performance?
Well actually the original workstations were running AMD 3800’s and even with the 4200 just wasn’t cutting it running full programs. So we decided Open Labs had to go with the Intel core2 duo so there was no question it could handle everything. The MiKo has the power for audio and video at the same time. Synergy of audio and video and synergy of hardware and software. When we were setting up the MiKo for video performance we looked at arkaos, motion dive Tokyo, and resolume. Union was far better hands down. Union has much better integration with MiKo control. The other VJ programs were either just not intuitive enough to use or did not give enough control over the video.

We noticed as Open Labs has moved further towards video that you have focused on the MiKo over the Neko.
We decided to concentrate on the MiKo as the VJ machine because it is so portable for doing shows and very intuitive. The larger machines will work great with Union but the MiKo is the compact VJ solution. When I do shows I take the MiKo, a projector, a screen, and that’s it!

For more information about Open Labs workstations go to openlabs.com

Check out a video interview with Fred Smith of Open Labs at sonicstate.com

We are currently working with open labs development to bring the VJ world even more comprehensive, easy to use, and powerful tools for pro quality live video performance.

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interviews by Jay