What is Disguise?
The Disguise software is a real-time 3D simulator & media server that integrates traditional lighting fixtures, LED screens and projection surfaces into one easy to use package.
Pre-production
Disguise integrates a real-time 3D Stage Visualiser, media playback, and a timeline. It lets you model the stage, view it instantly from any angle, drop video or still content onto the timeline and play it back onto the stage, without time-consuming re-renders. It is therefore a very useful communication tool in the early stages of a project. Showing a real-time simulation of a proposed design is faster, cheaper and more effective than traditional renderings and fly-throughs. In the preproduction stage, it allows designers, clients and artists to quickly visualise content and make artistic decisions, without having to actually build the stage.
Stage Visualiser used as an essential 3D visualisation and simulation tool in the pre-production phase.
Rehearsals and live production
However, Disguise goes further than mere visualisation; it is designed to integrate with the traditional tools of show delivery (lighting desks, audio and automation systems). The Disguise software contains all the video playback functions you would expect to find in a conventional media server, together with a sophisticated timeline-based show control mechanism. Coupled with the Stage Visualiser, Disguise allows the designer to edit and sequence a complete show, present it to the client and get a sign-off, long before the real stage is built.
Once the real stage is set up, you bring Disguise (with the completely sequenced show) into the production rehearsal, plug it in, and press play. Thanks to the Stage Visualiser, a highly realistic simulation of the actual stage, you are guaranteed that the show will look the same on the real screen as it does in the Stage Visualiser, aside from a bit of tweaking (and we give you an arsenal of tools to do this).
Disguise being used in the production rehearsals of The Weeknd Tour 2017.
The added value of this is simple it saves time, and therefore money. Disguise allows you to shift crucial work forward in time, so you can spend time on making the right decisions before you go into production rehearsals and start spending money. Disguise acts as a central focus for the production team, making sure that everyone can review everything so that mistakes are caught early, aesthetic blind avenues are identified and avoided, and content is made to maximise the potential of the stage.
Disguise used as an essential tool to successfully deliver The Weeknd show onto the stage, on time and on budget
