Wybron, Inc., a leader of entertainment and architectural lighting technology, today announced the North American debut of its award-winning InfoTrace Control and Management System at Lighting Dimensions International (LDI) 2006 in Las Vegas.  InfoTrace (IT) is a new lighting design system that uses Remote Device Management (RDM) to control and manage DMX-controlled lighting devices.

"InfoTrace is a ground breaking lighting design system that garnered an extremely successful launch in Europe where we won the coveted PLASA Award for Innovation during the PLASA 2006 show in London," said Larry Turner, CEO of Wybron.  "We expect a similar reaction to the InfoTrace System at LDI and look forward to demonstrating the system for everyone attending the show."

The complete system consists of a number of main components.  At the heart of the InfoTrace Control and Management System is InfoGate, specialized software and hardware that offers a number of functions including:

• utilization of RDM to facilitate remote addressing and diagnostics for potentially every piece of equipment mounted on a rig. 
• ability to work with all Wybron IT products and all RDM-compatible equipment from any manufacturer. 
• setup, unit testing and troubleshooting for an entire rig from a single laptop.
• Wybron IT equipment (Coloram IT, CXI IT, Eclipse IT and Eclipse II IT) outfitted with a series of sensors that relay a wealth of information. 
• alert warnings.
• automatically discover and identify RDM devices installed.
• single device parameter spreadsheet that allows the user to perform any functions available in InfoGate.
• remote addressing that eliminates the need for manual setting of DIP switches and no need for ladders or truss climbing to change a DMX address once unit is up.
• DMX map of installation allows quick grasp of show setup.
• status message reporting.
• a data transfer utility that allows the downloading of Lightwright files to populate key information in InfoGate and export function to transfer all Lightwright and InfoGate data to a lighting console with no manual data entry.

InfoTrace features an InfoChip, which allows DMX devices without RDM capability to be recognized by InfoGate and communicate back to the system once installed.  Primary functions allowed by the InfoChip are discovery, identification, remote DMX address setting, control of the device and duty cycle reporting. 

Another major component of the InfoTrace System is InfoStore, a Web-based aggregate information tool that provides reporting capabilities against the data reported from the system.  InfoStore is capable of monitoring multiple shows or installations from a single laptop.  From a show's site, InfoGate reports to InfoStore, which allows the user to generate reports and manage the installation.

InfoStore allows rental houses to streamline operations by signaling which devices need to be repaired or replaced before the units are received back from the show.  This additional information will allow rental houses to more actively manage their rental assets and track actual usage on the shows.

Wybron has also added InfoTrace functionality to ColorExpress IT gelstrings.  Every gelstring is built with a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag that relays information to the sensors on Coloram IT and CXI IT.  The tag contains individual frame information, as well as a unique job number.  The system offers a ColorExpress IT Website that provides the following:

• in-depth information of all gel colors available from any manufacturer Wybron stocks, as well as chromaticity values, transmission graphs and representative color display.
• review of all gelstrings ordered and ability to assign names to new gelstrings and to locate favorites from past shows.
• project names to associate certain gelstrings with use in certain shows.

During LDI, Wybron booth visitors will have the opportunity to work with a fully functional InfoTrace Control and Management System at individual workstations, allowing for discovery and the ability to address and test various lighting devices from a laptop.  Equipment failure simulations will demonstrate InfoTrace's capability to detect a problem and display the details and exact location on the laptop.  Wybron representatives will be on hand in booth (No. 1731) to explain InfoTrace's numerous benefits, features and to answer any questions.