The SM-Sim team sends its regrets for this year's USITT conference, but our absence on the Stage Expo floor is due to a major advancement in the SM Simulator.

As our beta testers know, we have faced challenges getting the voice recognition and scoring systems to play well with multiple operating systems: Windows 8, Windows 7, the various versions of the Mac OS, etc.  We were also concerned that our academic users might run into IT obstacles when loading the software onto campus computer labs.

So last month we started completely rebuilding the SM Simulator with a new brand new engine: Unity 3D.  This new engine allows us to run the simulator through a web browser.  As long as you have a standard web browser (Firefox and Chrome work very well), your operating system doesn't matter.  Plus we are able to keep the the simulator software updated on our servers to save you time.

We are spending the Spring (or Winter Part II as it is feeling these days) porting all of the controls to the new engine.  Expect an update next month as we seek beta testers for the new engine.

We were overwhelmed by the support we received from the stage management community for this latest survey.  We received full survey responses from 878 American stage managers.  Please download our full report at http://sm-survey.info!

Now that the survey is complete, we are turning our full focus back to the SM Simulator.  Our next step is to test how the new playback system interacts with our voice recognition software.  We have been able to build so much of the simulator while waiting on updates from the video playback developer that once we get past this next critical step, we will be able to test multiple elements with our beta testers.  Thank you, everyone, for your patience during this quiet build time.

1,512 pages of data to be precise!  We will be spending the next 6-8 weeks analyzing all of the survey responses.  Thanks to everyone who participated in this survey!  Check back in early 2014 for the results and to learn about the next steps for the SM Simulator!

SM-Sim owner David McGraw was just published in Stage Directions Magazine.  The Data Crunchers of Theatre is how every successful stage manager is organized, but there are tools that can help us take our organization to a whole new level.  Check out the online version of the article, along with other great pieces from the magazine dedicated to "The Art and Technology of Theatre."  The article doesn't include hyperlinks, so we are listing some of them here:

• LiveScribe
  
• Virtual Callboard by EmptySpace Technology, LLC
  
• StageBitz
  

For the past year, SM-Sim has distributed Standby Cue 101: An Introduction to Calling Live Performances through Artfilms and Insight Media.  These major distributors offer DVD and Streaming versions of the training film for classroom, library, and public viewings.  But what if you are not using the film for a course or in a library?  What if you just want to watch it for yourself?

Enter Leaping Brain Labs, our newest partner!  We now offer individual licenses through our own SM-Sim Video Store.  You can download your personal copy of our film; in fact, your account allows you to download a copy for both your home computer and your laptop or even your iPad with the MOD Mobile app.  The download is immediate and it works in the background so that you can start watching the film before the download is complete.

After two years in development, we are nearing the beta test phase for the Stage Manager Simulator.  The past few weeks have been very exciting as Digia has issued the final release of Qt 5.0, which serves as the nervous system of our simulator.  And while we were waiting on Qt to transfer from Nokia to Digia, the good folk at Carnegie Mellon have released their own update to the voice recognition component!  So while we have been fine-tuning local versions of the software, we can now move to an open beta test of the simulator.

Our big unveiling of the Stage Manager Simulator will be at the USITT Stage Expo in Milwaukee, March 21-23.  

We are proud to partner with InterAmerica Stage, Inc., who are providing two demo booths featuring their sound-dampening acoustic panels (IAS-25AV2).  You won't need a sound booth to run the simulator in your classrooms and offices (a simple noise-cancelling microphone on a headset will do the trick), these booths will allow us to block out the background trade show noise and distractions.

When you stop by our USITT booth, you will be able to test the simulator on either a Mac or a PC.  Conference attendees will also be able to sign up for a download code to test the simulator at home for free.  If you cannot attend USITT this year, you will be able to request an invite to the beta the following week - we will be tracking how our bandwidth responds to multiple users downloading the software and the modules simultaneously.

We would like to thank everyone for the tremendous level of support over the past two years as we have been building and rebuilding a simulator that would make a stage manager proud!

Digia has released Qt 5.0 to beta and has offered a similar licensing agreement, so we are moving at full speed to launch a beta test of the Stage Manager Simulator in the next couple of months with a full-scale launch in early 2013.  We already have two academic partners for the beta test but we would like to find a third group.  This beta test would require a group of 5-20 stage managers with a single supervisor who can test the software for 3-5 hours and provide feedback on the experience.  We will be testing the software itself, along with the sales and distribution channels.  Stage managers will be asked to purchase a demo show (nominal fee to test the online sales) but will receive a significant discount if they wish to purchase the full module upon launch.  Supervisors will be asked to test both the software and the reporting tools for approximately 5-7 hours.  If you would like to participate in the beta test, please e-mail info@sm-sim.com with Beta Test in the subject line.

This summer has been filled with many exciting advances for the Stage Manager Simulator and one very frustrating obstacle.  Jadabri Interactive, which has done all of the programming for the simulator, has been adding features throughout the summer.  But we have been waiting on the latest release of developer tools called Qt, created by Nokia.  Qt 5.0 went into an Alpha development phase at the beginning of the year with plans to go into Beta by May.  So we decided after the interest we generated at USITT at the end of March to incorporate version 5.0 as it offered several features we wanted and we didn't want to change so much of the programming architecture once we started distributing the simulator.

The Stage Manager Simulator has a window frame that changes color as you perform well (or not well) at calling a show.  We wanted to give immediate feedback without being too distracting.  The booth window frame will start white and glow green if you are doing well, yellow if you are hit-and-miss, and red if you are doing poorly.

But sometimes a little hint of color isn't enough.  So we built some audio error messages if you make mistakes on several cues in a row.  We had a lot of fun coming up with potential feedback from disgruntled crew members and 'too helpful' ASMs.  We even processed the error messages so there is that familiar headset tinny-ness and the smart remarks come through just the right ear  (an informal survey of the office yielded that most of us place our headset over our right ear).  Thanks go to Leigh'Ann Andrews for the audio work.  Featured on the clip below is LeeAnn Yeckley (and, yes, we have a lot of stage managers named Leigh'Ann/LeeAnn at the University of Iowa).