The Frankfurt Musik Messe 2010 was from many aspects a special event for CopperLan.
After several years of development and quite a few beta versions of the SDK, at last we were able to issue a Release Candidate version.
We also made public the CopperLan Manager, a multi-platform application that allows viewing, connecting, editing, and storing settings for CopperLan setups.(freely available to download)

The display of actual commercial products using CopperLan was a source of great interest and excitement.
This is quite an achievement when one realizes that these were developed from a beta SDK. This tells a lot about the trust and enthusiasm of those companies towards our technology. They deserve our deepest thanks.

The dutch company Kiss-Box, specialized in installation equipment for show control, transport and interfacing had a 19" Octal MIDI to CopperLan rack mount unit.

Radio Systems (USA), a renowned provider of consoles and systems for the world of broadcast had a prototype of a modular mixing system with both hardware and software versions of its control units on display.
The whole system in its final configuration will premiere at the forthcoming NAB show in Las Vegas.
The demonstrations were carried out by inDSP, the company in charge of the product development of the system.

Ultimate Sound Bank (FR), is a software company known for its UVI sound engine being included into other companies synthesizers and sound players.
They were showing the forthcoming update of their UVI Workstation in its CopperLan capable version.

We will cover these products in more details when they are finalized and ready to go to market.

On the technology integration front, we had a Firewire audio system from ZP Engineering showcasing their know-how in integrating CopperLan control with audio streaming.

There are many other things brewing. The companies involved could not make it in time for the show.
Others developers just do not wish at this stage to publicly disclose their plans.

Besides these commercial announcements, we had a few more interesting items to demonstrate.
Thanks to the kind collaboration of Behringer who gave us one of their new flashy red UMX-250 controller keyboard, including code and schematics, we made it CopperLan.
Given our tight and busy schedule before the show, we weren't able to implement all the ideas we had in mind. Nevertheless, the instrument was able to play in true CopperLan way, with on-the-fly individual keys tuning, and doing step sequencing with gating dissociated from the melody steps, each running at its own pace.

Camille Troillard, the independent developer behind Osculator, "the" OSC swiss-knife software, wrote us a Wiimote to CopperLan application. This allows a number of Wiimotes to appear on a CopperLan network as controllers acting on sound generators. Think of the fun of playing free pitch to software as easy as to CV/Gate analog stuff, all through a unified network.
There were also the complete set of CopperLan to/from CV/Gate modules we had at the NAMM.
To round up the set we had USB devices, host, MIDI interfaces, a demo VST/CopperLan plugin, and many more applets, each demonstrating a particular aspect of the technology.

But this Frankfurt was not just about us doing our show, we went to meet manufacturers, and many we met!
Those fruitful meetings will no doubt lead to product announcements using CopperLan.

In preparation of the forthcoming release of the Freeware SDK, we are looking for developers wanting to evaluate and comment on the current version.

Interested candidates should be creative enthusiasts with a good track record and high skills.
If you think you fit the bill, drop us a note presenting yourself with links to your developments.

The CopperLan SDK available on MAC is in C++ as is its Windows cousin. While this is fine for commercial programmers, we’ve heard of some whining emanating from the community of independent MAC developers.
Apparently, C++ is not the preferred tool of the trade for them.

Whine no more MAC fans, there is hope on the horizon. Camille Troillard, the brain behind the Osculator virtual hub application is currently coding an Objective-C wrapper for your delight.
For more info about Osculator: www.osculator.net

How do you develop a new product that combines CopperLan with digital audio and maybe DSP? Where do you start?
Well, many questions may arise when facing a new world of possibilities.

To help you accelerate the adoption of CopperLan, independent advice is now available from two specialized subcontractors.
They have a proven track in the business and a know-how recently enriched by their knowledge of CopperLan implementations.

You can contact them directly: www.indsp.com, www.zpeng.com.

For design and counseling in products without digital audio links, you can contact ICT7, the company in charge of the CopperLan framework and SDK development: www.ict7.com

As you most likely know it by now, CopperLan is fusing all hardware and software applications in a unified network. For this to happen, a virtual network piece of code should reside in the computer(s).

From there, every CopperLan application or equipment can talk to each other regardless of its location and cabling type. Moreover, it becomes possible to freely exchange messages between CopperLan and MIDI applications or equipment.

But wait! Does that mean that I can use this networking for MIDI-only purposes? The answer is yes! A CopperLan network is de facto an all encompassing matrix where every MIDI flow can be directed, on a channel basis, to any MIDI destination, also on a channel basis.

Practically, the MIDI channel 2 data entering a PC via an ordinary MIDI USB interface can play as channel 5 in the software synth in a MAC located remotely. Any number of flows can be simultaneously directed to a given destination. In CopperLan, the merging capability is implicit.

Well, but how do I define the linking? One application included of the CopperLan bundle is the Connector. This is a side application you can use from any computer part of the setup. It shows you all sources and destinations in the entire setup and allows you to edit their connections. This shows how CopperLan can be useful even with MIDI-only applications and equipment.

Two more side applications are part of the CopperLan package: the Editor, to access every parameter into anything that lacks a dedicated editor or editing front-end; the Snapshot, in charge of capturing, storing and restoring the state of the entire setup, including its connection settings.

The networking software and its side applications will be available to download free of charge. Don't hesitate to subscribe to the newsletter, as soon as the package is ready we will inform you.

As a member of the Virage consortium, Stantum, the well known company behind the JazzMutant Lemur multitouch controller, is involved in CopperLan's development.

Teaming up with their academic counterparts, they all have been intensive users of MAX/MSP for a long time. For the benefit of the Virage project, they found good reasons to bring CopperLan in the equation.

The resulting hybrid is currently called CopperMAX. It is a satellite module that makes a MAX/MSP environment networked via CopperLan. What the release version will include and how it will be offered to the public is not finalized yet, but it is already alive and running.
Stay tuned for more info.