Lately, I’ve been fairly obsessed with Sidus Link Pro (SLP), the new iPad-based console by Aputure that is in open beta. I feel it presents a new opportunity to teach aspiring film programmers how to do the job. (See my article here for that writeup.) I reached out to Ben Dynice (Director of Product: UX/UI) to ask about the product, which lead to Aputure contacting me to do some promotional work for them- and this article is the first. Though this is a sponsored article, I want you to know that everything I express here are my own thoughts.
Sidus Link Pro 1.3 (check it our here) and continues to build on the great work they’ve done so far, adding much-needed functions as well as a brilliant innovation in touch interface lighting control. Though it’s not yet a completed product, I heartily recommend it as an ideal “gateway” console for anyone aspiring to film programming, any student, indie gaffer or for the owner-operator. It’s intuitive, powerful and- best of all- rock solid stable. It allows you to get working quickly and without a lot of training. Though I’m not going to go over all of the new functions, I’m going to talk about the things that jump out at me. Let’s start with the biggest one- drag and drop cue updating.
Drag and Drop Cue Updating
No surprise that my nerd enthusiasm includes fascination with interfaces. Though touch function was added to consoles long ago, they are usually filling in for something that is (to me) better done in the analogue world. Example: A touch screen button is nowhere near as good as an actual button, since you need to stare at the screen to be sure you hit it. But Aputure have done something truly unique and offered an innovation with drag and drop cue updating.

This is one of the first innovations I’ve seen in a touch control console. Please don’t misunderstand my enthusiasm for criticizing other consoles. It’s just that this function is insanely clever. I did it over and over again just because it was so fun!
Drag and Drop Cues between Cue Stacks
Keeping on with my enthusiasm for unique touch interface innovations- you can now drag and drop cues into different orders and across cue stacks. Tap Edit Cue Sequence in the lower left hand corner and have at it. It’s pretty fun and saves time when you’re building a sequence and the information is being updated almost as fast as your cues.

CCT and HSI View

This feature doesn’t sound exciting, but it is super helpful. Many new users find the concept of the Color Crossfade confusing. Knowing this, when you have a light selected in SLP and you change from CCT control tab to HSI (or RGB), it automatically changes color crossfade for you. That’s great until you have an interactive cue. Let me set the scene.
You have a light that starts in red and on a cue fades to 4300 half green. When you roll the cue, something doesn’t quite look right. That’s because the default value for all lights in SLP is 3200, so you’re seeing the light go from red AND 3200 as it crossfades to 4300 half green. If you didn’t have the new CCT and HSI view, you wouldn’t be able to solve this without extra work. Now, you can back up to the red cue, change the CCT and tint (in the background, since color crossfade is showing the red look) to prep for the next cue and update. Done.
The Basics
Undo/Redo

Everyone makes mistakes. Whether it’s you or your gaffer- Undo/Redo is a programmers best friend. Thankfully, it’s now part of SLP. It remembers the last 100 steps you’ve done at any given point, which is pretty great for getting yourself out of nearly any mess. If you don’t already have expectations about what kinds of things might be great to exclude from undo/redo- I’m happy to tell you that SLP doesn’t undo anything you have recorded or played back. It’s only your programming tasks. This makes a lot of sense to me and should make a common mistake- clearing your programmer before you have recorded- no big deal. In my testing it worked great.
On/Off Slider Switches

There are many times when you are programming that the gaffer wants you to flash something. The On/Off switch for each slider in the programmer is all about this. You can also use it if you have been building what you thought was one look, but you later find out is a sequence. Off the sliders that aren’t in the first cue and record. Turn them on and record the next look. It’s not a perfect use of the function, but it can be useful in the right moment.
Export Patch
We are in a collaborative business, and the single piece of info we need to share with the most people is the patch. Our rigging team as well as any crew members we get to help us during truck prep need to get info on what fixtures are used and what profile, universe and address they are in. SLP makes this easy in the Management tab. Here’s a tiny example from a setup I did for a tutorial video I shot recently. It gives everything you need from a single click on a button. This is a PDF export, but it also supports CSV export if you need to add any more info or do a custom formatting.

Duplicating Profiles
The easiest way to create a new profile is to copy and edit an old one. SLP now supports this. An example: Many lights have profiles built off of the Arri CCT/RGBW original. But any programmer will tell you the devil is in the details. So if you have a profile like that that adds (or subtracts) some of the Arri profile functions, you can duplicate and edit knowing you have kept the original alone and edited a new profile to support the light that just showed up on set. Which happens a little more often than I think it should!
Insert New Cue After Current Cue
Most people find it challenging to talk in sequence of actions. So it’s common for you to have written two cues when you realize you need to add one between the first and the second. Now, when you have made the changes you need for the inserted cue, you hit Record and from the pulldown menu in the popup, this new option appears.

It works exactly as you would figure, which is great.
Virtual Intensity for RGB-Only Fixtures
As an older programmer, I remember with a very grumpy face the days of controlling RGB lights that only had RGB parameters. Why? Without an intensity parameter, you have to do much more work. An example: With an RGB-only fixture, each color fader is an intensity fader. So if your gaffer wants an orange color, you would bring Red up to full and Green up to maybe 7%. Then, maybe your gaffer wants the fixture at 80% of the current value. So you have to do quick and often rough math. You bring Red to 80%, because that is easy. But what do you do with the Green parameter? What is 80% of 7? Thankfully, you won’t have to deal with this math nightmare, because SLP now supports virtual intensity for RGB fixtures. So in the previous example, if the gaffer wants the light at 43%, you don’t need to fear the math, you just slide the intensity fader down to 43% instead of adjusting the color parameters to get the desired effect. Whew.
Wrap Up
Though not yet into a full public release, SLP continues to impress me. It’s stable, incredibly easy to use and affordable. With each update, it moves closer and closer to a full featured mini console. With what little I know about the next couple software updates in the pipeline, the future looks bright.
Anybody out there using this in their work? Would love to hear your experience in the comments!
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Mark LaPierre is a programmer in film and television based out of Albuquerque. He grew up in live entertainment and has been a designer/programmer for musicals, concert dance, live music, circus and corporate. Mark is a proud member of IATSE, an ETC Eos trainer and an enthusiastic trainer of many other platforms and subjects. If you enjoy his content, please consider commenting on his posts on the website to appease the Algorithm.