News

The New Designer ToolBox from Vantage is the Most Advanced and Customizable User Interface Creation Tool Available (27/7/2004)

Vantage's Designer Toolbox creates a twoway communication bridge between the powerful Vantage system and the extremely flexible Macromedia Flash software, making designing a custom user interface to control the home automation system a very simple process.

Flash is the most widely used content and application deployment software available, with over 414 million users worldwide and over one million programmers. Interfaces within Flash are easy to customize, and programming costs are much lower than those associated with designing a traditional custom interface using proprietary software. Vantage recognized the customization power and flexibility of Flash and developed the Designer Toolbox to take full advantage of the Macromedia program.

The Vantage Designer Toolbox produces specialized palettes and libraries directly within Flash. A designer can use these libraries to select stock buttons and backgrounds or create something completely custom. These images can be in practically any format and the designer can even include streaming audio or video directly into the interface.

A Designer Toolbox interface can include any number of interconnected pages and can control anything connected to the Vantage system. This means Designer Toolbox can orchestrate actions on all lighting and any device that can be controlled by RS-232, infrared emitters, DMX, high or low voltage, electronic or mechanical relays, and variable voltage output. Devices that use these interfaces include virtually all A/V equipment, HVAC equipment, security systems and motorized devices such as drapes, blinds, pumps, and more.

The Designer Toolbox is an amazing advancement in the home automation industry. To date, many manufacturers have introduced a variety of Flash-based user interfaces.

However, these solutions have required the purchase of an expensive touch screen or have been very limited in their customization capabilities. Designer Toolbox eliminates these barriers. Vantage's Designer Toolbox can be used on any device that supports a Flash player. These devices include IBM compatible and Macintosh computers, pocket PCs, tablet PCs, custom touch screens, and even some cellular phones. Also, because the interface uses the Flash platform, the user can access both the interface and the Vantage system over the Web. With Designer Toolbox, customer user interfaces just went from limited to limitless.

www.vantage-emea.com