GrandVJ meets the needs of the most demanding VJs, DJs as well as of musicians, visual artists and film makers, etc., giving an opportunity of mixing and manipulation of videos and images in real-time.

Software features:
- Powerful but easy-to-use video manipulation software
Allows to manipulate videos, text strings, mix them and go in sync to the music or show images of more cameras in much the same way as mixing music to create an exceptional visual performance.
GrandVJ can mix up to 8 layers, with an extensive library of sound driven video effects generated automatically.

- Works with all configurations
GrandVJ runs on PC and Mac and supports all common video and image formats. Its intuitive interface allows you to transform the keyboard into a super controller for controlling all functions of the software.
Need more? GrandVJ includes a powerful MIDI learn and a new Touch OSC protocol available for iPhone and iPod Touch. Try it and start the show!

- Really easy
GrandVJ is very easy to customize; each user can quickly get his preferred setup (or setups). The interface can be quickly modified to meet any demands. Thanks to a new MIDI learn, to map a MIDI controller becomes a very easy task, and you can import presets for most commonly used MIDI controllers as well.

- Supports all major video formats
As far as video-mixing is concerned, GrandVJ is equipped with an updated version of ArKaos VJ effects and a long list of automatically generated videos.
GrandVJ offers a broad support for various video formats as well as image formats, text, flash animation and multiple video inputs from cameras and webcams.

- Need some clips?
The installation software which you can download from website www.arkaos.net already includes some video loops to get started, meanwhile the version sold in stores apart from the software itself also contains a DVD-Rom with 2.8 GB of high-quality videos ready to be mixed.
These video loops are only available in the boxed version and cannot be purchased separately. They were made by famous Visual Artists and VJs from around the world especially for professional VJing. For more information look up their names at Arkaos website.

- High performance on PC and Mac
GrandVJ offers a high-speed performance owing to multi-threaded support for processors Dual / Quad Core. Besides it uses the hardware accelerator of the video card, thus not overloading the CPU of your computer. The graphics engine also supports multiple screens and high-resolution videos.
Like all other ArKaos products, GrandVJ runs on Mac and PC platform.

Minimum system requirements:
PC:
* Operating system: Windows XP or Vista.
* Processor: Pentium IV 2Ghz recommended
* RAM: 512MB, 1GB recommended
* Multimedia components: QuickTime 6.5.x (and up), Adobe FlashPlayerTM 9.0 (and up), DirectX 9.0c (and up).

MAC:
* Operating system Mac OS X 10.4 (and up).
* Processor: any type of Intel Mac, G4/1Ghz (and up).
* RAM: 512MB, 1GB recommended
* Multimedia components: QuickTime 6.5.x (and up), Adobe FlashPlayer 9.0 (and up).

Platform independent, PC or MAC:
* Graphics card: 3D graphics accelerator type: nVidia GeForceFX 5200 (and up), ATI Radon 9200 (and up), Intel GMA 950 (and up), ...
* Free space required on the hard disk: 80MB - 1.5GB according to installation options.

Installation of the software:
Just run  .exe file for PC or .dmg for Mac and following simple instructions showed on the screen you will install everything easily.
Once GrandVJ is installed, a notice appears requiring to insert the serial number specific for the computer (PC or Mac) to which you have installed the software.

The software is available with a license called "Single", which, however, allows you to use GrandVJ on three different computers. In case you need more licenses, there’s a license called "Volume" which lets you use GrandVJ on more than three computers.
More info: http://support.arkaos.net/index.php?x=&mod_id=2&root=4&id=94

If you need to use the software on many computers, you can use all the demo versions that you want, because there is no time limitation of using them, the only inconvenience is that a notice "DEMO" appears on the screen output from time to time, which still allows you to set your software and save your changes of the necessary configuration.
Such configuration can be passed then to the computer where GrandVJ is registered and ready to be used in front of your audience.

Settings and preferences of the software:



Going in menu "File"  in section "Preferences ..." you can set various GrandVJ parameters.
The first in the list is of course the setup, which allows you to configure the TV screen, monitor or projector which you will connect to the secondary output of your video card.
You can then assign the type of OSC or Midi device you want to connect and define the level of computing resources available. In case you have an old PC or MAC, don’t set the program to maximum performance or at least do many tests before performing in live in order to find an acceptable compromise.
In the latest version 1.1 it is also possible to choose whether to use the usual white skin as a background or a new black skin (the screenshot of which you will see below), which is much more comfortable for our eyes in case we need to use the software for a long time.

Creating your own set from one of the templates:

At GrandVJ startup you can choose whether to open the setup file used last or use a preset template for the keyboard or for most popular midi controllers.
With a few clicks you will have a ready setup suitable for your configuration.

Mappings of the keyboard and MIDI and OSC controllers:

The templates described above can be easily modified, otherwise you can create from scratch your own custom template based on the type of the controller you have.
Thanks to the simple Midi Learn it is enough just to go to the menu "Options" in section  "Edit midi mapping", and all the functions which you can assign will be visible, as shown at the picture above. All you need to do then is to click with your mouse on the function you want to map, then move a button or a wheel on the controller, and the command will be assigned.
Even the keys on the keyboard of your computer can be mapped exactly like buttons of a real controller; you just need go to the menu "Options" in section "Edit keyboard mapping”.
In addition to MIDI protocol, GrandVJ also manages a new Touch OSC protocol which will allow you to map an iPod Touch or an iPhone as well. Just like for the MIDI and the keyboard, you will find section "Edit OSC mapping" as well in the menu "Options".

Display Settings:
Having set your preferences, you can configure according to your desire all the various display windows with which GrandVJ provides us, for that all you need to do is to go to the menu "View".
First of all, you can set the program in two modes, the first is called "Mixer Mode" (very similar to that of the first software for VJs created by Arkaos team called Arkaos VJ) and the second is "Synth Mode". We will give explanations on these two modes in a separate chapter below.
In the menu "View" you can choose as well to hide (Hide) or to tear off (Extract) the central "Matrix" area, presented in a lot of squares, and the "Keyboard" area, where you can see all the keys of a common midi keyboard.
Both Matrix and Keyboard areas have 16 banks, each of which can be configured in different ways with various videos and effects. These 16 banks can be changed instantly either by using the mouse or through a previously assigned midi command.
You can also choose the number of squares (Matrix) in X and Y which you want to see on the screen.

Even the windows or modules not listed above may be enlarged, torn-off and moved at any point on the screen so that you could customize the configuration of the screen at the most.

Cells: basic units of GrandVJ
Cells are the basic units of GrandVJ, containers that allow us to host videos from our library (as well as  effects, text strings, inputs), and to assign properties to these objects. Once you assign a video to a cell, a small image will appear in it, which is a frame of the selected video. If we apply an effect to this cell, a small lightning will appear at its top on the left. Thus, having created one or more collections of cells to be arranged in matrices or on the keys of the keyboard (as mentioned above, and as we will specify below), you are ready to activate them and, in a certain sense, to put them in motion in order to begin actually using the software, according to the operation mode you chose. We will talk about this in the paragraphs below; now we will tell you a couple of things about parameters of cells, grouped into four sections: Visual, Effect, Mixing, Position \ Size.
The Visual section contains the parameters of how the clip will be displayed, the playback speed (both forward and backward) up to 400%, positioning of ends (start and end) of the clip, which can be played in loop forward, loop backward, once forward, once backward, forward and backward.

Mixing section allows you to control mixing parameters, starting from, transparency related to the mode of combination with other layers, which can be set by copy mode parameter; the masking parameter allows to set color and brightness values, checking them according to the range we set on the color bar below; in the end, you can also change separately RGB primary colors through the three bars on the right.

Finally Section Position/Size allows to set the location and the dimensions of the object which the cell contains: as far as two dimensions are concerned, X and Y obviously change the position of two Cartesian axes, meanwhile Z acts as a zoom. Regarding the 3D, you can rotate the object in three axes and also make a continuous rotation (i.e. you can continue rotating the object according to the angle which we are going to assign). Besides, it is possible to maintain the two-dimensional (plane) form of an object, give it a cubic (cube) or a spherical (sphere) shape. Finally, you can set the tiling, i.e. the number of times the object is repeated (or rather multiplied and its copies are put side by side) in three-dimensional space.

Comments on using the mixer mode:

The Mixer mode will allow you to manage your videos on 8 different levels (layer), which can be mixed among them just like other mixing video software, managing to control individually parameters of each level at every moment of time. This mode provides for a more orderly use of the software, a more well-considered approach to video mixing, which doesn’t make the final result less effective as to the effect and impact. In this mode, the cells get activated on different layers, and, as we have already mentioned, different layers have varying properties, starting from the transparency. Thus in this mode we can activate (which means keeping a video activated in loop until we need it, with help of  keys play and pause) and overlay up to eight cells simultaneously. The parameters of each cell can be modified at any time, but the changes may be applied only from the moment when the cell is loaded and activated on a layer, however the parameters of each layer, as was mentioned above, can be modified at any moment of time either with help of common commands or with any midi controller which can be mapped according to your wishes.

Comments on using the synth mode:

The Synth mode is a mode which allows you to use the software for creating visuals in a way as if you played a musical instrument (due to this reason the function is called "synth"), after having filled a sufficient number of various cells with clips and effects and defined their properties, you can stack them one on another by pressing simultaneously different assigned buttons of your pc keyboard or your midi controller. It is the most easy-to-use operation mode, and it allows the fast operation of the software. For this reason this mode is set as default and Grand VJ operates in it at the beginning. As it was mentioned before, this mode can be seen as an infinite shelf on which we can put our cells (with videos or effects in them) one on the other, and until we keep pressed the button corresponding to that cell (practically activating the cell), we will show the contents of this cell only.
Unlike mixer mode, here you have only one layer on which you can change quickly videos from your previously prepared collections. There are of course priorities that you can give to different cells, such as: background, set the contents of the cell in the background, foreground always at the forefront (which is useful if we want to keep a logo or a text string in the foreground constantly and to change images in background), normal which does not set any priorities.

Manipulation of external video sources in real-time:
GrandVJ allows to manage and to show video from external video sources such as webcams, video cameras or videos from acquisition video cards.
The images acquired may in fact be handled on the fly using all the video effects available, you can also mix images of two or more webcams or cameras and mix images with other videos stored at your hard disk with a really remarkable smoothness.

Tools used for the review:
GrandVJ version 1.1 release candidate 1
Apple - MacBook Pro (January 2006 series)
Packard bell PC - Easy note V7908
Keyboard E-MU Xboard 25 USB Midi
Korg USB Midi nanoKey

Conclusions:
The VJs will find this software very interesting; it is both very intuitive and professional at the same time.
We would like to clarify that this is not the type of video-mixing software with help of which you can mix traditional musical video clips of MTV, this software works with sample videos intended to color a dance floor, walls of a pub or a traditional big concert screen.
To get a general idea about how it works have a look at the official Arkaos Youtube channel at www.youtube.com/user/ArKaosTeam .

We would recommend you to use recent versions of PC or MAC and to check carefully the minimum system requirements necessary for the software, because working in real-time and manipulating video clips require a considerable computing power.
The only flaw we found is the lack of a preview window of various separate cells (a single frame is too small to let you recognize the video contained in the cell, and it can be confusing), but we have reported it to the Arkaos team, and they have ensured us that the relevant features will be introduced to a future update.
The remarkable smoothness of operation speaks in favour of the software, once properly adjusted according to your specific needs, the application will run smoothly as a result.
GrandVJ is sold via the Internet by ARKAOS software house and is available online at a price of 279.00 Euro.