Follow the song, not just the beat.
Intro, build, breakdown and chorus sections can draw from different scene pools. That gives lighting a relationship to the music’s structure.
Specialist desktop software
Ascer Lighting and Visuals
Connecting a DJ’s musical timeline with lighting scenes and beat-synchronised video in one desktop workspace.
The idea
One performance, one shared clock.
A DJ has enough to manage without operating lighting and video as completely separate jobs. Ascer Lighting and Visuals follows transport and track information, uses the musical timeline to choose scenes, and lets the operator intervene when needed.
This application was the birthplace of the studio’s Ascer identity. Its interface connects specialist engineering with a practical question: how can an operator see what is happening and stay in control?
How it is built
The interface and the engine have different jobs.
- 1
DJ input
Receive transport and track information through Pro DJ Link and supported Rekordbox input paths.
- 2
Show engine
Use a shared timeline for section-aware scenes, timing offsets and operator overrides.
- 3
Lighting & video
Send lighting through supported DMX / Art-Net outputs and play video inside the application.
C# and .NET provide the core engine. Avalonia provides the desktop interface, while LibVLCSharp embeds video playback. The solution separates the core logic from the desktop application, helping timing and fixture behaviour stay testable as the interface changes.
Design decisions
Details that matter during a show.
Make timing adjustable.
Lighting, display and audible-reference offsets account for the delays that different equipment introduces.
Keep the operator in charge.
Scene overrides and blackout provide immediate control. Saved projects open with physical output disabled, and invalid fixture patch overlaps are rejected.
Reuse an existing rig.
Fixture definitions, groups, static-scene import and reviewed fixture-table extraction help bring an existing setup into the workspace.
Development & updates
Test the engine, then verify the rig.
The core project has xUnit tests covering areas such as scenes, fixture patching, timing, input parsing and video composition. Those focused checks help identify regressions when a particular subsystem changes.
Software checks are followed by real equipment verification. The XDJ-AZ is the primary tested player; broader hardware support, visible output timing and long live-show runs remain part of the next validation stage. Current scope is one lighting universe and one video layer. A Windows packaging path exists, with on-device rendering, audio and DMX checks still required.
What this demonstrates
A useful starting point for your project.
The same thinking can be applied to a different industry: understand the real workflow, connect the right systems and give people clear control over what happens next.
Your next project
What could we build for you?
Describe your users, the workflow and the systems it needs to connect. We’ll discuss a useful first version.