When professional moving lights where introduced into the entertainment business almost 30 years ago, the industry changed forever. The combination of dedicated controllers, optical innovations and standardisation of data protocols resulted in lightshows that nowadays can be stadium size with lots of detail but still can be controlled by one person. A big problem though is that a solution for direct manipulation of these complex rigs is still very difficult, and time consuming. Therefore the people responsible will almost always pre-program their shows…

An innovation that is less old, and still in huge development is the integration of video in shows. When emerging, it was first only used to register the performers during an event, but with LED-screens and projectors becoming cheaper, and the developments of dedicated control solutions like media-servers is getting mature, video is becoming the central part in stage design. Strangely though, controlling these video-shows is mostly done by light operators using light desks.

These developments are what drove Menno Pleij when he founded Midiator almost 2 years ago. After years of working as a freelance light desk operator on various events (ranging from corporate events to huge festivals and dance events), he felt that he couldn’t always create the perfect picture that he wanted during a (live) show due to limitations of current state-of-the-art equipment. Because of his background as an industrial designer he thought of various solutions that didn’t only would benefit his work, but also could be used by many others.

We're strongly affiliated with the Delft University of Technology. A lot of corporation exist with different faculties and departments for creating state-of-the-art solutions in software and hardware...

And because we're independent, we try to make our products work with as many as possible media-servers, light-desks, video-equipment and other devices of various brands available. We're also highly involved in protocol development like the CITP protocol.

“Controlling. Everything. Simply. Visually.”

This is the philosophy on which Midiator is founded and the way we approach the development of all our products. We want to give the user a full integration between lighting, video and everything else needed for your show and allow you to get the full potential out of your professional equipment. Whether it is creating a ‘climax’ simultaneous with the DJ, making music come alive by setting the right mood at a festival or supporting speakers during a corporate event with impressive visuals, the visual result must only be limited by what you can think of, not what is technologically possible. And last but not least, it should be visual.