02 September 2011
MJ Event Gear recently acquired ESP Vision. After allowing Head Designer, Francois van der Merwe, a couple of weeks to get his head around the functionality of the product, we asked him to provide his invaluable feedback. 
Francois van der Merwe, MJ Event Gear
“It definitely works for me,” said Francois. “It cuts out a lot of work. Before I would do the plots in VecotrWorks and redraw it in WYSIWYG…now the redrawing, which can take a couple of hours, is eliminated. There are other virtualizers on the market but still no package that is good in every field. WYSIWYG is a good visualizer but not great on CAD. Vector is good on CAD but did not have a visualiser. Now with the ESP plug-in we have the best of both worlds.”
Mediatech South Africa was the platform where Francois met “Alan “AJ” Jesse, Director of ESP Vision in July this year. “It’s important to be open to the developers and let them know what we need,” said Francois. “The team at ESP have been very helpful and quick to respond.”
Francois sent his feedback, a thesis, to ESP who in turn agreed that the input would be included in the next update. “Because ESP is American based, they have their own ways and ideas. But for us making small changes like converting foots to meters and centimetres will be helpful for local designers.”
AJ fro ESP Vision during Mediatech Commented AJ from ESP, “ESP has always taken pride in the fact that we support customers world-wide with a philosophy that is uncommon in the current marketplace. While we are US based, we have customers around the world using our products, and do all we can to make them successful in their individual market. Of course, there are differences in cultures, work-processes and individual preferences in many places around the world, but we do everything in our power to make sure that ESP Vision is a tool to allow end-users to work in an environment that is best for them, instead of being a hindrance to their progress. We are very glad to work with our new South African associates, and assist them in any way we can to make their projects a success.”
Rendering is quick with ESP and the visualarizer is fantastic. “I’ve got it to play videos via an external source and automate the video screens, while rendering into an AVI movie for presentation purposes. It’s very powerful,” commented Francois.
ESP Vision is not just a “nice” to have, it will be a very power full tool to compliment the current Design Studio. Francois plans to use it for most of his shows as he likes to prep in advance. “It’s awesome and I’m really enjoying it!”
