Studio Suite is a tightly integrated and comprehensive suite of studio management tools, arranged in accessible and distinct categories, or 'modules'. The modules are designed to mimic the roles that you and your staff perform on a daily basis and allow you to move through the application quickly and painlessly, accessing the information you need, as you need it.

Studio Suite seamlessly and transparently organises your information in related files, ensuring that you enter data only once, but that you can use it throughout the system, without having to enter it again. It has an intuitive and easy to use interface which is common across the entire application, is password protectable, cross-platform compatible (mac and windows 95, 98, ME, NT & 2000), network ready and has a built-in help system and spell checker.

Studio Suite’s main features are listed on this page; if you prefer, you can jump directly to an individual explanation by using the table below.

For module screen shots, please follow the direct links from each module description, or go straight to our screen shots page. Please be patient with screen shot loading times, as some of them are quite detailed. It is definitely worth seeing them though!

Experiment and discover Studio Suite's power for yourself, download a trial copy from our download page.

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The Office Group...

...automates all of your daily office activities. The extremely powerful Contacts module displays linked information about each contact: projects, invoices, reels, titles, and a complete history of calls, letters, faxes, emails, messages, and to-dos. The new Petty Cash and Communications modules make office record keeping quick and easy. No other contact management system is so uniquely designed for the audio/video/ media production industry.

Create hierarchical "package" bookings with point-and-click ease in the Calendar module, and Studio Suite automatically fills-in dates, times, rates, and more. See all of your scheduled projects, rooms, equipment, people, and media (or just a single project) by month, week or day in colour-coded, Traditional or Linear Calendar views.

Track all information related to each project in the Projects module, including budgets, actuals, profit/loss, talent, set-up info, and media asset management. Create, view, edit, and jump to every session, event, reel, title, invoice, or attached data file. Add items by bar code for easy rental management. Your rates are automatically entered from the Services module. Make detailed Invoices with a simple click, then export to QuickBooks¨.

Your Media Inventory is automatically reconciled as it's used, and alerts you when stock is low. It's easy to order more with the built-in Purchase Orders module. Generate bar code labels in the Bar Codes module for equipment and media, making the task of tracking inventories and releasing (or preventing the release of) client materials a breeze.

The Studio Group...

...keeps track of everything in your studio environment. The Sessions & Events module documents what happens (setups, breaks, etc.) during each individual session, and generates all the necessary paperwork (if you still insist on using paper).

The Library & Labels module logs and stores all reels, drives, directories and files in a searchable database. Add playable audio or video titles to a reel, and automatically generate customizable labels for every kind of media, complete with your logo and everything else that should be there, like formats, time codes, bar codes, etc.

Create track sheets, locates, lyric sheets, take sheets, and storyboards in the Titles & Tracks module, and even record a snippet of the audio or video for quick auditions.

The Recall module has drawings for 140+ of the most common pieces of audio outboard gear. Your settings, patches, and any notes can be documented on-screen, saved for future reference, or printed out.

In partnership with SoundDogs.com, the largest online sound effects and production music library, Studio Suite's Sample & Clips module includes a virtual listing of SoundDogs' 53,000 audio files. Users can search locally, and preview, purchase, and download from SoundDogs' extensive online collection via the Internet. Track which sound effects were used for each project within Studio Suite.

The Technical Group...

...keeps track of the Rooms in your facility (phone extensions, power outlets, breakers, pictures) and more importantly the Equipment in each room, along with all the details (serial numbers, costs, connectors, etc.). The Maintenance Log generates and stores a history of every repair done to each piece of equipment, how much it cost, what parts were used, and more. Document every detail you can imagine, and a total value is compiled, including repairs and maintenance costs.

Track your inventory of spare parts, what they belong to, and how much they cost from different vendors in the Parts module. And now, you can finally create and print out professional labels for all common patchbay sizes and makes with the Patchbay Labels module.

Calendar:

• Simplified (more traditional styling) navigation and use.
• Define up to 16 different status colours (Confirmed, On Hold, Light Hold, Bid, Quote, Vacation, Meeting, Maintenance, etc) for calendar highlights (also allows foreign languages).
• A new view called Daily Notes, allows creation of both Private (via password) and Group notes, much like traditional Calendaring programs.
• Create, view (expanded or collapsed), and book hierarchical packages of items in the Calendar, which retain hierarchical relationships in Projects. For example, by control-clicking the heading "Shoot", you can sub-schedule 2 cameramen, a lighting guy, a gaffer, director, make-up artist. Of course, dates, times, and rates are transferred to the Project. These items can also be scheduled individually, or appear multiple times under different headings.
• Linear Week views can be saved as HTML for posting on Website.
• In Linear Month, once a start date is clicked, shift-clicking the end date will auto-fill in the days in between.
• All Calendar screens can now be filtered to "View by Project" allowing you to print a calendar for a single project.
• Booking (and zooming to details on events) is now possible from the Linear Week view.
• Faster in networked environments (Calendar file is now a local file instead of transferred over the network).
• Booking in Linear Day can now be done via "drag-and-drop". Click on the Start Time, and drag to the End Time.
• Linear Day now shows the name of the project and client superimposed on top of the coloured highlight for that event.
• Linear Day can show either a 24-hour day or a 16-hour day.
• Linear views now have a definable sort order for items.
• Traditional Month, Week, and Day views can now book multiple items (a day) at once.
• In Traditional views, shift-clicking a day will book item/s that have been previously scheduled.
• Traditional Month, Week, and Day views are now Filtered like the Linear views.
• When booking in Traditional View, you can optionally book things that are not currently filtered.
• Services for bookable items can be edited/created from within the Edit Calendar Items screen

Contacts:

• Calls & Notes sections now allows audio recording to store voicemail like messages (or record phone calls).
• Now stores Client Logos, for use when printing Media Labels for Clients (with their logo instead of yours).
• Stores messages for employees.
• Tracks To-Dos for employees (markable/sortable by Priority, Status, and Date).
• As mentioned in Events/Sessions above, shows an editable list of all events an employee had.
• The Invoice listing on the Financial Info tab can be filtered to show "Open", "Paid", or "Both" Invoices, to minimize client statements.
• Contains the aforementioned Attachments tab for attaching other external files to Studio Suite Contacts.
• Can now email Communications from within Studio Suite (requires 3rd party File maker plug in - not included).

Tape Library, Labels and Release:

• New Improved layout — much more logical and easy to read.
• Reels can now be linked to specific sessions for better historical tracking.
• Reels can also be linked to specific records in the Equipment module to allow documentation of hard drives.
• New disk logging feature automatically logs the contents of a hard disk so that it may be searched while the drive is not mounted. Also monitors remaining space.
• To minimize user mistakes when releasing media, there is now an alert when attempting to log out more than 15 reels.
• Better implementation of printing layouts and selecting which label positions to print to (deleted over 300 fields by using print masks instead of redundant calculated position fields). This also allows for much easier user-customisation of label printouts.
• Can now optionally print the Clients logo and address information on all labels instead of the studios.
• Better integration with new improved Media Inventory module.
• Reels are now Bookable to avoid conflicting usage of hard drives. Also works for media/SFX libraries.
• Includes Attachments tab to allow external files to be attached to each reel.
• Better documentation of Media Types.
• To minimize user mistakes when releasing media, there is now an alert when attempting to log out more than 15 reels.

Projects:

• Renamed- previously called Production Orders.
• To accommodate new heirarchical bookings, there is now one universal Events window instead of a separate portal window for Rooms, Equipment, People, Media, Misc.
• The new "universal Events window" is filterable to show only events of a certain type ("Rooms") or on a certain date. Individual items may also be temporarily hidden. These features allow the user to apply global settings such as date, time, status, or service (rate) to any "currently showing" subset of events, as well as easily develop reports (totals) based on different scenarios.
• Now stores the initial "Budget" or "Quote" as well as the Actual charges and expenses, so you can see where differences occurred from Budget to Actual, as well as Profit/Loss, per event and per project.
• To accommodate "multi-dimensional" viewing of a Projects related events, navigation is handled by a View Matrix instead of tabs.
• Each "parent" item in a hierarchy can be expanded or collapsed to show its "children".
• Each view is sortable by Date or Type, Group or Item.
• Allows adding of items (equipment, media, etc) by scanning barcodes — good for rental companies, libraries.
• Setting of times now done via popup menu.
• The user can now enter Notes for each event from the Projects module.
• Now contains the aforementioned Attachments tab for attaching other external files to Studio Suite Projects.
• Better handling of a clients Participants (producer, engineer, director, etc) by way of a related file instead of discreet fields. When people are booked in the Calendar that have Titles, they now also appear as Participants.
• When Invoices are created, it asks if it’s a Final or Partial invoice, and marks the Project as such with the current date.

Events / Sessions:

• New combined version of Event List and Sessions modules (booking is faster, less confusing navigation).
• Now allows 3 breaks per event that can be subtracted from total billable hours.
• Tracks Budget Actual, and Difference charges, expenses, detailed taxes, and Profit/Loss per event.
• Now has a Media tab showing all Media for This Project, each of which can be assigned to this specific Event/Session.
• Similarly, the Talent tab shows both Talents used on the Project, and Talent used on this Event.
• Also has the aforementioned Attachments tab to allow attaching external files to each event.
• Now reports by user definable categories instead of fixed Rooms, Equipment, People, etc.
• Added reports by Client.
• Events per Employee are now visible/editable from the Contacts module under the Employees tab.
• Now contains the aforementioned Attachments tab for attaching other external files to Studio Suite Events.
• Better handling of clients Participants (producer, engineer, director, etc) by way of a related file instead of discreet fields.
• Can now link Reels from the Library module to specific sessions (and each Reel knows what Sessions it was used on).

Invoices:

• Now Exports to QuickBooks! Other programs to follow based on user requests.
• As mentioned above, Events with overtime are now exported to Studio Suite Invoices as 2 separate line items.
• Easier creation and editing of Line Items from main Invoices screen.
• Easier/better functionality for creating "Simple Invoices" (unrelated to Projects).
• New "Advanced Find" for finding anything
• Greatly improved reporting.

Media Inventory :

• Has been simplified to be comprised of just one file instead of two (eliminated the somewhat redundant Media Types file).
• Pricing for media is now derived from the Services file instead of dedicated local fields, to allow selling the same kind of media different ways (blank, recorded on, partial reel, duplicated, etc…).