It’s a great pleasure to announce that Luminair v2.5 is now available on the App Store, as free updates to the existing Luminair for iPad and iPhone apps.

Despite it’s .5 versioning, this is probably the biggest update Luminair has ever received. For the first time ever, Luminair’s codebase is now unified across all iOS devices*. Luminair running on an iPhone is actually a brand new app, now based upon Luminair for iPad’s award-winning design, with a new UI optimized for 4″ iPhone screens on the 5, 5s, 5c, and 5th generation iPod touch. It now benefits from core-feature compatibility with Luminair running on an iPad, as well as iCloud syncing between all iOS device types.

As a result, you’re feedback has been answered. Luminair for iPad is now a universal app, newly renamed as Luminair for iOS. The iPhone-only version has also been updated to v2.5 and will still be offered for those of you not interested in using an iPad.

The new features…
One of the biggest new features in Luminair 2.5 is support for controlling Philips Hue lights right alongside DMX-controlled lighting. While these are mostly home-focused products with limitations compared to DMX-controlled lights, we think they can be utilized as design elements in things like film and TV production and architectural lighting, as well as by enthusiasts who’d like to mix and match different types of lights. Smart lights like Hue are one of the next logical steps with LED lighting control, and we intend to continue to add additional support and features for these systems in the future. Ultimately they are another tool for your designs, and we can’t wait to see the way that you use them.

The next major feature to be added is one that’s probably been requested more than any other feature since Luminair for iPad was originally released. That feature is a new Sound Active mode, part of the new Timing FX options, located in the Stacks mode toolbar. Sound Active mode can detect sounds from the built-in microphone and other audio input hardware to trigger lights show synced to music.

But we did not stop there. The new Sound Active mode also supports Inter-App Audio (IAA) on iOS 7. Luminair can receive sound from IAA supported apps to trigger your light shows. IAA is brand new on iOS 7, and new apps are being added frequently that support this functionality. For all of you iPad DJ’s out there, Algroriddm’s djay 2 already supports IAA, so you can use it as your playback source for Luminair.

One final benefit of the new Sound Active mode is it allows Luminair to work in the background now, while you use other apps. As long as you have Sound Active enabled in one of your Stacks, Luminair will continue running Stack scene changes/fades in the background. FYI, you don’t even need to have a Sound Active Stack playing. Just adding an extra Stack to your project and turning on Sound Active will allow any Stack in your project to run in the background, even ones with simple fades assigned.

There’s been a lot of additional improvements. Here’s a change list for the new Luminair for iOS 2.5:

• Built for iOS 7 with an improved UI
• Support for controlling Philips Hue smart lighting systems. Control Hue Bulbs, LED Strips and Living Colors lamps right alongside your DMX lights. A great solution for elements in architectural lighting and Film/TV production
• New Sound Active timing control for Stacks. Use your iOS device’s built-in microphone or other audio input device to control your light shows
• Inter-App audio support on iOS 7. Send audio and trigger light shows from 3rd party audio apps like Algoriddim djay 2 and others.
• Luminair will now run in the background when audio-input or inter-app audio is enabled in the current project
• New Tempo (BPM) timing control for Stacks
• New Global timing control for Stacks
• iCloud syncing between all iOS device types
• Bluetooth Keyboard support on iPad devices running iOS 7. See user manual for list of key commands.
• Supports AirDrop file transfer to other devices running iOS 7
• Moved the Stack shuffle control from the playback transport into the Stacks action menu
• Added new track options popup submenu for setting common options like track name, fader color and more without having to display the full track channels view
• Cues are now referred to as “Scenes”, to better describe their functionality
• “Custom Layout” tracks are now referred to as “Simple Fader” tracks
• Refined color buttons above color changer tracks
• Simplified new scene options in the add controls menu
• Improved sharing options with ability to send project, fixture, and image files via email, Twitter(images), and Facebook(images)
• Added a “Scene Buttons Toggle Off” user option in settings, which allows you to prevent the active scene from turning off when tapping it’s button
• Fixed an issue where email attachments would sometimes not open properly
• Fixed an issue where the Default MIDI Map would sometimes not properly save when closing the app (iPad only)
• Fixed an issue with MSC over USB-based MIDI interfaces (iPad only)
• Many other improvements and bug fixes

*Some features like external MIDI and OSC input, AirPlay Monitor, and others where noted remain iPad only for now