Whenever I travel and meet with clients and possible clients, we inevitably get into energizing design discussions. Zetta represents the fourth automation system I have been involved in from a development perspective (if you don’t include offshoots of core products like Player 101, Audio Wizard XPS, etc.). I also had a fair bit of experience with other products in my previous radio life working at radio stations.
In the early days, one had to build-in design limitations to make sure that the software would work on the first PC machines. Those design restrictions came in the form of limits the developers had to deal with; such as number confinements. For example, the Hotkey button and Button Bar sizes were designed to a certain size. Years ago, Audio Wizard had a 6×4 limit; NexGen took on the same; and Master Control had its own fixed sizes. This facilitated loading all the useable modules on small screens and, and of course, not to over tax those archaic operating systems. But times have changed.
In Zetta, we have challenged these limitations from the ground up. As computers become faster, more agile, and can store more and more data, both on hard drive (SSD these days) and in Memory, it allows us to develop with fewer of these arcane limitations and create default setups that maximize the power of the modern machine.
Below, you see Hot Keys in the 100, 12 and 4 layouts.
Today, we think optimization from the first design sketches and planning. And we are always studying the pre-release versions of hardware and operating systems, so that we can skate to where the puck will be, not where it current falls. When we are talking with clients – who give us the best ideas – they see the design of Zetta and they ask, “What if…?” We always have two words, “No Limits.”