"No other software could handle our demands.
Live video with effects, multi-format media... And we needed to be able to program the entire show so that it can be run by just one person with little training.
"PixelConduit + Stage Tools was perfect for the job.
The cue list is great, and the realtime effects and color correction are out of this world."
— Finnish National Theater - read more »

PixelConduit is a free Mac application that can handle the most demanding video tasks. It does live video capture and realtime compositing with equal ease.
(More info about PixelConduit)

Equipped with the Stage Tools add-on, PixelConduit becomes like a lighting console and video mixer for realtime effects and playback. Using a simple yet powerful cue list, practically everything in PixelConduit can be programmed to create show sequences. With Stage Tools, a single video operator can easily and reliably run a complex show with multiple video outputs and any combination of live and pre-recorded video.

The realtime rendering power of PixelConduit makes it a great platform for both video installations and effect visualizations. For the first time ever, the same toolset that you can use in post for film-quality visual effects can be also used for realtime video. Floating point color, advanced chroma keys, elegant film-like color correction looks, editable vector masks — it's all available live without compromises.

Powerful video shows often require many screens. PixelConduit is totally prepared to handle multiple projection images. There is built-in support for Matrox DualHead/TripleHead-To-Go Graphics Expansion Modules, which allows you to show three separate images from a single Mac laptop! PixelConduit's unique 'pipeline' user interface makes it very easy to direct images onto a particular screen — just drag a connection from a video source or effect. Need even more screens? Move up to a Mac Pro with multiple video cards and GXM units, and deliver up to 9 screens from a single computer.

Stage Tools also includes the tools you need to make projections look good in the installation space: scaling, cropping, perspective warps, individual color corrections with vector masks... Fully localized control over the image is possible.

For more comfortable live use, Stage Tools can be driven by external controller devices. There is a complete set of Play Control and Trigger tools, so you can easily make stuff happen — for example you can set up a clip to start whenever its fade-in slider is moved up, without doing any programming. Supported interfaces include MIDI and DMX512. (MIDI controller feedback is included so that motorized sliders on your controller will follow the actions within the Conduit user interface, e.g. reacting to animations in cues.)

Using scripting, you can make PixelConduit + Stage Tools do even more. Custom 2D/3D graphics and specialized user interfaces are easy to create with Conduit's integrated JavaScript environment. With Conduit's flexible graphical programming possibilities and the well-known standard JavaScript language, creating a custom live video application is now even simpler than making a web page.


We've placed a serious emphasis on stability to ensure that PixelConduit is up to the demands of large-scale video performances.

Curious to see how PixelConduit + Stage Tools are used in the real world to create complex shows and manage effect shoots? Check out Case Studies.

For the full feature list, see below.
For latest documentation and guides, visit PixelConduit Help & Support.

Purchase PixelConduit Complete

Stage Tools is included in PixelConduit Complete which costs $119.

Features in detail

Show design features

  • Cue list with easy creation and editing
  • Unlimited number of events in a cue
  • Animate sliders and delays with cues

    Create complex events with transitions and automatic steps

  • Media loading and playback
  • Visual effects can be changed by cues
  • Slider/color control using cues with MIDI feedback
  • Master cues: use a cue as the basis for others
  • Streamlined "Heads-Up Display" style user interface for monitoring the show

    Add notes to the cue list —
    anyone can run the show by simply following the notes

  • Customized cues can be programmed in JavaScript to do almost anything
  • Separate cue list for subtitles

    Titling tool supports multiple layers and text styles (font, color, shadow, etc.)

Live video features

  • Capture SD/HD live video from cameras or capture cards

    Supports all QuickTime-compatible devices and BlackMagic devices

  • Capture multiple simultaneous video streams

    Supports BlackMagic DeckLink and Intensity cards directly

  • Record live video to disk within the same interface
  • Mix live and prerecorded video seamlessly with advanced Conduit effects
  • Kinect™ input

    Affordable 3D depth camera offers a completely new kind of digital vision

Hardware and media control features

  • MIDI In
  • MIDI parameter feedback for motorized sliders
  • DMX512 In
  • Audio In
  • Trigger cues and media with any kind of signal
  • Start and stop video clips when a slider is moved above a certain treshold ("fader start")

Projection design features

  • Perspective Warp

    Drag corner points visually to distort a layer in 3D space.
    Great for correcting any projection distortions.

  • Built-in support for Matrox GXM units (DualHead2Go/TripleHead2Go)

    Easily output on up to three separate screens from a single laptop or iMac

  • Secondary Display node

    Support for any number of additional full-screen outputs

Effects features

  • Node-based Conduit Editor is an easy visual UI for designing effects of any complexity

    Complete set of compositing and color manipulation operations:
    includes Curves, Exposure, linear light colorspace support...

  • No limit to amount of color corrections, masks, etc.
  • Everything is accelerated by graphics hardware (GPU) for maximum performance
  • Alpha transparency available everywhere
  • Create smooth vector masks using the Shapes node in Conduit Editor
  • Supports QuickTime and image sequences
  • Create scripted effects using the easy JavaScript language

    Effects designed from nodes and/or scripts can be packaged into custom rendering plugins and distributed as binaries

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