Well the P10 just arrived in the mail - the sweet smell of new plastic packaging
Well I haven't had a lot of time to fiddle with it but what i've done so far is exactly what i've been hoping it would do - accurate video triggering. I'm in a kooky electro band that has a robot that sings and dances - his head is an LCD monitor, and his face is animated on the screen, so his face talks and has expression etc. When he sings a part in a song, a video clip is triggered by MIDI and plays on the screen with his face singing in time with the sequenced song (a cheap way to add an extra member to a band!!). When he's not singing, a video clip is triggered with him just looking around, smiling/staring/looking menacing etc.
Up until the P10, we were using a laptop with the library of face video clips being played back using Vjamm software and a MIDI interface on the laptop, run by the sequencer that drives all the synths and drum machines/samples etc. The trouble with the laptop setup is that it is just not accurate enough in its timing - the clips drift out of time and sync to various degrees to the point of being troublesome - he'll be singing his part in a song out of time to the rest of the song sometimes. This actually varies - sometimes he will be in time, sometimes not, so it's been really unpredictable. I'm afraid even using a modern laptop and USB-MIDI interface, the MIDI triggering timing on the laptop just isn't quite accurate enough. So I was gambling on the P10 being more solid and accurate as a replacement when I bought it - and it is! Every time a song is started on the sequencer, the singing and video are in perfect sync with the song sequence - every time! Hurray!
Here is a few photos of Elmer here:
http://www.warningwillrobinson.com.au/index_files/ElmersPage.htm