What is Vivien?

Vivien is an intuitive, 3D event design & sales software for the full spectrum of event professionals.

Using Vivien's visually stunning 3D images, event planners, designers, venue sales teams, caterers, furniture rental specialists - all can design winning proposals, customize and brand to sell more spaces, quickly respond to RFPs, generate faster turnaround from your customers ... so you can do and sell more.

Easy to use, Vivien is based on familiar Windows functionality, with the same drag & drop, cut, copy and paste functions as programs like Microsoft Word.

Watch your profits soar! This intuitive program lets you quickly produce a picture today of tomorrow's event, generating stunning 3D images that will sell your ideas.

What will it do for me or for my team?

With Vivien, you can save time & money by creating better proposals faster - and because of Vivien's eye-popping visuals that can be shared (short or hard copy) with potential customers, Vivien

	increases your closing rate by shutting out the competition
	improves the effectiveness and efficiency of events from concept to production
	produces accurate 2D layouts, generates previsualization in 3D colour views, as well as stunning photorealistic "pictures" of future events
	increases event revenue & overall revenue
		by providing soft services that event planners need; i.e., 2D layouts and 3D Virtual View images.
		by providing clear plans for subcontractors (entertainment, AV companies, etc.); becoming the communication link between event planners and subcontractor and venues, as well as renting inventory
	is a front-line sales and production tool that generates data for the current and future back office systems standardizes output by using spreadsheets that can be customized for particular needs of back office systems
	produces templates that can be stored centrally, to be used and reused by you or, if you are a hotel chain, for example, by any number of departments or groups in your company
		enables employees to easily customize space for particular events so Users look more professional and your are more productive in front of its clients (always a good sign)
		raises the standard for sales proposals/presentations reduces the effort required to respond to RFPs; timely, professional presentations will accelerate + acceptance by prospective clients will increase
		reduces RFP bidding and design errors or omissions the more complete the template, the less likely an error can occur reducing business risk and increasing profit
	increases your productivity and enables employees to work
		import standard file formats (DWG/DXF/SKP) and graphic formats (BMP/JPG/GIF/TIF) into Vivien
		use Vivien to work with files produced in AutoCAD, VectorWorks, and other similar products
		saves $ on sending files out for reformatting
	facilitates clearer communication of event ideas internally and externally engages your customers and delivers you control of their creative input
	standardizes how the project team gather, process, and report information, making their interaction more efficient, economical and effective

Intuitive and easy to use, Vivien enables even novice Users to create accurate, impressive layouts quickly and easily with a series of Wizards & tools and an extensive library of ready-made 3D objects that automate the process of drawing. Building on these files, advanced Users (Power Users) will be able to produce photorealistic, colourful images with Vivien's Render Wizard.

Back to top

Who uses Vivien?

	Planners	independent professionals or firms, corporations, non profits/associations
	Services	design, consulting, marketing, advertising, security, limos
	Venues	event sites g hotels, clubs, halls, arenas, banquet and meeting halls, etc.
	Clients	corporations for events, meetings, seminars; religious and political organizations, industry associations, educators, venues and rental spaces
	Caterers	catering, bar; people flow; safety and local fire code
	Renters	event and party rental companies furniture, place settings, games, etc.
	Techies	technical services lighting, A/V, special effects
	Entertainers	entertainment companies, acts

Back to top

How does it do the work for you?

Visualization

	Our visualization has been advanced to improve the visual accuracy of our Virtual Views. Light beams illuminate your events and light up objects in the path, and our new shadow system calculates when the beam stops so shadows are added automatically in the scene making it really virtually real!
	New smoke controls have been introduced to allow you to specify direction, speed and density of atmospheric smoke added to your scene
	New point light source simulation - delivers better representations for candle lighting, candelabrum and chandeliers.

	Time of Day Simulation - Just as you can simulate outdoor lighting when setting up your renderings in the Render Wizard, you can now achieve the same effect in the Virtual View for all events that take place outside. Simply use the Outdoor Lighting tab of the Virtual View's View Options window to choose the date, time of day, and sky condition (cloudy or clear). The Virtual View adjusts accordingly, in realtime.
	Object Smoothing - There are no ragged edges appearing on a cylinder or a person in the library. All of these items appear with smooth surfaces.
	Background Render Manager is a new program bundled with the Vivien installation allowing you to submit to it your rendering jobs. It will run independently from Vivien or even on another computer on your office network, so you can use additional hardware resources to render while you continue to work on your proposals in Vivien.

Back to top

How well does it work?

Here's what a Vivien planner wrote

Vivien - Virtual Event Designer: From concept to contract in less than four hours

By Marco Rose

Editor's note: This article appeared in the new bi-monthly e-news "The Vivien News" which is emailed to all Vivien Members. Every once and a while, we at CAST like to share interesting stories from users of Vivien, the most comprehensive event planning software tool available to event and meeting professionals. Many lighting professionals today are finding themselves involved more and more with a complete project, not just lighting, and find this tool invaluable for everything from fashion shows to special events. Here is one such story showing the software's value to that important first step: getting the job. Click here to see Mr Rose's PowerPoint.

Back to top

The Technology

Vivien's development grew out of CAST's extensive experience in the film & stage production world with its Emmy award-winning software suite called wysiwyg, which has been the industry standard since 1994. wysiwyg is used around the globe for events ranging from small theatre shows, to Covent Garden, industrial shows (product launches and annual meetings), film/motion picture and TV production, and mega productions like the Australian Olympics. In basing Vivien on the same core processing ability as wysiwyg, it offers the power and breadth of tools and solutions that would be otherwise unavailable in a software package at this price point.

Communication and timely accurate information exchange are vital in today's fast-paced world where businesses have offices, venues, suppliers and employees dispersed worldwide. In addition to the standard Vivien file formats, most information in Vivien can be interchanged using standard, non proprietary file formats. For example, graphics and layouts can be saved, emailed or printed as standard BMP or JPG files. Data can be exported as text or as Excel spreadsheets. With this versatility, you can do as you wish with your data email it to your client, print it, add it to a proposal, etc. You can even export the data into your booking or back office system, to name only a few options available.

You need to know that you can deliver the results as portrayed for the project - and that's the solution Vivien delivers. With Vivien you get both the pretty picture and the confidence you can deliver it - a win-win. Nomore working off a pretty picture that is not based on the technology which can deliver the results as promised. With Vivien's proprietary library of 1000s of tables & chairs, linens & drapery, place settings, lights, gobos, trusses we simply don't need to cheat it!

Step	Event professional's action	Vivien Delivers Solutions
Depending on sophistication, the Client contacts or issues RFP   Vision of event   Purpose (business, political, religious, educational, party, ...)   May specify location   Timing   # attendees expected	Responds with a proposal Whether formal or informal, information includes     Basic Layout   Cost estimate for event   Capabilities and proposed fee structure   Portfolio of past events (photos)   Informal   Response dictated by size and significance of event; ranges from formal video and hardcopy presentation to a letter	Cut and paste into presentation   Layouts Professional drawings Photorealistic renderings Interfaces with   Word PowerPoint Excel Email   Graphics programs
Design and cost	Produce various layouts & renderings for approval Communicate with subcontractors for costs   Venue Catering Equipment rentals (chairs, tables, plates etc.): Bar, Security, Lighting, Sound, Decor	Interactive collaboration, cost a RFPS or quotes from subcontractors   detailed floor plan drawings Photorealistic renderings   Track and document changes; produce new inventory reports and re-estimate costs
Approval	Execute agreement with Client Formalize contracts for Venue, subcontractors, and procurement of supplies and rental of equipment	Changes and cost estimates (and backup including the final rendering) can be signed off by Client and then subcontracts agreed with subcontractors
Ongoing fulfillment Manage changes arising from   site anomalies Client changes shortages or conflicts subcontractors	Constant communications with Client (including various members of Client's project team)   Manage logistics   Constant communications with project team ? ensure they have current plans, inventory reports, layouts, and delivery instructions	Changes and cost estimates (and backup including the final rendering) can be made instantly without affecting the timeline, signed off by Client and then subcontracts agreed with subcontractors   Obtain various civic approvals and permits fire marshal
Set up of event	Manage & crisis management	Log of all orders, instructions by date facilitate follow up and logistics. Use renderings to show setup to crews Delivery of ordered goods can be matched to the plan
The event	Onsite to manage; ensure Client is happy	Uploads files for use by Lighting, Sound, Security
Tear down	Manage	Reduce cost of discrepancies from goods ordered, received and returned
Invoice the Client	fees mark ups incidentals	Use reports to control costs from subcontractors Use reports to bill

Back to top