![\"IBDMX](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/ibdmx-crop-28aa7e886b8b34fd6384886a3ee01b58.jpeg\")
Firmware v2.2.0 ships today, and it is the biggest firmware release we've put out since launch. Three things headline it:
\nAnd on the Studio side, the standout is that you can now build a show around an audio file: pick a file and the timeline is sized to it automatically.
\nIgorBox can now control professional DMX lighting. If DMX is new to you: DMX-512 is the standard language that stage and effect lighting speaks. Par cans, moving heads, strobes, fog machines, flame effect controllers, and a surprising number of animatronic props all take their cues over a DMX cable. As of 2.2.0, IgorBox speaks it too, through a brand new controller: the IgorBox DMX.
\nIt's a real, working product. We've shipped units to a group of beta testers who are integrating them into their haunts for this coming season, and the feedback has been great. We'll open it up for sale once the beta wraps and it's through final testing. In the meantime, the full documentation is already live if you want to see what's coming.
The IgorBox DMX puts a full universe of lighting (all 512 DMX channels) on the same timeline that plays your audio and fires your relays. One box, one show, everything in sync. Here's what shipped in 2.2.0 and the Studio to support it:
\n
A story from the beta, because it's too good not to share. For months we chased what looked like \"DMX timing corruption on heavy shows\": a servo-driven skull prop that would slowly lose its mind during big fades, grinding its servos past their stops until someone power-cycled it. I even had to replace some burned-out servos because of it. We tuned and tuned and tuned some more to make the DMX signal more and more rock solid and nothing seemed to help.
\n![\"Replacing](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/servos-16bf34598473ab715a4942cf65b54fae.jpeg\")
The real cause was much stranger. That particular skull fixture uses an undocumented DMX channel as a live programming channel. Whenever a light happened to be patched onto that address, fading the light was silently rewriting the skull's own settings, including its servo travel limits. It wasn't a bug in the timing at all. The fix is simple addressing hygiene (leave a gap after the skull), and it's exactly the kind of thing Safe Zones exist for. It's actually why we even built hardware Safe Zones!
\nThis one is for the creators. Most shows start with the audio, so now the Studio does too:
\n![\"Audio](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/audio-show-extend-f3225f922fdeda109132c3ee22102d65.png\")
A big chunk of this release is the result of chasing real problems on real installs. Two stories drove most of it.
\nWe hit a site in the field where every laptop and phone worked fine, but not one IgorBox controller could reach the cloud and provision. Every screen anyone checked said the network was healthy. The culprit: the venue's internet connection was IPv6-only. IPv6 is the modern internet addressing system that most phones and laptops switch to seamlessly, and our controllers only knew the older IPv4 style. That used to be fine, because networks handed out both kinds of addresses (called dual stack), but internet providers have started going IPv6-only. To the boxes, a working internet connection simply didn't exist.
\nThe other story starts with a WiFi range extender. When one controller triggers a show on another, that message travels directly across your local network, box to box, like a shout to the whole room. At a site in the field, those triggers would work some days and not others: a trigger on one box wouldn't fire a show on another, one controller would seem \"deaf\" while its neighbors worked perfectly, and a reboot would fix it until it didn't. The culprit was an old Apple AirPort unit running as a repeater, quietly rebroadcasting the venue's WiFi. An extender splits the room in two: normal internet traffic passes through fine (so everything looked healthy), but the box-to-box shout often didn't make it from one side to the other. And since each controller picks an access point every time it powers on, the problem moved around.
\nFirmware 2.2.0 now sends controller-to-controller traffic in a way that survives most of these setups, and it's fully backward compatible with older firmware on the same network. Treat that as a safety net, though, not a plan: we wrote up why extenders and repeaters cause trouble and what to use instead, and a clean network is still the right foundation.
\nWhile we were in there:
\nBeyond the show and DMX features above, the Studio picked up some genuinely useful things this month:
\nThe Studio updates are live right now. Firmware v2.2.0 is rolling out today, and your controllers will show an \"upgrade firmware\" prompt on their overview page. Accept it when it's convenient. Show looping, chaining, and all the DMX features need v2.2.0 to work, and the Studio will tell you when a controller is still on an older version and something isn't supported on it.
\nAs always, thanks for building wild things with IgorBox, and we are so happy we get to build such a cool product together!
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/2026/07/26/new-release-2-2-0", "title": "Firmware 2.2.0: DMX Goes Beta, and Our Biggest Release Since Launch", "summary": "Firmware v2.2.0 ships today, and it is the biggest firmware release we've put out since launch. Three things headline it:", "date_modified": "2026-07-26T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Mike Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "IgorBox", "Changelog", "New Release", "Firmware", "DMX" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/2026/06/27/igorbox-connect", "content_html": "Some of the best feedback we get never shows up in a bug report. It comes from observing what happens at an install and watching someone on a ladder trying to plug an Ethernet cable into a controller that was only ever going to live on WiFi, just to get it online for the very first time.
\nOur Magic Provisioning system is pretty amazing and simplified configuring controllers and bringing them up in your Studio, but watching that happen made me realize we have to make this easier. Now we have! I am so happy to introduce IgorBox Connect, our new free app for iPhone and Android that sets up a controller's WiFi over Bluetooth. No cable. No laptop. No captive portal. Just your phone and the controller right in front of you.
\n![\"Download](\"https://help.igorbox.com/img/igorbox_connect/app-store-badge.svg\"){kind=icon}
![\"Get](\"https://help.igorbox.com/img/igorbox_connect/google-play-badge.png\"){kind=icon}
We built Magic Provisioning so adding a controller to your Studio is just a setup ID and one screen. It can set up WiFi too, but only once the controller is already online, which usually means plugging in Ethernet for that first boot. If you're running cable anyway, that's no trouble at all. But for a temporary cable strung across your venue it's kind of annoying. So was provisioning a stack of controllers back at the office and then carrying them out to the site and realizing you forgot to label which one was which.
\nIgorBox Connect makes it disappear. A brand-new controller, or one you have reset, with no network connection starts quietly advertising over Bluetooth. The app finds it, you prove you are standing right next to it, you pick your WiFi, and the controller joins. From there it's online and ready to connect to your Studio uplink.
\n![\"The](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/flow-4201175329597c3fc8ba0d48eb2c2600.jpg\")
The whole thing takes about a minute:
\nHere is the part I love. A controller waiting for setup has no network and no credentials yet, which is exactly the moment it would be easiest for the wrong person to get into. So before the app can change a single thing, the controller blinks its status LED blue and asks you to walk over and press the physical front button within 30 seconds.
\nIt is a small thing that does a lot. It proves the person setting up WiFi is actually standing at the controller, not a curious guest who happened to open the app from across the room. No press, no setup. I would much rather ask you to tap one extra button than leave a controller in your attraction open to anyone nearby.
\nWhile we were in there, we added something I wish I had carried around for years: an animated reference for every status LED state, matched to exactly what your controller does in the field. Blue pulse, green blink, the purple lockout, the red fault codes, all of it. The next time you are squinting at a controller in a dark hallway trying to remember what \"slow blue pulse\" means, it is right there in your hand. It links straight to the full Status LED guide too.
\n\nTo the haunts and escape rooms who let us test this on real installs and told us how to improve things: thank you. This one is for you, and it is better because of you.
\nIgorBox Connect is free and live on both stores today. Download it, take it to your next install, and leave the cable in the bag. Then come tell us how it went on Discord. I read every note.
\n\nLet's make some magic. ✨
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/2026/06/27/igorbox-connect", "title": "Introducing IgorBox Connect", "summary": "Some of the best feedback we get never shows up in a bug report. It comes from observing what happens at an install and watching someone on a ladder trying to plug an Ethernet cable into a controller that was only ever going to live on WiFi, just to get it online for the very first time.", "date_modified": "2026-06-27T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Eesa Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "IgorBox", "Announcements" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/2026/06/22/studio-updates", "content_html": "The last few weeks have been busy. We've shipped a wave of improvements to the\nshow editor, real-time collaboration, mobile support, and the overall polish of\nthe Studio experience. Here's a rundown of what's new.
\nProgramming color fixtures (like the LED Controller) got a major upgrade. If you caught May's State of the Lab you saw a demo of the new Color Groups feature that allows you to create color groups to do the color mixing for you.
\n![\"Color](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/colorgroups-cff300f3bb1fd87f2dd86228e9970913.png\")
Working on the same studio as a teammate is now far less of a guessing game.
\nOne thing we have heard from many of our users is that making sure audio is IgorBox compatible can be tough. What's the difference between CBR and VBR mp3 files? What is 24bit vs 16bit audio? In the last release we made callouts to make sure you were aware if your audio was going to work. In this release, we improved it even more. We now process your audio on upload into a conforming format. Going forward, your uploaded audio files will work because we make sure they will work.
\nAs an added feature here, we process beat and EQ information so that when you use our new Audio Aware Generators, they just work.
\nIf you haven't used our generators, you are missing a super cool feature that lets us do the tedious stuff to give you a great head start. Things like candle flicker, light chases, random flashes, etc. In this release, we made them audio aware!
\n![\"Audio](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/audio-generator-95ff3b947787a669cd83321cc4a83541.png\")
Audio is the backbone of a great scene, but lining your props up to it by ear is fiddly. Open any media file, click the three-dot menu, and choose Edit transcript to get a labeled, time-aligned map of your track. Add a transcript so you can see exactly where every word lands, or switch to the Events tab to mark key moments like a \"Thunder crash\" or a \"Woman scream.\" With every word and sound pinned to the timeline, you can place cues to the precise moment instead of eyeballing the waveform. And with lip-sync mode, a mouth moves to the words, not to that scream between sentences.
\n![\"Transcript](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/transcript-9936b7c5bc736999ef76cd81b01bf960.png\")
Shows are no longer one and done. You can now build playback that runs the way a\nreal attraction needs it to:
\nWe also added deployed-state badges that update live in the editor, so you\nalways know whether what you're looking at is the deployed version or an unsaved\ndraft.
\nAnd, because a looping show will run until stopped or taken over, we added a handy little Stop Show button on all the controller pages next to Manual Control. This will stop a running show and return to ambient.
\nFrom day one of IgorBox, we want IgorBox studio to be mobile friendly and just as\ngood for mobile as it is on desktop. The timeline editor and the rule editor are\nnow genuinely usable on a touchscreen. This was a big one for on-site work where a\nlaptop isn't always practical.
\nBring an iPad to the install and program right there in front of the props.
\nLots of smaller refinements that add up:
\nOn-site programming got a lot more cooperative.
\nThat's the roundup. As always, these land continuously, so keep an eye on the new\nannouncement banner for the highlights, and happy programming. 🎃
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/2026/06/22/studio-updates", "title": "Studio Updates for June", "summary": "The last few weeks have been busy. We've shipped a wave of improvements to the", "date_modified": "2026-06-22T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Mike Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "IgorBox", "Changelog", "New Release" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/2026/05/13/new-release-2-1-0", "content_html": "The latest IgorBox release lands today, and it's a big one. We've spent the last few cycles focused on two things our community has been asking for: making the timeline editor feel even better to work in, and turning Logic Rules into a real visual programming surface for the kinds of effects you've been dreaming up.
\nGrab a coffee. There's a lot here.
\n![\"Pencil](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/pen1-034a35d6cdba8468eaf9c978f4736833.gif\")
If you have an iPad, this one's for you. The Apple Pencil now draws continuous curves directly onto your LED Controller tracks. Just put the tip down and sweep. Each grid cell you cross drops a smooth control point, and the curve follows your hand exactly the way you'd expect.
\nWacom pens get the same treatment on desktop. Once your pen touches the tablet, the timeline knows you're drawing and behaves accordingly.
\nFor everyone else, the click‑and‑drag and tap‑to‑add flows you already know are unchanged. But you can also draw a curve by clicking and holding with the right mouse button instead of the left.
\nThere's a new loop button in the transport bar. Flip it on and playback wraps back to the start instead of stopping at the end. Perfect for tightening up a section while it's running in front of you.
\nPair it with a range selection and the loop tightens up to just that range. The range tool now stays out of your way while looping is on, so you can keep switching between select, draw, and split without losing your loop. Your loop preference is remembered per show.
\nThis only applies to editing playback and live preview. This does not cause a show to loop once deployed.
![\"Copy](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/copy-range1-9dbf5c0e70d62021f1033dd656fd831c.gif\")
Make a range selection, hit Ctrl+C (Cmd+C on Mac), and everything inside that range is on your clipboard: clips, control points, audio, all of it. Audio clips clamped at the boundaries get their trim adjusted automatically so the copied chunk plays back the way you'd expect.
\nIf you trimmed a show's duration in Show Settings and you had an audio clip that was going to get clipped, the audio clip would just be removed. We have fixed this very annoying bug and now when you shorten your show, your audio clips shorten as well.
\n![\"Audio](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/audio-incompat-238e895022d0d1126bb625e305d15a61.png\")
Although our controllers support multiple audio formats (like MP3, WAV, and FLAC), not all possible formats are supported. The studio now checks every audio file against the controllers it'll play on, and tells you about problems before you deploy:
\nNo more surprises at showtime because a file silently wouldn't decode.
\nWe've been steadily building out IgorBox's visual logic editor, and this release is the biggest leap yet. Four new node types, full revision history, and a much friendlier editing experience as we inch closer to getting the Logic Rules system out of \"Beta\".
\nYou must upgrade your controller to firmware version 2.1.0+ to get these new features.
Logic Rules now version the way Shows do.
\nBuilder tier users get one prior version of history; Pro and Enterprise get unlimited.
\n![\"Sequence](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/sequence1-f24a6177ca60dbee2084eac9608d4e7d.gif\")
The new Sequence node fires when a series of inputs are activated in a specific order. Two modes:
\nUp to 7 step inputs per sequence, in any order you choose, with a reset port that snaps progress back to the beginning whenever you need it.
\nThe Morse Code node listens to a single button or input and fires when the rhythm of presses matches a pattern. Tap‑to‑record lets you press the pattern yourself instead of typing dots and dashes, and there are presets for SOS and OK if you want a quick start.
\nThis is the building block for escape rooms, themed installations, or anywhere \"the right knock at the right door\" is part of the magic.
\nChannel Hold takes ownership of an output and holds it at a specific value until the rule's Reset fires. While a channel is held, shows, ambient shows, and manual control are all locked out. Only the rule that grabbed it can release it.
\nYou can hold local outputs on the controller running the rule, OR target an output on a different controller in your studio. That means one button on Controller A can latch an output on Controller B until a separate reset frees it. Perfect for cross‑prop puzzle dependencies.
\nThe studio shows you exactly which channels are held and which rule is holding them, with tooltips explaining how to release them.
\n![\"Reset](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/reset1-47e577dacfbf46c8a8cb371dcf609807.gif\")
A new Reset node clears the state of every node in your logic tree on a single activation. Perfect for \"reset puzzle\" buttons. Each Reset node is scoped to the rule it lives in, so you can have multiple rules on a single controller and each rule can have its own \"master reset\" button.
\nThe Delay node got a real state machine behind it with three modes that make sense:
\n![\"Ambient](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/ambient-recovery-10f537594c7cc0e7e7cafcfe87b7d88b.png\")
If your studio has an ambient show set, you can now configure each show to:
\nYou'll find it in Show Settings under \"Ambient Recovery.\" Lovely for haunts, immersive installations, and any space where you need to ease back into an ambient show already in progress.
\nThis setting is found on the show that has taken over. Each show that is played can handle the ambient recovery differently.
If two shows try to use the same input on the same controller, that creates a strange situation because the controller can only play one show at a time. The show editor now detects this and disables conflicting trigger picks, surfacing the conflicting show inline so you know exactly what's in the way.
\n![\"Reboot](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/reboot-18a639b99853a9f214849e784df6d845.png\")
There's a new Reboot button on the Technical Details tab of every controller. One click, one confirmation, and your controller restarts cleanly. The button stays disabled if a controller's firmware is too old to support it, with a tooltip telling you so.
\nWhen a controller comes back online after a firmware update, the studio now picks it up instantly instead of waiting for the previous connection to time out. This also fixes a bug where a controller would have a green status LED but just shows \"connecting\" on the controller's overview page for about 60 seconds.
\nThis studio release ships hand‑in‑hand with a major firmware update for your controllers. When you accept the update prompt, here's what your hardware gets:
\nNew on the controller side of Logic Rules
\nAudio and ambient
\nReliability
\nThe new studio release is live right now. Open up the studio and your new features are waiting. Note that many of them require firmware v2.1.0+.
\nFirmware v2.1.0 is also available and all your controllers should have an \"upgrade firmware\" prompt on their controller overview page. Just accept the prompt when it's convenient. Many of our new features (Channel Hold, Sequence, Master Reset, Ambient Recovery, Reboot) need v2.1.0 to work, and the studio will tell you when a controller is still on an older version and a feature isn't available.
\nAs always, thanks for building wild things with IgorBox.
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/2026/05/13/new-release-2-1-0", "title": "Huge Update, Version 2.1.0", "summary": "The latest IgorBox release lands today, and it's a big one. We've spent the last few cycles focused on two things our community has been asking for: making the timeline editor feel even better to work in, and turning Logic Rules into a real visual programming surface for the kinds of effects you've been dreaming up.", "date_modified": "2026-05-13T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Mike Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "IgorBox", "Changelog", "New Release", "Firmware" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/2026/05/01/new-release-2-0-4", "content_html": "Now that we're back from the East Coast Haunters Convention (ECHC), we didn't waste any time getting back at it. For those of you that have been with us on the Beta side, you know how fast we fix bugs, but now that we've launched, this is our first real \"public\" update. The first of many to come.
\nWe have a number of improvements and bug fixes we added to this new version of firmware along with some studio enhancements to go along with them.
\nLet's jump right into what we added.
\nThe first thing we've added is the concept of \"Safe States\" for channels when using Hard Lock on a controller. From day one, we envisioned Hard Lock as an E-Stop-style way to halt a show during an emergency event. This was based on our\nexisting \"Soft Lock\" function that works like a lockout-tagout function where it pauses the controller exactly where it is until released. The problem is that pausing everything in place during an emergency can't guarantee\na \"safe state\".
\nLet me explain through an example. Imagine a controller running a magnetic lock on one channel and stage lighting on another. If Hard Lock simply pauses everything in place, the lock could stay engaged and the lights could be off; not what you want during an emergency. Unplugging the controller drops the lock (the relay de-energizes) but leaves the lights off.\nWhat you really want is for the controller to de-energize the lock channel and drive the light channels to 100% on the same trigger. That's what the new \"Safe State\" setting on each channel does. By default we\nhold the state until power cycled, but you can now override that per-channel.
\nIgorBox is a show-control system, not a certified life-safety device. Always pair it with code-compliant safety hardware appropriate to your venue.
At the show last week, while we were demo-ing, we would show you that the controller would lockout during network operations like downloading new media files or firmware. This would show the Purple Blink \"Lockout\" indication on the status LED. But it didn't\ngive any feedback on the controller about how far along it was. So we had a couple awkward moments waiting for the controller to finish and not knowing when that would be.
\nWell, we fixed that! Now when you are downloading or uploading files, the 8 front channel LEDs are used to indicate the percentage it has completed. You can use the LEDs on the front to show you how much has been done and how much is left to do at a quick\nglance. It answers the questions \"is it doing anything?\" and \"when will it be done?\".
\nThis new feature is baked into the networking stack so all file transfers should use this indication going forward.
\nWe have introduced a new crash reporting system. It's pretty rare for controllers to crash but when they do, it's very helpful for us to get the crash report from the controller. We have added a new button to the controller overview page that shows when a crash report is\npresent on your controller. Studio admins can choose to clear it off of the controller or submit it to us. Submitting locks the controller for about 5 seconds while it uploads to our servers. The report contains controller diagnostics only — firmware state, stack traces, and timing data. No show content, media, or customer data is included. This notifies us and lets\nus dig into what happened and implement fixes even faster. This is so much better than the old way we were getting these crash reports.
\nIf you have a crash report on your controller, just submit it to us when you have 5-10 seconds to spare in your show. We really appreciate it.
\nThis was something we were seeing happen intermittently and surfaced a couple of times at the show last weekend. I had a chance to put some traces on the demo controllers and dug into it a bit this week. It turns out there was a narrow timing edge case during first boot where\na controller could get stuck waiting for the internet before starting the ambient show. Normal offline operation was not affected. This was extremely hard to pin down but we figured it out. This has been fixed in this version.
\nIf you added a particularly large media file to the timeline and started a live preview session, the controller would miss some check-ins during the download of the file. This would cause it to drop offline with the uplink. It recovered fine, but it was confusing\nfor anyone that saw it happen. We have fixed this now. This fix coupled with the new network transfer indication makes live preview with new media files feel much more reliable even though nothing really changed on the live preview system directly.
\nThis has been something we've seen happen occasionally on the new controllers. It surfaced enough at the show last weekend that it bothered me enough to dig into it right when I got home. Turns out this was a timing and priority issue that needed a single\ntweak to fix. The LEDs are rock solid now and don't flicker even when the controller is loaded to 100%.
\nWe have a bunch of new feature enhancement tickets and some other bigger project tickets from last week's show that we'll be working on. For those that have been with us for a while, you know more firmware updates are right around the corner. For those of you that picked\nup new controllers last week, welcome! If you have any issues or need enhancements, just reach out: help@igorbox.com. Until the next one, let's keep building the awesome!
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/2026/05/01/new-release-2-0-4", "title": "Version 2.0.4 Available, Here's What's New", "summary": "Now that we're back from the East Coast Haunters Convention (ECHC), we didn't waste any time getting back at it. For those of you that have been with us on the Beta side, you know how fast we fix bugs, but now that we've launched, this is our first real \"public\" update. The first of many to come.", "date_modified": "2026-05-01T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Mike Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "IgorBox", "Changelog", "New Release", "Firmware" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/2026/04/30/back-from-echc", "content_html": "Hi friends. We made it home.
\nEast Coast Haunters Convention was last weekend, and I am writing this from my couch with a cup of tea and a voice that still sounds like I gargled gravel. The whole team is wiped out in the best possible way. If you stopped by booth 514 to say hi, ran one of the new controllers through its paces, asked us a hard question, or just gave us a hug after the long quiet; thank you. Truly.
\nI don't think any of us were fully prepared for the energy at the show. After a year of heads-down work and a very deliberate stretch of saying very little, walking onto that floor and finally getting to put the new controllers in front of people was honestly emotional. We had folks who have been with us since Midwest Haunters in 2023 swing by, alongside operators who had never heard of us before Saturday morning. Both groups walked away excited, and that meant the world to me and the team.
\nWe had three controllers running live demos on the booth, and Mike was doing personal \"build-a-show\" walk through demos with people and I think every single one of our controllers got picked up, poked at, and grilled. That's exactly what we wanted. The \"can it do this?\" questions were better than I could have hoped for, and a few of them were good enough that I scribbled them down in my notebook and discussed at length on the 15 hour drive home.
\nThis is the part I keep coming back to.
\nTradeshows are a lot of work. The booth, the travel, the standing on concrete for days, the talking until your throat gives out. But the reason we do it, the only reason we do it, is the people. And this show delivered on that in a way I will be thinking about for a long time.
\nWe got to meet pro haunt operators that are building some of the coolest new things in the industry. We had real, in-the-flesh conversations with escape room owners who are doing some of the most creative things. We caught up with vendors and friends and competitors-who-are-really-friends, and I left every single one of those conversations with something to chew on.
\nA few of them have already turned into \"let's get on a call next week\" follow-ups. A few of them turned into ideas I cannot stop thinking about and bugging Mike about.
\nHere's where I have to do the thing where we share without sharing, but I promise I won't make you wait a year this time.
\nThe conversations we had at ECHC, and the feedback we collected from people running our controllers in real spaces, are already shaping the next round of work. Some of it is software. Some of it is hardware. Some of it is stuff I genuinely did not expect to be working on a week ago, and now I can't imagine us not doing.
\nI'm not ready to put names on any of it yet. The team needs a minute to come up for air, and then we need to sit down and figure out the order of operations. But I will say this: a few of the things we're lining up are the kind of \"oh, that's the missing piece\" features that I think are going to make a lot of you very happy.
\nWe'll start sharing more in the coming weeks and months. Mike will probably get into the technical side of some of it on his own, because he cannot help himself, and honestly I love that about him.
\nTo everyone who came by the booth, who told us what's working and what isn't, who introduced us to a friend, who put a sticker on our trash can... thank you! To the haunt and escape room partners who let us run their feedback through this whole launch... your fingerprints are all over what we showed at the booth, and they're going to be all over what comes next too.
\nWe're tired. We're a little hoarse. And we are so, so energized.
\nOnward.
\nTalk soon.
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/2026/04/30/back-from-echc", "title": "We're Back From ECHC!", "summary": "Hi friends. We made it home.", "date_modified": "2026-04-30T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Eesa Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Haunt Industry", "IgorBox", "Tradeshows" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/2026/04/24/our-new-controllers", "content_html": "This is the post I have been wanting to write for over a year.
\nAfter all the late nights, the rebuilds, the quiet, and the long stretch of working hand-in-hand with professional haunts and escape rooms, I am so unbelievably proud to introduce the new IgorBox controller lineup. Three controllers. One platform. Built from the ground up with the people who actually use this stuff in the field.
\nEvery controller in the new lineup is built on the same foundation — the same network stack, the same audio hardware, the same setup flow, and the same IgorBox Studio experience. Ethernet or WiFi. Stereo line out and 32 GB of onboard storage on every single one.
\nPick whichever controller fits the job. They all speak the same language.
\nThree of the things I'm most proud of are not features of any one controller — they're the new shared experience that runs through all of them.
\nThese are the things you didn't know to ask for that you're going to feel every single day.
\nThe everyday workhorse. The follow-up to the original Output 8, refined with everything we learned during early access.
\nThe headline feature is our Multistate Relay™ technology. Six of the eight outputs can switch between standard relay and solid-state mode in software. You no longer have to commit at install time to whether a channel is for a powering a solenoid or for closing a connection.
\nTwo 3A relays for the heavier inrush stuff. Two isolated inputs for triggers. This is the controller you reach for when you need pneumatics, lights, and motors all in one box.
\nRead the Output 8 MKII overview →
\nThis is the one I am the most personally excited about, because it is genuinely a new shape of product for us.
\nSixteen isolated inputs in a single box. Plus two 1.5A relay outputs for maglocks, indicators, or trigger wires to other systems. Every button, footswitch, reed sensor, IR beam, RFID reader, photo gate, and puzzle prop in your attraction can report to one place — and from there, Logic Rules decides what happens next.
\nFor escape rooms especially, this is a huge unlock. The entire room's puzzle logic can live as one visual rule with all sixteen inputs feeding into it. No more thinking about which controller \"owns\" which sensor.
\n\nSixteen low-current dimmable channels at 12V or 24V. Smooth dimming, perfect for indicator panels, puzzle boards, \"puzzle solved\" lights, or driving the input of an external power stage.
\nWhen you need real lighting loads — panel LEDs, parcans, spotlights, strips — pair it with the RGBW-PWR breakout and you get up to 120W of lighting across 4 channels per board.
\nIt also has two isolated inputs, because we want it to drop into existing systems without hassle.
\nRead the LED Controller overview →
\nThis is the part that I think is honestly the bigger story.
\nEvery one of these controllers shows up in Studio the same way. You provision them the same way. You wire them the same way. You build shows for them the same way. The Input 16 doesn't have a different \"input language\" than the Output 8 MKII. The LED Controller's two isolated inputs work just like every other isolated input on the platform. Any input on any controller in your studio can trigger any show on any controller! No wires required! No more running output relays to inputs for triggering. Use the onboard relays for your show. Use our interconnected system to design how you want it triggered.
\nThat consistency is not an accident. It is what we spent the last year fighting for. It's why we tore so much down and rebuilt it. Every haunt and escape room partner we worked with told us the same thing in different words: make it predictable, make it consistent, make it reliable, and make it stop fighting me. So that's what we built.
\nTo the haunts and escape rooms who let us into your spaces, ran our prototypes through real shows, and gave us the kind of feedback you can only get from people doing the work — thank you. You shaped this. Your fingerprints are on every page of the docs and every line of the firmware.
\nTo everyone who waited through the silence — thank you for sticking with us. I hope this was worth the wait.
\nIf you're at ECHC this weekend, come find us at booth 514. We'll have all three controllers up and running, and I would love to put one in your hands.
\nIf you're not at the show, the docs are live now. Start with the Lineup Overview and pick the one that fits your build.
\nLet's make some magic.
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/2026/04/24/our-new-controllers", "title": "Meet the New Igorbox Controllers", "summary": "This is the post I have been wanting to write for over a year.", "date_modified": "2026-04-24T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Eesa Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "IgorBox", "Announcements" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/2026/04/10/echc2026", "content_html": "It's happening! We are heading to the East Coast Haunters Convention in Philadelphia on April 25th and 26th, and you can find us at booth 514.
\nIf you've been following along, you already know we've been quietly working on something big. ECHC is where we finally pull back the curtain. We'll be revealing everything at the show; what we've been building and what it means for your haunt or escape room.
\nCome say hi, ask us anything, and see it in person. Bring your questions, bring your friends, and bring your toughest \"can it do this?\" challenges. We can't wait to show you what's been keeping us heads-down all year.
\nSee you in Philly!
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/2026/04/10/echc2026", "title": "Come See Us at ECHC 2026!", "summary": "It's happening! We are heading to the East Coast Haunters Convention in Philadelphia on April 25th and 26th, and you can find us at booth 514.", "date_modified": "2026-04-10T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Eesa Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Haunt Industry", "IgorBox", "Tradeshows" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/2025/12/21/new-things-are-coming", "content_html": "Hi friends. It's been a while.
\nI know we've been pretty quiet around here for about a year now and I want to thank everyone who has reached out, checked in, and kept the faith with us through the silence. I read every message, even when I haven't always had the bandwidth to respond the way you all deserve. The short version is: we haven't gone anywhere. The longer version is what this post is about.
\nThe truth is, after the tariff chaos earlier this year and the decision to skip Transworld, we made a choice as a team to stop talking and start building. Not because we didn't have anything to say, but because we had something much bigger we wanted to say later, and the only way to get there was to put our heads down.
\nFor most of this year, Mike and the tech team have been working hand in hand with a small group of professional haunts and escape room operators. Real venues. Real shows. Real, honest, sometimes brutal feedback from people who run this stuff for a living and have no patience for tools that don't pull their weight. These are operators we trust, and they trusted us back, and what came out of those conversations changed the trajectory of what we're building entirely.
\nI won't pretend it's been a comfortable year. There have been long nights, hard re-designs, and moments where we questioned whether we were on the right track. But every single time we got a unit into a real environment and watched it run, it told us something we couldn't have learned in our shop. We listened. We tore things down. We built them back up better.
\nI'll be honest with you, I'm not going to tell you. Not yet.
\nWhat I will say is that this isn't a refresh. It isn't a small bump or a \"now in a new color\" announcement. This is a new generation of controllers, designed from the ground up alongside the people who actually use them in the field. Everything we learned in early access, everything we heard at Transworld, every late-night Discord conversation about what was missing — it all fed into this.
\nI want to do this right. I want the reveal to mean something. So you're going to have to bear with me for a little longer while we put the finishing touches on it.
\nHere's what I can tell you about the road ahead:
\nI know \"something big is coming\" is the oldest line in the book, and I've sat through enough teasers in this industry to know how exhausting they can be. So I'm not going to keep teasing forever. We've earned the right to talk about what we've been doing, and very soon, we will.
\nFor now, thank you for sticking with us through the quiet. The team has poured everything into this one, and I genuinely cannot wait for you to see it.
\nTalk soon.
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/2025/12/21/new-things-are-coming", "title": "New Stuff in the Works!", "summary": "Hi friends. It's been a while.", "date_modified": "2025-12-21T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Eesa Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Haunt Industry", "IgorBox" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/2025/04/24/waiting-for-the-dust-to-settle", "content_html": "Back in February I wrote a blog post explaining why we weren't going to make it to Transworld. You can read that here.
\nI wanted to expand a little on what the plans for IgorBox are in the face of all the uncertainty in the United States manufacturing and trade climate. Like a lot of small electronics businesses, our supply chain reaches overseas, and the recent tariff changes are squeezing us in ways we have to plan around.
\nTo start, I want to give a small break down of how the tariffs affect us and our products.
\nFirstly, the manufacture and assembly of our PCBs makes up a large share of the underlying cost of our devices. With the current tariff rates, the effective import cost of a finished PCB can be more than double what we pay our manufacturer for it. Our margins aren't large enough to absorb that, so without changes we'd have to raise prices in ways we're not comfortable with.
\nBased on this, it's clear that we need to revisit where our manufacturing is done if tariffs stay where they are. That's a real challenge for us — we recently finished tooling and stocking up at our existing manufacturing partner, and shifting takes time and money. We've paused new production while we evaluate alternative partners and run samples and test builds with them.
\nThe second issue is the components themselves. A lot of the parts we use are subject to the same tariffs no matter where the boards are assembled. To reduce that exposure, we've launched a full review of our schematics to identify alternative parts for the most expensive items where we can do so without compromising quality.
\nWith all this said, I am sure we are not the only electronics company in this situation and I know that many of our friends, colleagues, partners, and competitors also face this same dilemma. I'm also positive that we are all looking at similar options and avenues to ease the retail costs while delivering quality products. I know that paying more for the same thing is not something anyone is interested in doing, and I certainly don't want to raise prices either.
\nBeyond all of this work we are doing internally to mitigate cost spikes to our customers caused by these tariffs, we are also hopeful that deals will be made and the overall tariff burden from China will go down. We just need the dust to settle out to see where we need to further invest in the short and mid term. Our goal is to provide the best value to our customers, and we will continue to work towards this.
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/2025/04/24/waiting-for-the-dust-to-settle", "title": "Waiting for the Dust to Settle", "summary": "Back in February I wrote a blog post explaining why we weren't going to make it to Transworld. You can read that here.", "date_modified": "2025-04-24T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Eesa Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Haunt Industry", "IgorBox", "Tradeshows" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/not-making-transworld", "content_html": "I first want to say that the entire team is absolutely gutted we aren't going to make it to the show this year. It was one of the toughest decisions I had to make.
\nIt's been amazing year for us here at Rising Orchards and IgorBox. Last year we made our debut with a preview of what we had in development at the Transworld Halloween and Attraction Show in St. Louis and it was a huge hit. We got some people on our early access program and were very hopeful we would be able to bring our products for general availability to the show this year. That's not what happened...
\nSo what happened? The short answer is \"a lot\" with some being good and some not so good.
\nWe shipped real products to real haunts for testing in our early access program! We saw real usage and fixed a ton of bugs along the way. A huge shout out goes to the development team for the absolute stellar job they did to support these early access users. During this time we shipped two major firmware changes based on feedback and tweaked the web application countless times. The Halloween season was blur for us here.
\nBeyond all of this, we made a huge effort to get organized and ready for a major launch at Transworld this year. We got our online store ready, our backend payments systems, our support systems, and even our accounting. It was all coming together for Februrary 27th... But something wasn't right.
\nDuring the Halloween season, we identified some hardware flaws that needed to be addressed. We also realized that our firmware strategy wasn't going to be scalable to the product line we had in development. Something needed to be done.
\nWe had a company meeting and discussed our options and after quite a lot of debate, it was clear the right thing to do was to redesign the hardware and make huge changes to the firmware to support what we had planned.
\nThe tech team spent all of November and December blasting 12-14 hour days to design all new PCBs. They worked through huge firmware changes and refactored large amounts of the codebase. They even made some pretty deep changes in the web application. All with the goal of having the new version testable by the end of the year. Afterall, we needed to test and stress these new designs before we made them available to everyone at Transworld.
\nWell, the amount of stress and working through nights and weekends caught up to us. Mike and I both got pretty sick at the end of December. So much so, we couldn't meet our hard deadline of having prototypes ready. We were devastated. Mike even tried to make hail mary it the first week of January but his \"sick\" was different than mine and he was just not able to really function (It took him a full month to recover). Therefore, I called it. Our health is more important. We tried and we just didn't make it. There is no point in continuing to run ourselves into the ground because we simply don't have enough time to properly stress test the new systems and hunt out all the significant bugs. I'm still upset about having to make the hard decision to call Rich and pull the plug on our booth this year.
\nWe had considered this, but we had nothing to really sell last year, and to come back in the same position a year later didn't seem like we would be making our position in the industry any better. Besides, just going to the tradeshow is stressful. The booth setup, the costs for all the venue things like power, air, internet, etc. It just distracts us from continuing to improve our new devices. We are committed to your success with our system. Our time is better spent laser focused on our products right now.
\nI can tell you what we have on the stress-test bench right now is an absolute dream product and I have been so incredibly excited to show everyone and get them in your hands, but rushing it to make the tradeshow would do everyone, from our technology team to our customers, a disservice.
\nSo the plan is simple, deliver the best products that enable our users to make absolute magic.
\nBut most importantly, I want to make it clear that we are not stopping and we're doubling down to build the best system on the market. It's just taking more time than we all realized here.
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/not-making-transworld", "title": "We Won't Make it to Transworld This Year", "summary": "I first want to say that the entire team is absolutely gutted we aren't going to make it to the show this year. It was one of the toughest decisions I had to make.", "date_modified": "2025-02-15T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Eesa Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Haunt Industry", "IgorBox", "Tradeshows" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/new-feedback-form", "content_html": "Today we're happy to announce a new feedback form that will allow you to send us feedback directly from the IgorBox web interface. This is a great way to let us know about any issues you're having, suggest new features, or just tell us how much you love IgorBox!
\nStarting today, you'll see a new \"Feedback\" button in the bottom right corner of the IgorBox web interface. If you click on this button, a form will pop up that you can use to send us your feedback.
\n![\"Feedback](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/feedback-button-3687b520f2faa51272e838596f7e0c83.png\")
The form is pretty simple. You just choose if you're suggesting a feature or reporting a bug and enter your message. That's it! When you click \"submit\", the data is sent into our staff chat on Discord and a notification is sent to our team.
\n![\"Feedback](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/suggestion-320c8d1943d048f6a8281527f7916e5c.png\")
We will capture the page that you are submitting feedback from and include that in the message so we can better understand the context of your feedback. So feel free to send us feedback from anywhere in the IgorBox web interface with your suggestions on how we can make that page you're on better!
\nOnce we have had a chance to evaluate your feedback, we'll add it to our feedback tracker at feedback.igorbox.com and you'll be able to see the status of your feedback there as we work on it.
\nWe hope you enjoy this new feature and we can't wait to hear from you! If you have any questions or feedback about the feedback form, feel free to reach out to us at feedback.igorbox.com or directly on Discord at discord.igorbox.com. We're always happy to help and we love hearing from you!
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/new-feedback-form", "title": "New Feedback Form", "summary": "Today we're happy to announce a new feedback form that will allow you to send us feedback directly from the IgorBox web interface. This is a great way to let us know about any issues you're having, suggest new features, or just tell us how much you love IgorBox!", "date_modified": "2024-09-27T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Eesa Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Product Updates", "IgorBox", "Beta", "Features" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/hints-and-ambient", "content_html": "We have a couple cool new features we want to talk about today including a new hints system and ambient composition support for IgorBoxes. We also have a new Firmware release (version 1.0.5) that includes a bunch of bug fixes and improvements. Let's dive in!
\nStarting today, you'll be able to toggle hints on and off in the IgorBox web interface. This is a great way to get a little extra help when you're first starting out or if you're trying to figure out how to do something new. If you click on your name in the top right corner of the screen, you'll see a \"Show Hints\" toggle that you can use to turn hints on and off.
\n![\"Hints](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/hint-button-d64ac59ab77c79338d185e1ef03fd52b.png\")
If you're on a smaller screen like a mobile device, you tap on the top left \"hamburger\" menu and you'll find the \"Show Hints\" toggle there.
\n![\"Hints](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/hint-button-mobile-25125ca8f73d7b6d61f45adfdc735091.png\")
The hints system relies on mouse hover actions, so it is not available on touch devices. We are still trying to figure out a good way to implement hints on touch devices, so stay tuned for updates on that.
When the hints system is active, hovering over elements on a page will give a detailed explaination and even some pro-tips on how to use that element. This is a great way to learn how to use the IgorBox web interface and to get the most out of it.
\n![\"Hints](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/hints-header-ac1c83c2a18f0466da826aec02f3c990.png\")
We have added a bunch of hints already, but there will be more to come in the future. We have a lot of plans for the hints system and we're excited to see how it evolves.
\nWith the new Firmware release (version 1.0.5 -- more on that later) we have added support for ambient compositions! An ambient composition is played in a loop when no other compositions are active on the box. This is a great way to add some background sound effects or small movements to your environment while waiting for something to be triggered.
\nTo make a composition an \"ambient composition\", you just activate the \"Ambient\" toggle on the composition settings page or when you create a new composition. This will make the composition play in a loop when no other compositions are active.
\n![\"Ambient](\"https://help.igorbox.com/assets/images/ambient-toggle-0f840e656f8d41b0daf3ae76a13ab14c.png\")
Ambient compositions deactivate any input triggers assigned to the composition.
You can only have one Ambient composition per IgorBox.
The last thing I want to talk about is all the changees that are in the new Firmware release (version 1.0.5). This release includes a bunch of bug fixes and improvements in addition to the ambient support. Here are some of the highlights (you can read the full change log here):
\nWe hope you enjoy these new features and improvements and we can't wait to see what you create with them!
\nAs always, if you have any questions or feedback, feel free to reach out to us at feedback.igorbox.com or directly on Discord at discord.igorbox.com. We're always happy to help and we love hearing from you!
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/hints-and-ambient", "title": "Hints and Ambient Support", "summary": "We have a couple cool new features we want to talk about today including a new hints system and ambient composition support for IgorBoxes. We also have a new Firmware release (version 1.0.5) that includes a bunch of bug fixes and improvements. Let's dive in!", "date_modified": "2024-09-18T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Eesa Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Product Updates", "IgorBox", "Beta", "Features" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/transworld-2024-feedback", "content_html": "We had a great time at Transworld 2024 and we wanted to thank everyone who stopped by our booth to check out the IgorBox controllers and give us feedback. We heard you loud and clear and we are working on making the changes that many of you suggested. We are also working on a few other surprises that we will be announcing soon.
\nHere are some of the items that we heard from you that we have been busy working on:
\nWe are also working on a few other surprises that we will be announcing soon.
\nOur goal is to get boxes out for early access as soon as possible and we are working hard to make that happen. We will keep you updated as we make progress and we will let you know as soon as we have a release dates.
\nIf you are on our Discord server, you will be the first to know everything and have the earliest access to all the new features. Plus you can also chat with us there and join in on the livestreams. If you are not on our Discord server, you can join by going to discord.igorbox.com.
\nI want to stress that 2024 is going to be \"early access\" for the system. I think it goes without saying that a cloud-connected, wirelessly integrated, and synchronized system is very complicated and totally new for this industry in many ways. This means that we have quite a few \"hard problems\" we've had to engineer our way around. The system will have bugs and rough edges that we will need to work through together. If you're comfortable with that, then we would love to have you join us in the beta. We are absolutely committed to making the IgorBox system the best it can be and we will be working hard to fix everything that comes up as quickly as we can. We've put quite a bit of effort into making the system remotely updatable so that we can fix things without you having to send your devices back to us or even having to do any complicated updates yourself. We will be able to push updates to your system and you will be able to update your devices with a single click.
\nWe thank you for your support so far and we can't wait to get the IgorBox system into your hands. Stay tuned for more updates!
\nPS: Just a reminder that our LabRats are available and shipping now! To get yours click here.
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/transworld-2024-feedback", "title": "We Heard You at Transworld", "summary": "We had a great time at Transworld 2024 and we wanted to thank everyone who stopped by our booth to check out the IgorBox controllers and give us feedback. We heard you loud and clear and we are working on making the changes that many of you suggested. We are also working on a few other surprises that we will be announcing soon.", "date_modified": "2024-05-17T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Mike Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Product Updates", "IgorBox", "Beta" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/project-update-beta", "content_html": "It's the 16th of October and we would love to be so much further along than we are today. We have had an incredible amount of setbacks and delays, but we are still working on the beta and we are still working on getting it out to you as soon as possible. At the same time, I want to be transparent about what's been going on and why we are where we are.
\nFirst let's start with the good. We have been making steady progress and have locked down our circuit designs and worked out the bugs we were having on the hardware side. It took 3 full revisions, but the the burn in tests have resulted in no errors in the firmware and the hardware has been rock solid. We are even running a few of the beta boards in our own yard haunt this year to further battle test it.
\nOn the programming side, we have made huge progress and have a number of cool new features and surprises that we are excited to show you. I'm sure you've noticed that the website (www.igorbox.com) has been changing and you can now pre-order to get in line for the first run of IgorBox controllers! Along side these changes, we have also been working on the documentation and have a number of new articles and videos that we will be releasing with the beta when it's ready.
\nNow let's talk about our setbacks and what is holding us up. The first is that components are still in short supply. We have been able to get enough to build a run of 5 test boards to validate the revision fixed some of our hardware problems. However, when we tried to order a run of 50 boards, not even a week later, two key components were not available. To make it worse, the alternatives that would work are also not in stock in most places. This throws a huge wrench in the works as we need to find a new solution that will work with the existing design and that we can get in a reasonable time frame and be able to test and validate it. The other option is to stock our own parts with the manufacturer, but that takes time too. Our current lead time on boards has gone from about a week to 4-6 weeks if we don't change our design (that we now know works perfectly). This is all so frustrating.
\nBeyond the component shortage, Lisa and I have both been pretty sick for the past month. We are both feeling better now, but it's been a rough month, and we are only just now starting to feel human again. Lisa got the big \"C\" in September and then I got a terrible infection that took me out for awhile. I'm still not 100%, but I'm getting there. Since I'm the only hardware engineer on the team, this has slowed down the hardware development quite a bit. It's incredibly hard to focus when you feel like you've been hit by a truck for weeks on end.
\nThis is the part that has been the \"all-stop\" on everything. We have been working through a number of patents and intellectual property law things for the past year and, until we have resolved our IP paperwork, we won't be able to release anything. We are so close to getting through the legal jungle and we had hoped to be done with this part months ago, but alas, nothing happens quickly in the legal world. We are working with a great team of lawyers and we are confident that we will be able to get through this. As soon as the legal team tells us we are clear, we will be able to release the beta and start releasing videos about the new features and how to use them.
\nWe will continue to work through our IP issues and get the beta out to you as soon as we can. We are also going to continue to work on the documentation and videos so that we can release them as soon as we are able to release the beta. As for our launch at Transworld 2024, we are very much on-track for that. We will be there with a booth and we will be showing off the IgorBox controllers and all of the new features. We are also working on a few other surprises that we will be announcing at Transworld. We are very excited about what we have in store for you and we can't wait to show you what we've been working on. So stay tuned and we will keep you updated as we make progress.
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/project-update-beta", "title": "Project Update - October '23", "summary": "It's the 16th of October and we would love to be so much further along than we are today. We have had an incredible amount of setbacks and delays, but we are still working on the beta and we are still working on getting it out to you as soon as possible. At the same time, I want to be transparent about what's been going on and why we are where we are.", "date_modified": "2023-10-26T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Mike Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Product Updates", "IgorBox", "Beta" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/hhn32-behind-the-screams", "content_html": "We went on a company outing - who doesn't love a field trip, right? But this wasn't just any field trip, we went to...drum roll...Halloween Horror Nights' Behind the Screams! So awesome!
\nI am excited to share with you my first \"Behind the Screams\" experience. We got to walk through six out of ten of the haunted houses, in a small group, with the lights on and with a tour guide. It was great to be able to take time to appreciate all of the nuances and details that I would have otherwise missed. It was fascinating learning more about the industry and even some HHN trivia. Another plus was being able to take pictures, the shutterbug in me thoroughly enjoyed that!
\nThe facade of the 'Universal's Monsters: Unmasked' house was exquisitely eerie. Set in the streets of Paris with street lamps, a full moon and even some foreshadowing with sheet music cast about, a nod to the Phantom of the Opera, it beckons you to enter the catacombs. In the Phantom of the Opera part of this house, a two way mirror was used very effectively. I also enjoyed seeing the mossing and rusting techniques used here (I am looking forward to trying this at some point).
\nSomething I found interesting in the 'Chucky' house was that while the hero puppet was prominently displayed in the opening scene it was half covered.
\nThe 'Blood Moon: Dark Offerings' house was visually stunning. The way the Parish Village was constructed was so well done. The artistry and attention to details was so fun to admire. For example, the subtle but effective cult symbols throughout, hand dipped candles and if you pay close attention, you will notice in the tavern there are 3 cups missing from the bar, which is because there are 3 cups on the tables. I found this house chillingly haunting, even with the lights on, and without audio or actors!
\nI have never seen the Netflix series, Stranger Things (I know, I live under a rock, lol!) but our tour guide was a fan of the show and did a great job of giving the backstory for the 'Stranger Things 4' house. In the first scene, a bedroom off to the left is thoughtfully staged, even though it may not be seen by many people, once again adding depth. Another little detail is that all of the clocks are set to 11:15 throughout the house. It was also interesting to learn that all of the audio and visual were provided by Netflix and ripped directly from the series, creating excellent continuity. One stand out scene in my opinion, was the hole between the upside-down universe and our universe with the sheet between them. Eleven's shirt is also in a basket in the corner of this scene. This house captured my imagination and I am excited to start watching 'Stranger Things.'
\nDid you know that 'Dueling Dragons: Choose Thy Fate' is based on the concept of a previous Universal ride, where patrons could choose the end of the ride? Similarly, this haunted house has alternate endings and lets you 'Choose Thy Fate.' Myrlin's realm of this house has an enchanted forest vibe that I really enjoyed. The ice dragon's scene was also really nice, and even displayed a part from the original ride.
\nYETI: Campground Kills takes place at Shadow Creek State Park in the 1950's. Every detail of this house was well staged, from the trailer to the rotary phone to the handwritten retirement note and even the list written on a post-it, sitting on the bait shop counter next to the dead body. Water seems notoriously difficult to make convincing but here they did it by using mirrors, constructing a dock over the water and cutting the body in half to give the appearance it's floating. One thing I really love about the YETI house is it's comic relief, from the snake in the outhouse toilet, to the YETI holding the \"Bait\" sign, to the map with \"murder lake\" on it, so great!
\nMy first HHN 'Behind the Screams' tour was a fun and fascinating experience. I learned about lighting and gel coating LEDs. I learned more about implementing scent and corpsing. I also learned interesting facts such as, HHN has a massive warehouse to store all of the props and a morgue with toe-tagged manikins. I would highly recommend this tour, especially if you are interested in slowing down and taking it all in.
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/hhn32-behind-the-screams", "title": "A Non Haunters First Time Behind The Screams HHN32", "summary": "We went on a company outing - who doesn't love a field trip, right? But this wasn't just any field trip, we went to...drum roll...Halloween Horror Nights' Behind the Screams! So awesome!", "date_modified": "2023-10-03T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Brittany Hickman" }, "tags": [ "Haunt Industry", "Halloween Horror Nights" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/hhn-survival-guide", "content_html": "I am so excited to go to HHN again this year and elated to go to every house available for the Behind the Screams tours too! I can't fully enjoy myself to the max without a little prep though.
\nBiggest bit of advice first, download the the universal Orlando app and set it up if you don’t already have it.
\nDo not spend a full day in the park and then try and do HHN the same day!
\nYoutube is great for helping you plan your trip. There is even advice for wait time tactics. Try not to watch a walkthrough of the haunts though if you don't want to ruin the surprise.
\nIf you don't have an express pass, paying and taking advantage of stay and scream is worth it!
\nIf you can afford the express option, get it. All ten houses can only be seen in one eve sainly with the help of an express pass and the app with its wait times during the event helps. Bonus if you have express you likely will have time after to wait on second go throughs on some of the houses you want to give a second shot. You may be lucky with out express if you set up alerts for wait times on the app. But it will take some luck and probably coming in early season.
\nThere do not seem to be slow nights anymore so if you only have one chance go and its within your travel budget go RIP.
\nLocal and an enthusiast? The frequent fear passes are a great option. Go multiple times and see the event change and evolve. This is also a great option as sometimes the timing when going through is just off, which can ruin the experience. There is nothing you can do to control it besides going with the RIP tour.\n“Update, false! I found out this last trip the actors only respond to every third person. So to see a good run, you have a one in three shot. Nothing can guarantee you get a good run” It can be made less sour when you can go through multiple times though.
\nLocate bathrooms and use them between each house! Lines get crazy long and people do not take kindly to jumping back in line.
\nThe food can be disappointing if you are a foodie. Waiting until the vloggers give their food reviews can really help to narrow your list. The food and drink is not cheap by any means. I recommend sticking to one food and one drink item per person if you must, and go with people that you would like to share with. I would rather get a good meal at Finnegans. The money to value is much better there and is a nice place to sit if you need a break. Many say it\"s a great bar too if you want a place out of the streetmosfear.
\nAs an update, we found a food item we actually really like! The peanut blooder burger! It’s behind Mel’s die N and we got it the very beginning first round made of the night. If you can, definitely get your food early and fresh!
\nNow call these your quest items:
\nBring ear protection! If you have hearing sensitivities or just protecting yourself in general bring comfortable hearing protection. Theme parks are loud and HHN even more so. If needed there is a quiet room in the front of the park by first aid and guest services. They do not have ear plugs sadly.
\nBring wet wipes! These can refresh you a bit and get rid of the sticky, messy, and staining food, should you choose to indulge.
\nBe careful with how hot the weather in Florida can be! Bring fans and cooling towel if you are heat sensitive. It is already hot in FL but all those people in line can really raise the temp.
\nWear tested closed toe super comfortable shoes. Some even go in steal toed shoes as tight spaces and scared people can lead to stomped toes.
\nBring a collapsible cup or bottle. This will save you a fortune on bottle water.
\nIf you are doing stay and scream or coming early bring sun glasses. The bright to dark tradition can be blinding and make you miss the beginning of a house!
\nSame as above but wear a hat, be it baseball or folding style. This will act to help keep sun out of your eyes better than glasses alone.
\nPack some Ibuprofen or other pain relief of you choice. It is a-lot of standing and walking.
\nWicking long sleeve sun shirt, this is part of your sunscreen and light buffer against evening breezes
\nShorts or lightweight wicking pants for the win on comfort.
\nFan of wearing black? Unless you are a local, I cannot recommend doing this if you want to enjoy the beginning of the event. Again, that Florida sun is no joke. Red is a lovely color that can still help you pull off your killer style.
\nIt rains frequently. Rain is pretty much a guarantee on opening weekend. Bring a poncho
\nUpdate! Bring an umbrella! Ponchos are not allowed to be worn in the haunt. The umbrella works as both shade and easier to fold away when going through a haunt. Now you can leave that hat at home too. It’s unlikely you’ll be doing many rides and putting things in the locker. Isn’t the worst it just eats a bit of time but if you have/buy too much it will cost you in bigger locker fees.
\nNow gear up and fit all that into a tiny backpack or fanny pack. Want to go on some rides? The free lockers are small. Only the fanny pack option can go on rides.
\nIf you are not a local blessed with a frequent fear pass, get a universal hotel with ferry access. You will be the walking dead and this is the kindest and calmest way to leave the park. It works as a zenful ride back to your resting place, aka bed. Heck I live 1 hour away and do this!
\nUpdate: Just for those who want to know, the earlier in the evening you go the less crowded it will be. It gets packed as the night wears on. Of course the temp is cooler but if you don’t like being crowded or dealing with those who are heavily intoxicated go early.
\nI hope this knowledge serves you well on your journey and remember never go alone and have fun!
\nupdated: 10/3/2023
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/hhn-survival-guide", "title": "Lisa's HHN Survival Guide", "summary": "I am so excited to go to HHN again this year and elated to go to every house available for the Behind the Screams tours too! I can't fully enjoy myself to the max without a little prep though.", "date_modified": "2023-09-13T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Eesa Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Haunt Industry", "Halloween Horror Nights" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/we-are-behind", "content_html": "My how time flies! In today's blog post, I thought I'd cover where we are with the IgorBox Beta program and our launch in early next year.
\nI'm just going to come out and say it, we are way behind! We had planned on shipping out beta boxes to our beta program users in June, but supply chains, firmware development, and bugs have been slowing us down quite a bit. Let's break this down and lift the lid to expose what's been going on a little more.
\nThe Supply chain issues for components has been a nightmare (and not the good kind). We've had to revisit board designs multiple times because parts that should have been easy to get weren't available in the quantities we needed. From a hardware standpoint, we're a few weeks away from working boards for the beta boxes. Woohoo!
\nThe firmware development has proven to be quite a time suck too. We hit some unexpected work earlier this year that pushed us into a much larger rewrite than we'd planned. The newest version is amazing — much more extensible than what we had before — but the unplanned engineering time lost us valuable runway in our beta and launch schedule.
\nAnd lastly, bugs.. Oh my.. so many bugs. There were bugs in the firmware, bugs in the hardware, and even bugs in the bugs! Anyway, we have had an internal bug bash to find and eradicate as many as we could find. Most of these bugs were minor and tolerable, but when you're building the next generation of animatronics control systems, they are unacceptable. Some of these bug fixes resulted in hardware improvements and others resulted in usability and programming improvements. As a result of our first internal bug bash, we created a very comprehensive test and burn-in system for our hardware that allows us to really work the boxes hard and simulate multiple seasons of 24/7 use. We've been abusing our test boards at a level that some would consider \"extreme\", but we want the best products on the market. period.
\nSo, overall, we've lost a few months in our plans, but we all feel it was worth it. We're sure you'll agree that the additional wait was well worth it too. We are so excited to show you what we've been creating in the lab and we'll be getting beta boards out to our lucky beta program users as soon as possible Just in time for the Haunt season to Pop-off!
\nIf you're a beta program user, watch for a more detailed email in the next few weeks too. Whether you're a beta user or not, make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel for updates and awesome tutorials!
\nSincerely,
\nMike -- chief nerd.
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/we-are-behind", "title": "We are behind Schedule, Here's Why", "summary": "My how time flies! In today's blog post, I thought I'd cover where we are with the IgorBox Beta program and our launch in early next year.", "date_modified": "2023-08-02T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Mike Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Product Updates", "IgorBox", "Beta" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/midwest-haunters-2023", "content_html": "Things are getting busy over here in the orchard. We can't start to build the booth yet for the Transworld Halloween Show as we just got our walls from NCV as of June 1st and are waiting on a few other goodies to get going. Plenty else is keeping us busy though.
\nWe're getting ready to go to Midwest Haunters Convention! We are due to pick up our centerpiece prop armature for the booth from Hallucinations Creations at the show! Sadly the spook and Schmooze was canceled, but come say hi to me, the curly red head with the led backpack. Our main goals to talk to the show runners about sponsorship for Transworld 2024 with some cool ideas for our big unveiling of the IgorBox system next March, and of course check out some of the awesome talks! Our other goal is getting NDAs in the hands of possible beta testers in the Chicago area. What we hope are the 1st round of boards we think will be ready for testers have been ordered are are on their way. Some time for more testing in the lab and custom boxes still need to be printed before shipping out, but very soon! We cant wait to start getting that feedback so we can make the best possible product when debuting next year. What's most excited though is catching up with old and new like minded spooky friends.
\nSo, if you see the LED backpack with Carl the zombie, come say hi!
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/midwest-haunters-2023", "title": "Come Say Hi at Midwest Haunters Convention!", "summary": "Things are getting busy over here in the orchard. We can't start to build the booth yet for the Transworld Halloween Show as we just got our walls from NCV as of June 1st and are waiting on a few other goodies to get going. Plenty else is keeping us busy though.", "date_modified": "2023-06-05T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Eesa Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Haunt Industry", "Tradeshows" ] }, { "id": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/why-rising-orchards", "content_html": "The name that started our story came from our roots. We began in a dreamy oasis of Silicon Valley over 10 years ago now. The land was an apricot orchard in its last life. When looking for our haunt name, even as super amateurs, I knew there was great power in a name. Especially when you're broke. Not to mention we had huge dreams of becoming local legend.
\nI could not show Mike the magic of Halloween without making it. I wanted to show my childhood spark and build a dream together. Come to find out he also had been touched by the love for a haunt. Why can't we be the legend a child tells their friends about when comparing childhoods? Why can't we inspire future haunters?
\nIt was the end of the second September in our rental home and we were broke.\nI gathered every pallet, door and scrap of wood I could find as Mike was off making our first electric prop. The neighborhood of tech commuters and O.G. 1950's house wives were abuzz. Every day people passed to see what was growing and I would get caught up in conversation. The firey 89 year old angel across the street was so excited to see action happening across the way and the yard filled with lights. She was legally blind and didn't get out much anymore so I loved to go hear her stories.
\nMy angel, Adeline, was the source of information on the land's history and better yet she and her daughter were cleaning out a bit and giving away old rusty farm equipment. Mike asked what our theme should be and I said, farm. Why, almost anything can happen on a farm, it's classic, and farm was a much cheaper (sometimes free) aesthetic than the Victorian mansion theme currently in vogue at the time. Next, Mike asked about a name. Being in Silicon Valley branding was very important and I am no naming wizard. I wanted to honor the past and make it creepy, hence Rotting Orchards was born.
", "url": "https://help.igorbox.com/blog/why-rising-orchards", "title": "How it Started: Rotting Orchards", "summary": "The name that started our story came from our roots. We began in a dreamy oasis of Silicon Valley over 10 years ago now. The land was an apricot orchard in its last life. When looking for our haunt name, even as super amateurs, I knew there was great power in a name. Especially when you're broke. Not to mention we had huge dreams of becoming local legend.", "date_modified": "2023-05-22T00:00:00.000Z", "author": { "name": "Eesa Heijmans" }, "tags": [ "Haunt Industry", "History" ] } ] }