Spatial Ensemble Technology
Design movement
in space.
SET is spatial design software for performance designers and educators. Place your performers, shape your formations, draw your pathways — then watch the show move on the floor, from the seat it will actually be watched from.
SET is in private beta. Access is by invitation and access code.
What SET is
Software for the part of a show that happens in space.
Every performance design is a spatial problem before it is anything else. Where people stand. How they travel. What that reads as from the other side of the room. SET gives that work a place to live — the floor, the formations, the pathways, the counts, and the music they are set against.
- A working surface
- A real coordinate space with the floor's dimensions — and on iPad, one you can draw pathways onto directly with touch or Apple Pencil.
- Built for designers
- Shaped around how performance designers and educators actually work through a show.
- Two views, one show
- Design in the drill view, then check it in three dimensions without leaving your place.
Product philosophy
SET assists movement.
It does not generate design.
The designer is the creator. You place the performers. You decide the formations. On iPad you draw the pathways onto the floor with your own hand, and you choose what the transition is supposed to say. Those are creative decisions, and they are not ours to make.
SET’s role begins after that. Once you have made the decision, the software helps you carry it out — moving what you have already built, following the path you have already drawn. Assistance, not authorship.
SET is not a formation generator. There are no one-click arcs, circles, blocks, or diagonals, and there are not going to be. A tool that writes the design for you is a different product than the one we are building.
What assistance looks like
Move a selected group together
Select a line or a group you have already built and move it as one, keeping the relationships you designed intact.
Follow-the-leader pathways
Send a group along a path you have drawn, each performer travelling the route the leader travels.
Drawing in SET
Draw the path with your own hand.
On iPad, pathways are drawn straight onto the floor with touch or Apple Pencil. Pull the curve where the movement should curve. A transition is not limited to a straight line between two points, because you are not drawing straight lines — you are drawing the route the performer actually travels.
Nothing is generated and nothing is straightened on your behalf. SET holds the line you made, at the shape you gave it, and carries it through the show.
Core to SET — how movement is shaped anywhere in the product, not a tool belonging to one environment.
Flagship environment
Winter Guard is where SET begins.
The floor, the sets, the counts, the pathways, and the equipment each performer carries — SET was shaped around these because they are what a guard designer works with every day. Everything else in the product grows outward from here.
Sets
Build the show as a sequence of sets. Save a new set, update the one you are on, or revise the transition coming into it.
Transition counts and timing
Give each transition its count length and see where every set falls in the show. Counts and time stay visible together along the timeline.
Pathways
Every performer carries a path between sets. Pathways are drawn on the floor so a transition can be read as a whole before it is ever taught.
Equipment controls
Assign equipment to individual performers and change that assignment from set to set. SET reflects those equipment changes during playback, so you can track what each performer is using throughout the show.
Music import and timing tools
Bring the show's audio in and align the design to it — set the first count, mark beats and counts, and work against the track the ensemble will actually perform to.
The full Winter Guard picture — what the beta covers today, and what the environment is growing into.
Winter Guard in SET
Scroll to see the full timeline
Counts and time, held together.
Give each transition its count length and the show lays itself out along the timeline. Import the track, mark where count one falls, and the design lines up with the music the ensemble will actually perform to.
The show as a list of sets.
Save a new set, update the one you are on, or revise the transition coming into it. Every set carries its count length and where it lands in the show.
The guard environment, next
PlannedThese are directions we intend to take the Winter Guard environment. None of them are in the beta today.
- Performance floors
- Panels
- Panels on wheels
- Scenic pieces
- Resizable props
Visualization
See it from the seat
it will be watched from.
A drill chart asks everyone to imagine the same thing and hope they agree. Switch the show into three dimensions and there is nothing left to imagine — the transition either reads or it does not, and you find out before the ensemble does.
Every angle that matters, and the ones that only matter to you.
Move the camera to where the show is judged from, where the audience sits, straight overhead to check spacing, or anywhere you like in free view. The same show, read from wherever you need to read it.
- Bleachers
- Judges
- Front
- Back
- Left
- Right
- Overhead
- Free view
Environments
One way of thinking, five kinds of space.
Winter Guard is where SET is deepest today. The environments below are the order we intend to build in — each one labelled honestly, so you can tell what exists from what is coming.
- 01
Winter Guard
Available in betaThe environment SET was built around, and where the product's identity begins.
- 02
Theater
PlannedStage blocking and spatial planning, worked out in space before the room is booked.
- 03
Dance / Drill Team
PlannedFormation and spacing work for teams that live between the stage and the field.
- 04
ROTC
PlannedPrecision spacing, alignment, and sequence for drill teams working to a standard.
- 05
Flexible field environments
PlannedA football-field surface, useful to dance and drill teams, ROTC, and smaller marching ensembles.
SET is focused first on performance spaces where designers need flexible spatial tools, beginning with Winter Guard and expanding into Theater, Dance / Drill Team, and ROTC.
Roadmap
Where SET is going, in order.
No dates, no promises we cannot keep. This is the order we intend to build in, and everything on it is labelled so you always know what is real today.
In the beta today
Available in beta- 2D spatial design
- Performer placement and movement
- Pathways
- Direct pathway drawing on iPad with touch and Apple Pencil, including curved pathways
- Sets
- Transition counts and timing
- Music import and timing tools
- Equipment controls
- Project save and open
- 3D visualization
- Multiple 3D camera perspectives
- 2D / 3D switching
- Beta accounts with invite and access-code authentication
- 01
Winter Guard, deeper
The flagship environment gets its world before anything else gets a second one.
5 items · all planned
- 02
Theater
The same spatial thinking, moved onto a stage.
3 items · all planned
- 03
Dance / Drill Team
For teams that design across a floor and a field in the same season.
1 item · all planned
- 04
ROTC
Spatial work held to an exacting standard.
1 item · all planned
- 05
Expanded field functionality
A surface the other environments can share — including smaller marching ensembles.
2 items · all planned
- ??Tell us what you need →
Something missing?
This order is not fixed. If the thing you need is not on it, that is worth telling us — beta feedback is what moves items up.
Beta access
A small beta, on purpose.
SET is being built alongside the designers using it. That works when the group is small enough to actually listen to, which is why access is by invitation.
- Invitation and access code
- SET is a private beta. You are invited, and you sign in with an access code — there is no open signup.
- Real shows, real feedback
- Beta designers are building actual shows in SET. What they run into is what gets built next.
- Honest about the edges
- It is a beta. Some things are not there yet, and this site tells you which ones before you ask.
Request an invite
Invites are handled personally while the beta is small, so requests come to us by email rather than through a signup form. Tell us who you are and what you are designing.
Requesting an invite does not create an account. SET is a private beta and access is granted by invitation with an access code.
Pricing
Beta pricing coming soon
SET is in private beta and pricing has not been set. When the commercial structure is finalised it will be published here, in plain terms, before anyone is asked to pay for anything.
Beta participants will hear about pricing directly, and first.
What does SET stand for?
Spatial Ensemble Technology. In practice everyone says SET, which is also what you call the thing you are building when you design a show — that overlap is intentional.
Does SET generate formations for me?
No. SET does not generate formations, and it is not planned to. There are no one-click arcs, circles, blocks, or diagonals. You place performers, you decide the formations, and you shape the pathways. SET's role is to assist the movement after those decisions are made.
What can SET do today?
The current beta covers 2D spatial design, performer placement and movement, pathways, sets, transition counts and timing, music import and timing tools, equipment controls, project save and open, 3D visualization, multiple 3D camera perspectives, and 2D / 3D switching. Anything described on this site as planned or in development is not in the beta yet, and is labelled that way everywhere it appears.
How do I get into the beta?
SET is a private beta. Access is by invitation, and you sign in with an access code. You can request an invite from the beta page — we read every request.
Is SET only for Winter Guard?
Winter Guard is the flagship and the environment SET was shaped around, so it is where the product is deepest today. SET is focused on performance spaces where designers need flexible spatial tools, so Theater, Dance / Drill Team, ROTC, and flexible field environments are planned next, in that order.
What does SET cost?
Beta pricing has not been set yet. When the commercial structure is finalised it will be published here first. Nothing on this site should be read as a price.
Can I draw pathways on an iPad?
Yes. On iPad you can draw movement pathways directly onto the floor using touch or Apple Pencil, and shape curved pathways rather than being limited to a straight line between two points. This is core to how SET works rather than a feature of one environment. You are drawing the path yourself — SET does not generate it, straighten it, or decide where it should go.
Contact
Talk to a person.
Questions about the beta, a program that wants to talk, or something that is not working — reach a person directly.
Beta access
Requesting an invite, or you have an access code and something is not working.
beta@setensembletech.comSupport
You are in the beta and you have hit a problem, a question, or a rough edge.
support@setensembletech.comEverything else
Programs, education, partnerships, and anything that does not fit the other two.
hello@setensembletech.comThe design is yours.
SET helps you move it.
Private beta · invitation and access code