When Software Companies Disappear

This happened months ago, but I have buried my head in the sand pretending it was but a blip and had not really happened. Normal transmission would resume, somehow, somewhere. Totally Hip, the Canadian firm behind LiveStage Pro, have more or less closed shop. They still have a website, apparently still selling software, but please don’t. (For example the LiveStage Pro page says you can buy version 4.6 but clicking through to the ecommerce site only provides version 4.5, meanwhile the support site (stagedoor.totallyhip.com) is now vaporware.)

This is the software that I use to author interactive QuickTime works, it is basically Flash for QuickTime, and gives you access to an enormous range of variables, a full scripting language, XML lists, and so on.

Now, it is one thing for the company to disappear, after all I can use the software until the OS has changed so much that it no longer runs, but this software requires authentication on installation via a keyserver that Totally Hip maintained. That’s gone too. So when I need to move to a new computer I cannot take LiveStage with me. So I reckon I’ve got it for another 8 months or so. Then I will no longer be able to script QuickTime, unless I do a Comp.Sci degree (and my maths is so not up to that). I’m about to play with VideoClix, which is more sophisticated than Ezedia, but still way behind LiveStage.

I assume Flash and Flash video has killed it. Which is a pity, QuickTime remains the most productive and intelligent architecture for time based media.