Chris Ashworth had studied computer science but never written an entire piece of software when a North Carolina theater production company asked for his help. What he came up with would be a huge hit with creative professionals who design elaborate stage productions across the world.
The theater company needed software that could help manage sound effects for a play while running on an Apple computer. Ashworth was a computer science graduate student in North Carolina, and he and a friend built one for them in a little over a month.
"It was completely starting from scratch," Ashworth said. "It was a crazy project. ... It was a simple problem being solved by a rudimentary piece of software."
That was five years ago this month. Today, Ashworth's modest piece of software has grown into what he now calls QLab, a full-featured program with a foothold in the niche industry of sound and video design for live productions. It's being used at professional theaters from Baltimore to London and in major Broadway productions that have won Tony awards for sound design.
Shows at the Metropolitan Opera and the Kennedy Center also have featured music and sound crafted by designers using QLab. Other clients include trade shows and corporations that use the software to power their events.
"This little thing I threw out into the world is being involved with this stuff," Ashworth said. "I'm still not used to it." As an independent software developer working out of his Charles Village rowhouse, Ashworth attributes the increasing adoption of his product to an enthusiastic corps of theater multimedia professionals around the world who helped him improve his software and market it through word-of-mouth compliments.
His software can blend sound effects, video, animation, stage lighting and other effects, and also enable an engineer to set up an automated queue for the effects to play. He likens it to a production engineer first laying down dominoes of audio and visual effects, and at the push of a button, knocking them down during a show.
Traditionally, software for sound design that could power large-scale shows and events has been expensive and geared toward the PC-user market.
Ashworth focused on building software for the Mac because that's what his first customer needed. He quickly discovered that there was a whole world of creative theater professionals using Macs who were looking for the software he was developing.
"It was the right opportunity waiting to be exploited," he said.
In his early days, Ashworth had customers telling him that his software's price was too low and that they'd be willing to pay more for it.
Sales were boosted last year by the release of a 2.0 version of QLab, Ashworth said, though he declined to release revenue figures. He gives away a "lite" version of QLab, which only offers sound design features for two speakers. Full versions for audio, video and musical instrument digital support cost $249 each, or $599 for a bundle of all three. Competitors' software systems can run into the thousands of dollars.
"This whole thing grew from me giving away a free version," Ashworth said.
Rory Dale, a sound designer at the Playhouse on the Square in Memphis, Tenn., said he has been a faithful user of the software for more than four years. He plans to use it to run sound and visual effects at the theater's opening production of "Pippin" later this month. When Dale first started doing sound design, he'd have to juggle CDs and work in various programs, he said. But QLab has allowed him to better structure and automate his work quicker than ever.
"It really revolutionized what I do," Dale said. "I can't overstate that."
Baltimore's Center Stage has been using QLab for nearly three years, said Amy Wedel, the theater's audio engineer. For Wedel, who's been doing theater audio for 14 years, QLab was an easier-to-use alternative to more expensive software. Arranging audio effects was a more manual and complicated process before QLab came along, she said.
"A complex sequence you might not have been able to achieve otherwise, because you only have two hands ... you can do that now by just hitting one 'go' button," Wedel said.
On Broadway, QLab was used in a revival of "South Pacific," which won a Tony award in sound design in 2008, Ashworth said. Two other shows using QLab won Tony awards in sound design last year, he said.
"It's wonderful, but in some sense, it's terrifying," Ashworth said of his success. With QLab, he said, "I'm all of a sudden responsible for these productions not failing."
Ashworth isn't just a computer geek. He loves theater, having double-majored in it and computer science when he was in college in Minnesota. Originally from Kentucky, Ashworth attended graduate school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
He and his wife moved to Baltimore to continue her education and, at first, he didn't think they'd stay long. But they ended up buying a home, and Ashworth is happy with the local tech scene.Ashworth now has two employees and they all work remotely: Ashworth in Baltimore and the others in Seattle and California.
"It's exciting," a smiling Ashworth said of QLab's growth. "And it's a little nerve-racking."