AVL Multi-Image Slide Show Computers

In the '70s and '80s, Audio Visual Laboratories built a line of computerized multi-image slide show programmers that were more or less the standard machines in use in the "A/V business" at that time.  I myself made a living programming and staging shows with these from '84 to '96. Now, multi-image is dead, slides are dead, and all of the people who were involved in producing and staging these shows are now working with other technologies. Now my Genesis is somewhere in the garage, a couple of Doves are in the attic.  I just unearthed a couple of AVL manuals from the back of my office closet.  I thought it would be amusing to scan in some of this stuff and make them available for those who can appreciate them (or, incredibly, make use of them). Print them out, dust off that machine and do some real programming for a change!
	AVL ShowPro III Multi-Image AV Computer operator's manual: This one is"old school" even for me - mercifully a few years before my time.  Just thinking about programming a show with this thing is mind-bending to me.  If you mastered this machine, my hat is (still) off to you.
	Here is the 144 page AVL Genesis Procall-X User Guide, the programming language used by the AVL Genesis computer from the mid '80s forward.
	If you have an AVL Genesis Board Set, here is the installation guide. Be aware that you'll need a mid-to-late-'80s-vintage PC with an 8-bit slot! This thing was designed to work with the computers of it's time - a faster machine won't do.

If you don't have a copy of Procall X, hopefully you have Procall 5.  Here is the AVL Genesis Procall 5 User Guide

Here's how to set up your Desktop Genesis.

Here's how to set up your Portable Genesis.

Here is how to Program a Multi-Image Show with the AVL Genesis.

Here is a nice article about the rise of Audio Visual Laboratories.

If you have a Genesis but don't have a working copy of Procall X to program multi-image slide shows with, here it is!
Download this zip file with all the files needed to create a bootable floppy with Procall X1.27 on it.
Hopefully you have a PC new enough to get these files into, and old enough to include a 5 1/4" floppy drive!
I believe you will need a blank 360k floppy disk.  The easiest method would be to unzip these files directly
onto the floppy.  If you unzip them to a folder on your windows PC first, be sure your system is set
to "see hidden files".  Otherwise, you won't see some of them!

What AVL Procall X looks like:

Here is a sample log-in and editing session using Procall X. 

Run the video then click on the fullscreen

button for the complete early-'80s feeling!

(read more about Procall and AVL at http://www.herriott-sadler.co.uk/business/toolkit/avl.html )

 STAY TUNED AS I SCAN MORE OF THIS STUFF.

Last but not least:
Here I am in 1982, working as a slide mounter at the DuraSell Corp, 360 Lexington Ave, NYC.  Maybe I was waiting for the lab....


And, working at my very last (?) multi-image job, in 2003.
(well it wasn't exactly MULTI-image, but it gave me the chance to rent my portable Genesis one last time)



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