Vista Casino Install – Finalist in 2008 ESTA Rock Our World Awards

The Jands Vista lighting control system has been selected as a finalist in the 2008 ESTA Rock Our World Awards for its product application in the casino at the new MGM Grand at Foxwoods in Connecticut.

The Rock Our World Awards recognize groundbreaking achievement by ESTA Members in new products, product applications, or projects. These awards were created to acknowledge the genius of both the creator of technology and the designer or integrator who applies the technology in a real world environment.

The Jands Vista solution was provided by Barbizon lighting company via Vista North American distributor A.C. Lighting Inc., to control the lighting system for the casino‘s 50,000 square foot Premier Ballroom – the largest in the Northeastern USA.

The MGM Grand is part of the overall Foxwoods resort, the biggest casino complex in the world, with more than 40,000 guest visits each day.

Designed to be extremely flexible, the casino‘s 50,000 square foot, column free Premier Ballroom and smaller Celebrity Ballroom feature movable air walls that enable the spaces to be broken down into smaller room zones for banquets, gatherings and other functions, and between them re-configured into over 230 possible combinations.

Foxwoods Entertainment Lighting Supervisor, Tom Roach, worked closely with Barbizon lighting company to help specify, supply, install and integrate the ballrooms‘ architectural and entertainment lighting systems.

Each ballroom features nearly 300 channels of ETC dimming and a variety of fixtures, including Robe 700 spot and wash moving lights.

Due to the huge number of possible room configurations, each with a different lighting plot, Foxwoods wanted a solution that would provide seamless integration and intuitive control of the ballrooms‘ complex lighting systems using both wall stations and performance lighting consoles.

Following a demonstration to Foxwoods, Barbizon System Integrator Scott Stipetic of the company‘s Boston office specified the Jands Vista lighting control system.

He commented: “The Vista is sophisticated, powerful, and the right solution for this environment.
I knew that being able to see each room layout‘s lighting plot visually, combined with a timeline, would make it so much easier for the staff to operate the lighting fixtures than on a traditional console. The Vista‘s user interface also makes it very quick to manipulate cue structures, saving valuable room setup time. I was also confident that the support would be there from Jands and A.C. Lighting Inc., should it be needed, when installing such a technically complex product application. After Foxwoods saw the Vista demo they were adamant it had to be Jands Vista for this particular lighting control application.”

The Vista provides a flexible lighting control system that can handle the variety of ballroom layouts in a visual way. Control of each room‘s lighting is represented graphically on a pen tablet screen. If an air wall is moved, the Vista simply updates the lighting and the control screens of the newly adjoined rooms, so the operator can always see what they are controlling.

Lighting for each of the 15 smaller room zones is controlled by a dedicated Vista PC, which is operated via VNC on a pen tablet screen from within the rooms. The casino also purchased 2 full size Vista T4 consoles and 4 Vista S3 playback control surfaces to operate conference or performance events taking place in the larger room configurations. All Vista products were supplied to Barbizon from A.C. Lighting Inc., the exclusive North American distributor for the Vista range.

The Vista lighting control system and all associated equipment was installed by Jason Hoots, Andy Aldous, Tracey Costa and Mike Goudzwaard in Barbizon‘s Technical Services team.

Foxwoods Entertainment Lighting Supervisor, Tom Roach commented: “When I approached Scott Stipetic with the concept of having a permanently installed moving light system in the ballrooms which could be operated by banquets staff, he immediately recommended the Jands Vista for the application. The Vista allows us to offer a top of the line lighting system to our clients with out all the costs associated with trucking, rigging, flying truss, hanging fixtures, programming, running the event and strike and restore of the room. The banquets staff themselves are able to turn on and operate the moving lights, which helps reduce the turn around time between events – meaning more revenue for the company. The Vista is the top notch lighting control system we were looking for.”

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