Theatre Royal Waterford

The Theatre Royal Waterford, Ireland has recently purchased a Jands Vista T2 lighting console. It was supplied by local theatre consultants Dirk Baumann Lighting (DBL Lighting) as part of an upgrade to the venue’s existing lighting system, which was over thirty years old.

The Theatre has been Waterford’s main centre of culture and entertainment since the mid 1970s, providing the region with a dynamic programme of professional and community-based music, drama, dance, variety, pantomime and other live productions.

DBL’s Dirk Baumann was appointed to re-design the existing lighting grid and provide a much more flexible system to suit the theatre’s current and future needs. Once the lanterns, grid and dimming were in place, Dirk was also asked to specify a more powerful console to make the most of the new lighting infrastructure. Initially the theatre was keen to stick with a traditional theatre-style desk, but this soon changed after they were given the opportunity to see a demo of the Jands Vista in action.

Lighting Designer Aidan McGrath, a rental client of Dirk, was putting on a 1 week show at the Theatre and needed a newer console to handle the extra dimming requirements and moving lights he’d specified for the production.

Having recently become aware of the Jands Vista console’s innovative approach to lighting control, Dirk recommended Aidan hire a Vista from Jands’ exclusive ROI dealer, LX2000 Stage Lighting Hire. A detailed demo session held at the venue left Dirk, Aidan and the Theatre’s Technical Manager, Andy Cummins, amazed by the console’s possibilities and very happy to see it trialed on the upcoming show.

The show, ‘Into the Woods’, opened 3 days later, having been designed and programmed on the Vista by Aidan. This gave Dirk and the theatre’s production crew the perfect opportunity to see the desk perform faultlessly night after night.

Show Lighting Designer Aidan McGrath commented: “When Dirk told me about the Vista it got me intrigued, so after reading up on it I decided to give it a trial. Following a quick demo in front of the desk to learn the basics, I started building cues and looks, and within 4 hours I had the whole show patched up and programmed – something which would normally take me 2-3 days on other desks I’ve used.”

As a result, the Theatre has purchased a Vista T2 console for their new house desk, which was supplied by LX2000 to DBL, who then installed it. Dirk was so impressed with the Vista that he’s decided to purchase a T2 for his own rental stock as well.

The Theatre is looking forward to using the console on future shows and utilising even more of its capabilities when they enter the final stage of the venue’s ongoing refurbishment programme, which involves upgrading the luminaire front of house positions and quantities to get better angles on stage.

Since closing, ‘Into the Woods’ has won Best Technical (Lighting, Set & Sound) in the Sullivan section of The Association of Irish Musical Societies nominations for the AIMS Volkswagen Awards 2007. The production also won 1st place in the Best Overall Show category.