Asbury United Methodist Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma has chosen an ArKaos PRO Stadium Server running ArKaos MediaMaster 4.0 software to handle the environmental projection mapping at their church. Controlled with a Vista S1, Lighting Director, Tim Ottley uses it to present some stunning visual backdrops across their 300ft wide/30-60ft tall walls enhancing both modern and traditional services.

This Christmas season sees the interior of the church awash with imagery, produced by Jason Yang of Invisible Element, based on the Christmas story and depicted in colourful visuals reminiscent of stained glass. Advent is a season of anticipation and Ottley’s theme is to present a beautiful and welcoming environment as the congregation enters each week in the build-up to Christmas.

“Our aim was to create a short video clip as an opening sequence to the services over the five week period of Advent,” he says. “We then break the video down into pieces. We use these individually as static images on each sidewall to change the appearance and mood of the room, and also transpose them in layers to build a more detailed picture, for example, adding the Wise Men or Angels to the scenic backdrop, which we can also run as a video sequence.”

“We achieved this using MediaMaster to put each picture on its own surface and layer them on top of each other. We can choose on a week-by-week basis which picture we want as a welcoming image on each side of the room and, using the ‘Output’ function, I can output the same image to two different places. I can then replicate the output multiple times, having first removed the foreground detail and edge-blended the background imagery, and merge the repeats so they blend seamlessly into a backdrop that fills the space.”

The ArKaos Stadium Server is controlled by a Jands Vista S3 lighting and media controller: “We put the still images on one channel and the video clip on the other and I can crossfade from one to the other directly from the lighting desk with MediaMaster running in the background over Art-Net.”

Ottley created the surfaces and masking for each area of projection in the room using MediaMaster’s video mapping function. “MediaMaster makes it easy to tinker with the idiosyncrasies of a building as a projection surface, and once I had the templates in place I simply use them as the basis for dropping in new images. It makes the whole thing very fast and easy to use and I can achieve stunning and very different effects in a very short time.”

“Environmental projection is an exciting medium for a church as it transforms the environment and mood of the services from a passive experience to an engaging one that engulfs the congregation and draws them in.”

“ArKaos makes environmental projection simple as well as spectacular. MediaMaster is an easy way to provide and control powerful images in an impactful way. It is super-versatile, looks good on entrance, engaging during performance and even takes care of some of the decoration of the room – how else could I cover a 300ft wide wall with fir and holly so easily and quickly? It’s like painting on the surface of a building and I can’t think how I would do this without ArKaos. MediaMaster does it all for you, everything you need is built into the box – simple!”

Photo © Wayne_Terrell

North America – Lighting designer C. Andrew Dunning of Landru Design specified the award-winning Jands Vista system to provide simple yet powerful control for Worship services at The Fellowship Ministries’ Two Rivers Campus in Nashville, Tennessee.

In addition to being the owner of Landru Design – which offers lighting design and consulting services for Houses of Worship, corporate events, conferences, and festivals – Andrew is the LD and part of the production team for the main 400-seat Worship Center space at the Two Rivers Campus. Beyond programming and running services, he also maintains the lighting system and supports the team of production volunteers.

Andrew worked closely with Josh Holowicki of lighting sales and production company, E2i Design – who also passionately support a number of Houses of Worship and education centers in the region – to supply the Jands Vista system.

“The Church wanted a lighting control solution that could be easily picked up by non-lighting professionals, so that volunteers of all ages could experience real ‘ownership’ for services without months of training,” says Andrew. “A typical volunteer will have hands-on experience running a service after less than an hour of Vista training.”

“These Church members are commenting on how easy Vista is to use – the ability to navigate cue lists so easily – without having to learn ‘lighting’ syntax or to press a bunch of buttons. Simply hit the ‘go’ icon in the cue list next to the cue you want.”

The Two Rivers Campus are using the very affordable PC-based Jands Vista control solution, connected to two 22-inch touchscreen monitors. By utilizing existing computers onsite, the Vista PC system only requires installation of the v2 control software, a USB to DMX interface cable, and an upgradeable DMX dongle – in the Church’s system, their dongle provides 2 universes of DMX channels.

All Vista products run the exact same software and offer the full feature set as found in the range’s largest consoles – enabling the Campus to use the affordable Vista PC solution without compromising on power, features or performance.

The Church also required a control platform that offered a range of compatible hardware options to suit different shows and budgets, to allow them to standardize control across multiple campuses, and at a cost-effective price.

“Our entire lighting budget was less than what many larger Churches might spend on 4 or 5 moving lights,” adds Andrew.

Photo © Wayne_Terrell

The Vista PC system is controlling a batten-based lighting rig at the Two Rivers Campus, utilizing both repurposed conventional fixtures from its previous facility and nearly 40 LED PAR fixtures.

Data is distributed throughout the room using Pathway’s Pathport nodes.

“Vista suits the Worship environment beautifully,” concludes Andrew. “With a high reliance on volunteers to provide production services, it lets the lighting ministry be very ‘inclusionary’.”

Equally at home on tour or as a venue’s house console, Jands Vista is ideal for shows and special events, arena touring, lighting companies, AV companies, venues and rental, not to mention a fantastic investment for a designer.

Jands’ award-winning Vista lighting & media control system has been embraced by leading designers, companies and venues all over the world on a wide range of shows. Covering entertainment, education & drama, installations, corporate, events and Worship, there’s a Vista system to suit all levels of user and almost any scale of show.

Other Houses of Worship to utilize lighting or media control by Vista include Elevation Church in North Carolina, Tomoka Christian Church and Celebration Church in Florida, Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago, White’s Chapel in Dallas, Lifechurch.tv in Oklahoma, Westover Church in North Carolina, and Grace Community Church in Indiana.

Get your demonstration of the Jands Vista range at the upcoming Worship Facilities Expo 2015 show in Nashville, Tennessee, 18th – 19th November, on the Booth (607) of Jands Vista North American distributor, A.C. Lighting Inc.

Video

This video by Spreading Flames Media shows how a Microsoft Surface Pro 3 tablet can be used, with an M1 control surface, to provide an ultra compact Vista control solution.

Review

Writing in Church Production magazine, lighting designer and programmer Greg Persinger, tests a Vista / Surface 3 combo and says:

“…a solid lighting control system providing an excellent balance of cost, computer power, lighting control, compact size, and ease of use… definitely worth some serious consideration.”

• Read the full review on the Church Production website >
• Watch the video on Youtube >

© Chris Green

USA – Georgia’s Gwinnett Church has invested in four Jands Vista lighting & media consoles to provide powerful yet simple-to-use control for different zones in its recently opened house of worship site.

Gwinnett prides itself on inviting volunteers to assist in running the site operation, including technical production aspects such as lighting for its worship services.

Lighting and Scenic Director at Gwinnett, Josh Mobley, oversaw the Church’s investment in Jands’ flagship Vista L5 all-in-one console, as well as three smaller size Vista control consoles – an S3 and two M1s.

The powerful L5, which features a massive 21″ widescreen tablet for simple control of lighting and media on one screen, is installed in the Church’s main theater. The S3 is in the ‘middle school/high school’ room, and the M1s are in two smaller spaces.

As well as being very popular with houses of worship on account of Vista’s volunteer-friendly operation, all models in the hardware range run the same Vista v2 software, making it effortless for users to program, transfer and operate shows across different models being used at the same site.

“The process of using volunteers for cuelist playback on preprogrammed cues is the process that our organization has found to be successful,” says Josh. “After the volunteers watch the Jands training videos and spend some one-on-one time with me – hands-on with the various Vista desks – they catch on quickly!”

In the Church’s main auditorium, the L5 is controlling a performance rig including Mac Vipers, Mac Auras, Colorado Tri Tours, and Epix strips. The Vista is also being used to control 100 Chroma-Q® Inspire™ color-changing LED house lights, which can be synced via DMX to the stage lighting for a seamless look and truly immersive worship experience which transcends the usual barrier between stage and audience.

“I love the freedom of customization that Jands has, which is one of the main reasons we specified the Vista consoles throughout the Church,” Josh continues. “I have years of experience operating shows on the fly as well as programming and operating songs as a single cuelist. I typically program in the main room for reasons of consistency and detail, and freestyle in the student environments, and both styles are easy to setup with Vista. I also enjoy the freedom to access certain elements of the rig on the fly, while most of the content is pre-programmed.”

Gallery

The powerful L5 utilizes an Intel Quad-Core i7-2600 (3.4GHz) processor and 8GB of dynamic random-access memory (DRAM). As well as its massive screen, the state-of-the-art desk also features a backlit keyboard, and Linux operating system. This combination is ideal for big shows where using lots of fixtures, LEDs and media servers can place significant demands on the console’s processor.

The S3 is controlling a rig which includes Mac 350s, Chauvet Legend 412z fixtures and Colorado Tri Tours. The two M1s are controlling a smaller rig of LED pars and Chauvet Intimidators.

Part of North Point Ministries, Gwinnett Church is the latest campus to adopt the Jands Vista lighting and media control solution for their operation. The Vista consoles for each North Point campus were supplied by SVL Productions in Rockford, IL, and are distributed exclusively in North America by A.C. Lighting Inc.

The Vista range includes a choice of portable, flexible control surfaces and self-contained consoles. Equally at home on tour or as a venue’s house console, Jands’ award-winning Vista lighting & media control system has been embraced by leading designers, companies and venues all over the world on a wide range of shows. Covering entertainment, education & drama, installations, corporate, events and worship, there’s a Vista system to suit all levels of user and almost any scale of show.

Other houses of worship to utilise lighting or media control by Vista include Elevation Church in North Carolina, Tomoka Christian Church and Celebration Church in Florida, Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago, White’s Chapel in Dallas, Lifechurch.tv in Oklahoma, Westover Church in North Carolina, and Grace Community Church in Indiana.

International concert tours include Kylie Minogue, Queen + Adam Lambert, Chrissie Hynde, Bring Me The Horizon, Dierks Bentley and Thompson Square.

Get your demonstration of the Jands Vista range at an upcoming international tradeshows in May & June

Reviewer / Jim Kumorek

LED lighting has come into its own over the past few years, becoming a viable replacement across the board for traditional incandescent theatrical and house lighting fixtures. Their lower power requirements and reduced heat make them ideal for converting retail/warehouse spaces into worship space, as well as retrofitting older traditional church facilities with more modern lighting capabilities. However, not all of these spaces need the complexity of a moving light console to achieve user-friendly control of the color capabilities of LED fixtures. A church may simply want to add the capabilities of setting a mood through changing the color of the lighting, and may not need functionality more sophisticated than basic scene presets or simple cueing.

For these churches, CPM takes a look at the Jands Stage CL lighting console (MSRP $1,495). This is a fully self-contained console designed to operate up to 24 fixture groups (512 channels) of LED lighting (or standard theatrical lighting, as well). Shortly after receipt of the review unit, it was upgraded to the latest version 1.3 firmware from Jands’ website for this evaluation.

LAYOUT

The Stage CL has an attractive form factor: large enough so that the controls aren’t packed in too tightly, but small enough to not take up a lot of precious tech booth real estate. Its built-in touch screen monitor provides all the visual feedback you need, as well as control to system functions, so no external monitor is needed.

Twelve faders are used to control two pages of channel faders and four pages of scene controls. Each fader has a bump button for flashing a channel or scene to full intensity. And each channel also has a selection button, saturation knob and hue knob for controlling color.

At the center of the console is the master fader and buttons for scene activation, snapshot activation, selecting the page currently mapped to the faders, shift, and clear.

In three sections on the right side of the console are the scene control section with its master fader, four scene buttons, and a scene fade timing knob. Next to that is the cue list control section, with release, back, pause, and play buttons, as well as the cue master fader. And to the far right is the chase master section, with controls for four chase activation buttons, a timing knob, tempo tap button, and chase master fader. And lastly, at the top-right of the console is the record and undo buttons

“The Stage CL has a number of very interesting features, including ease-of-use. The scene preset section is exceptionally well thought out.”

OPERATION

The Stage CL is very simple to operate, which is the main point of this console. Patching fixtures is as simple as using the touch screen to select one of the 24 ‘slots’ that a fixture can be assigned to and setting its type and address. Most major fixtures are represented, and with LED fixtures, their DMX profiles are pretty standard, so if the fixture you are using is either not found in the library or is simply unknown, one of the generic fixture types will probably work for you.

You can patch up to 24 fixtures into the console, which are presented as two pages of 12 to the user through the fader section. If you have more than 24 fixtures, you’ll need to start making some grouping decisions. For example, if you have six fixtures that you use for backlighting, and you can live with always setting those fixtures at the same color and intensity, then you can give them all the same DMX address and treat them as if they are one fixture in the console.

Once patched, each fader strip works as a hue, saturation and intensity (HSI) system, with the fader controlling intensity, and the two knobs controlling hue and saturation. You can also influence the color via the touch screen’s color mode, where you can pick specific color squares, use a color-mixing pallet, or adjust RGB values.

To access channels 13-24, you turn on the page button, and the faders and knobs now work with those channels. However, the console does not have motorized faders that ‘snap’ to the current setting for the new page. Therefore, to have the fader take effect, you need to move it through the point where that channel was previously set for that channel. For example, if you set channel one to be at 50%, then press the page button to use the same fader to work with channel 13, you need to move the fader down to zero (the current value of channel 13) before the fader starts to change the value of channel 13. If you then switch back to page one, you need to move the fader through 50% for the fader to start changing the value of channel one again. This support for 24 channels was recently added in this latest firmware upgrade. As with any con¬sole that tries to ‘double up’ on controls like this, it’s a little clunky, and I’d prefer not to run an event manually this way. But for program¬ming scenes or a cue list, it’s not bad.

There’s a colored LED right below the select button for each channel that reflects the intensity and color of the fader, so you can get an idea of what the output of the console is without looking at the stage. You can also see this on the touchscreen using the mimic setting of the monitor window, where the current output value for all 24 channels is displayed.

If you use the select buttons to select multiple channels, the hue and saturation knobs for one channel in the selection affects all selected channels, which is rather handy.

There are several different ways you can run lighting for a service with the Stage CL. First, you can simply set levels for each channel via the faders. If you want to do a smooth transition to a second look like you might do with a two-scene preset console, you can press the ‘Snapshot’ button and the output of the console is frozen. You then adjust the faders and color knobs to the new values you desire using the LED for each channel to see a close approximation of the color you’ll get, and press the Snapshot button again. The console output now crossfades to the new settings.

For a small church stepping up to color-changing led lighting in their facility, the stage cl is well worth consideration

Cue programming was equally straightforward. Set the output levels via the faders, press record and then the Play button in the cue list section, and a new cue is recorded. You can also insert new cues in the middle of the cue list, delete cues and edit cues—the functionality is pretty robust for this level of console.

There are also two ways of programming scenes with the console. First, you can set up a look or scene with the channel section, press Record and then one of the four scene buttons. To activate a scene, you simply press the scene button. To release it, you press that scene button again. Sort of. More on this later.

Alternatively, you can program scenes into one of the scene pages for the fader controls. When you switch into Scene mode for the fader section, the faders then control up to six pages of 12 scenes each.

The Chase feature is pretty cool and sophisticated. You can select a set of channels and easily program in a nice chase by selecting one of the pre-defined chase patterns in the console. Or if none of those will suit your purpose, you can program your own sequence manually. Chases affect both intensity and color.

When running cues, chases and/or scene buttons, you can monitor what’s affecting your lights through the touch screen and select specific items to release—or release all if desired.

USER EXPERIENCE

The Stage CL has some very interesting features, and is quite simple to use. The Scene preset section is well thought out, and its behavior in different situations is rather logical. If you happen to have a scene activated, and instead of activating another scene button like you intended you accidentally press the current scene button causing your lights to start fading out, you can press that same button again before the fade is completed and it will immediately jump back to that scene’s full intensity instead of fading, providing a quick recovery to an ‘oops’ situation.

When a scene is up, pressing its button again causes it to fade out. But, if you bring up another scene whose recorded channels overlap the first scene, and then you press the button for that first scene again, it replays that scene again instead of fading it out, to reassert its overridden attributes. I could see a user preferring for it to just fade out, but I think this makes the most sense. The Scene mode of the faders also worked great.

There are options in the color palette for applying a pattern effect to the currently selected lights, and this is pretty cool to get some nice color chases with almost no effort. The selection of options here are very nice and useful.

Bottom line, the Stage CL console offers a full-featured, reasonably priced option for a church wanting simple control over LED lighting for their facility.

The console was clearly originally designed for controlling just 12 channels. I can see Jands getting requests to be able to control more than that, and thus their work to add in an additional page of fixtures. It does work well, but I think I’d prefer to go with the Vista software solution over the Stage CL if I needed more than 12 channels. But that’s just me—I’ve never been a huge fan of doubling-up on controls if it can be avoided.

For a small church stepping up to color-changing LED lighting in their facility, the Stage CL is well worth consideration.

JIM KUMOREK is owner of Spreading Flames Media, providing video production, photography and writing services. He has also been an editor at Church Production Magazine and a church technical director responsible for audio, video and lighting systems. He can be contacted at james@spreadingflamesmedia.com

© Church Production Magazine

Central Florida’s Tomoka Christian Church has upgraded to a Jands Vista I3 console, to provide a more powerful control solution for its larger performance lighting rig, following a move to a new worship venue.

The non-denominational, missions-oriented church, based in Ormond Beach near the famous Daytona Beach, offers contemporary praise and worship featuring live music, dance, and drama in a multimedia service.

The church is utilising the Jands Vista I3 console alongside its existing Vista M1 control surface, which had been in use for several years.

Tomoka Christian Church’s Technical Director, Shane Stanton worked closely with Florida lighting company Nateco, managed by Nate Mudge, to specify the I3.

“We had already invested in a Vista M1 and wanted to add more functionality,” says Shane. “Specifically, we were looking for an all in one solution. The I3, by giving us more controls, allows us to add elements that we need to be able to quickly access – for instance the additional buttons for bumping or flashing sets of lights, or quickly changing colors, and more flexibility during services or special events.”

The I3 features an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and four DMX outputs offering plenty of connections to lights and dimmers.

Tomoka also invested in two Pathport Octo 8 and eight-port DMX-over-Ethernet nodes, connected to the I3 via Ethernet. The church‘s M1 is connected to the I3 via one of the seven USB ports.

“We try to create a dynamic and immersive, yet tasteful environment with our lighting,” continues Shane. “Worship styles can range from high paced praise music, where we can have a lot of fun with lights flashing and moving, to enveloping slow worship, where we can make slow color or intensity changes to move with the changes of the song.

“The transition from the Vista M1 to the I3 has been seamless, as has updating shows to our new lighting rig with more fixtures, which was a very easy process in the Vista’s v2 software.”

In addition to the I3, Nate worked with Shane to specify GLP X4 LED wash and LED Volkslicht Spots to the church’s rig. The GLP moving lights were specified following a hands-on demo by North American technology distributor, A.C. Lighting Inc’s Fred Mikeska.

“Fred knew we were designing a lighting system for the new facility,” says Nate. “After about a 45 minute demo we were sold. We scheduled an on site demo with the church’s Lighting Director, and GLP became the primary movers. We ended up using 6 Impression X4s and 8 Volkslicht Spots.”

Using the I3 to programme and control the new fixtures has been a simple task, as Shane concludes: “With Vista we are able to program the console to adapt for our volunteers’ varying skill levels. They generally learn how to master the console very quickly.”

The Vista range includes a choice of portable, flexible control surfaces and self contained consoles all running the same Vista v2 software.

Jands’ award-winning Vista lighting & media control system has been embraced by leading designers, companies and venues all over the world on
a wide range of shows. Covering entertainment, education & drama, installations, corporate, events and worship, there’s a Vista system to suit all levels of user and almost any scale of show.

Recent shows featuring lighting or media control by Vista include international concert tours by Fall Out Boy, Bloc Party, Deftones, Dierks Bentley and Little Big Town.

To arrange a Jands Vista demo or discuss your requirements contact your nearest distributor.

Or for more information and a list of international Vista users, visit jands.com/vista/users.

Florida’s fast-growing Celebration Church is utilising Jands’ flagship Vista L5 console to control state of the art lighting and video productions during worship services for its 12,000-strong congregation.

The services held at the Jacksonville-based Church’s newly constructed worship Arena are often broadcast internationally via web stream. They are renowned for being an energetic, immersive next generation praise and worship experience that infuses diverse genres and styles.

Celebration Church’s Lead Lighting Designer and AVL Technician, Trey Smith, specified the Jands Vista L5.

“The Jands Vista L5 is so user-friendly and easy to grasp that it’s a hit not only with us tech guys, but also with the church’s volunteers, who often operate the lighting and media during shows,” says Trey. “The L5’s Timeline feature was a key factor in us specifying it, making it easy to control media via timecode, and to make changes on the fly.”

“In the Arena alone, around 700 fixtures are controlled by the Vista L5. For the entire building, there are 2,200 fixtures, including 93 Chroma-Q® Inspire™ LED house lights. Only 140 of these 2,200 are not LED, and all the fixtures are controlled by the L5 via Pathway’s Pathport Connectivity system, which we use to link together the lighting throughout our building.”

“Currently, our L5 is connected via Ethernet and Fiber to our Pathport nodes onstage and in the catwalk – two nodes for onstage, and two for catwalk that run all of the house lighting and wall lights around the seating,” says Trey. “We also have Pathport throughout the rest of the building, to control lobby lighting, kids’ lighting, nursery hallways, and the Loft Cafe.”

“Everything is on one large network, but data is managed using VLANS so that lighting data doesn’t cross into the Arena. However, we have made it possible for the L5 to control the rest of the building if the situation calls for it.”

Trey and his team are currently using more than 30 universes for the entire building.

In addition to the L5, the Church uses 2x Jands Vista M1s in the Kids’ Ministry rooms, 1x Jands Vista S1 at its nearby Orange Park Campus, 1x Jands Vista I3 for tracking backup in the Main Arena, 2x M1s at the Midtown Location, and 2x M1s at its nearby St. Johns Campus.

In the Main Arena, the L5 is used to trigger media content as well as lighting, which is designed in-house and loaded onto a Coolux Pandora’s Box media server. The Vista range is also compatible with other media server solutions.

“The L5 is able to send Art-Net data to the Pandora’s Box Media Manager,” says Trey. “Pandora controls our stage 60’ x 20’ projection wall (15x 8,000 lumen Titan Projectors edge blended) as well as our 32x Sony LCD TVs that surround the projection wall.”

“We set up Jands to be able to control 6 video layers in Pandora through Art-Net. During regular Sunday services, Jands triggers almost all graphics and videos that go up on the projection wall and TVs. During special events and video elements, Pandora runs the visuals and sends LTC Timecode back to Jands Vista to trigger lighting cues.”

Trey adds that the Celebration Church had been using their Vista I3, M1 and S1 consoles for four years before upgrading to the L5 for the new Arena. “Vista has always worked well for us, and moving up to the L5 meant more power and features – but without a steep learning curve, as it uses exactly the same v2 software as our other Vista consoles.”

The L5 comes with the world-renowned Vista v2 software, a program that has been embraced by its growing number of users for being innovative, intuitive, powerful and easy to use, all at once.

The Church’s show planning is very precise. Songs are often planned a month in advance, with lighting and media programming happening weeks before the service.

“Using the L5 to control so many fixtures and demanding media, we are putting a lot of responsibilities on the console, but it works beautifully,” says Trey. “And due to the L5’s integration with Pathport, it’s a seamless operation.”

Featuring a massive 21-inch High-Definition TFT screen, the L5 offers a lot of space to add and re-arrange windows, making data easy to view and respond to.

The Jands Vista was supplied to the Celebration Church by design firm WAVE, which was contracted to design, supervise and install the new lighting and sound system.

Gallery – click to enlarge

The Vista range includes a choice of portable, flexible control surfaces and self contained consoles all running the same Vista v2 software.

Jands’ award-winning Vista lighting & media control system has been embraced by leading designers, companies and venues all over the world on
a wide range of shows. Covering entertainment, education & drama, installations, corporate, events and worship, there’s a Vista system to suit all levels of user and almost any scale of show.

Recent shows featuring lighting or media control by Vista include international concert tours by Fall Out Boy, Bloc Party, Deftones, Dierks Bentley and Little Big Town.

To arrange a Jands Vista demo or discuss your requirements contact your nearest distributor.

Or for more information and a list of international Vista users, visit jands.com/vista/users.

Fred Mikeska, VP of US Sales & Marketing for Jands’ distributor, A.C. Lighting Inc., receives the WFX award on behalf of Jands from Brian Blackmore, Editor of Church Production Magazine.

Jands Stage CL lighting control console has been awarded two Worship Facilities Expo (WFX) 2013 New Technology Awards for innovation in Dallas, Texas.

The WFX New Product Technology Awards are an integral element of the high profile annual WFX show, and are designed to honor the most innovative and pioneering entertainment technology products for the House of Worship market.

A panel of distinguished members of the WFX Advisory Board and WFX Management, and Editors from the industry’s leading specialist Worship magazines, selected Jands Stage CL as Winner – Best Conventional Lighting Console; and Winner – Best Overall Lighting Product.

“The response from the market to the needs of churches over the past few years has been astounding,” says Jim Wagner, Managing Director of WFX. “As a result, the competition to be recognized as best in category in the WFX New Product Technology Awards is more fierce each year. The Jands Stage CL Lighting Console entry was evaluated by our panel of judges, who selected it as the winning entrant and a worthy recipient of the 2013 WFX New Product Technology Awards. Congratulations.”

Designed to get the most out of LED fixtures for smaller lighting rigs, the Jands Stage CL offers simple, intuitive manual controls and easy storing of looks. Each of its twelve channels has a Saturation encoder and a Hue encoder that LDs can adjust to set the desired color. As the dials are turned, an LED on the channel shows the color being created. And of course, each channel has the traditional fader and flash button to set the intensity of the light. The Stage CL also offers a wide selection of quick, easy to use pre-set colors and effects via its touch screen interface and can control up to 512 DMX channels, connecting either through the DMX-512 output or the Ethernet output (if the fixtures support Art-net).

The two WFX new Technology Awards follow the Jands Stage CL’s win at the SIEL Show in Paris, France. One of the premier international tradeshows for the live shows and events industry, the Stage CL was recognized with the prestigious “Les Etoiles du SIEL 2013” Lighting Product Award after impressing the expert judging panel with its easy operation and innovative design.

“The Jands Stage CL continues to be a major success for us,” says Fred Mikeska from A.C. Lighting Inc., which is the exclusive North American dealer for Jands. “We’re thrilled that the Jands Stage CL is being recognised with so many awards and that it’s making a real difference to lighting control and design in so many venues globally. It offers the flexibility to be a powerful control for experienced LDs, and intuitive enough so that users with little experience of lighting can achieve great results – making it ideal for the Worship market.”

Although designed specifically for LED fixtures, the Jands Stage CL is just as suitable for conventional lights and is incredibly easy to use.

Previous WFX New Technology Awards Winners include the Jands Vista lighting and media control system and Chroma-Q® Inspire™ LED house light – both exclusively available from A.C. Lighting Inc. in North America.

For more information or to arrange your demo of the Jands Stage CL, please contact:

North American Sales:

A.C. Lighting Inc.
Tel: +1 (416) 255 9494
Email northamerica@aclighting.com
Web www.aclighting.com

European Sales:

Jands Europe
Tel: +44 (0)1494 838 365
Email info@jands-europe.com

Three Jands Vista T2 consoles, each running the next generation Vista v2 software, are controlling lighting and media at White’s Chapel United Methodist Church (UMC) in Dallas, Texas, USA.

In the run up to Christmas a spectacular show, “Celebrate The Light”, is being projected onto the front of the impressive 250 ft wide by 150 ft high façade of the church building. Drawing crowds of up to 5,000, and running six times a night, a Vista T2 is in control of this popular show.

Tim Georgeff, the Church‘s Creative Director, had been dreaming about producing a Christmas projection presentation on the building for some time. With the help of Steve Alford of leading technical production company Alford Media – who supplied three Barco 20K FLM projectors and a pair of Green Hippo Grasshopper media servers – as well as local graphic designer David Koss this became a reality.

The Vista controlled the Grasshopper media servers to create the detailed Video presentation the team were after. Vista‘s graphical interface made the process fast, accurate and smooth.

Throughout the duration of the festive season White’s Chapel run events including a major annual Christmas musical. This year‘s production, “Born Where the Shadows Lie”, has lighting designed by Keith Allen from Alford Media.

Fixtures include VARI*LITE VL 3000s, Martin Professional MAC 550s and GLP Volkslicht LED washes , Chroma-Q™ Color Block DB4™ LED battens, plus ETC Source Four profiles, PARs and fresnels.

Tim comments that the ease of programming on the Vista made creating both these shows a very time-efficient process, remarking on how simple it is to get the most from whatever technology they choose to use – whether moving lights, conventionals, LED, or media servers.

White’s Chapel has been running the Vista v2 software for some time, with Tim highlighting that information is clear and readable; its fast setup is “fantastic” and it is “so easy” to navigate.

Tim explains that they loved the first Vista T2 they bought so much that they went out and purchased a second for their smaller venue! Both are in constant use with the busy schedule in its two worship facilities – the main 2,500 capacity auditorium and the second 650 capacity facility, ’The Bridge‘.

The Vista consoles were supplied via Jands exclusive North American distributor A.C. Lighting Inc. VP of Sales and Marketing, Fred Mikeska said “We hear from so many of our users that they know they can create a show by putting all their effort into programming a console, but with Vista they just don‘t have to. That gives them, and their clients, the freedom to create whatever they choose without having to think about the complexity of programming it. Vista v2 really shows that powerful doesn‘t have to be complicated…..”

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The Star-Telegram Texas

Westover Church in North Carolina, USA recently upgraded its Jands Vista T4 console to the new Vista v2 software, providing even greater lighting control for its busy 3,000 capacity main auditorium.

Part of the non-denominational Church‘s 300,000 square foot facility, the main auditorium hosts a diverse range of events. In addition to regular congregation services and at least two major events per month, the Church hosts its own internal events and concerts featuring a choir, worship band and orchestra. The auditorium is also home to the Greensboro Symphony Pops Orchestra.

The Jands Vista T4 console was specified and purchased six years ago for Westover Church by Production Director Jeff Neubauer, and supplied by Barbizon Lighting via exclusive North American distributor, A.C. Lighting Inc. Jeff was an early adopter of the Jands Vista and all the power and flexibility this brings to his events. Since then, Jeff has not looked back in terms of lighting control – he simply loves the Vista!

The Church also has two Vista PC systems – used as a backup to the Vista T4 and for running timed lighting events in the Church’s atrium area. Says Jeff, “Vista v2 has been an amazing upgrade. It’s added a lot of new functionality and made programming even easier and quicker.” The ability to add external touch screens is “fabulous” he comments – and immediately made the most of it. Jeff does the majority of the show programming himself, working with a team of regular operators, and so has plenty of hands on experience and knowledge of exactly what is needed.

He is very impressed with the freedom that Vista v2 brings to customise the user interface and lay it out exactly as users wish, “I can organise myself better, and customise icons to precisely match the way I work. I like to be able to jump around the Cue Lists and the way that the Time Line works now, along with other aspects, it is all even more convenient with v2” he enthuses.

He is also thinks the fact that he could upgrade his existing console to get even more value from his investment, and allow him all the latest programming tools is very cool.

Another excellent feature, he thinks, is being able to see thumbnail displays of the media server clips, which is ideal for fast and intuitive access to video content played out through the desk. This becomes even more important as he incorporates more video into all his events.

The lighting fixtures and visual elements currently being controlled by the Vista T4 in the main auditorium include VARI*LITE VL3000 and VL3500 Spots, Martin Professional MAC 250 Spots, High End DL1 moving head projectors and a Catalyst media server. In addition, there are over 300 Source Fours, 55 Nexera colour changers and a selection of fresnels and PARs for general lighting.

The majority of the lighting stays in the main room, with some rigged in the atrium, where it is controlled by the second Jands Vista PC.

Jeff’s technical team at Westover Church – which includes four full time and two part time employees, along with about 40 volunteers – has a core group of lighting operators, all of whom also really like Vista v2. “The jump from v1 to v2 has been incredibly smooth and straightforward for all of us” confirms Jeff.

It is also an excellent learning console and software platform for those seeking to increase their knowledge and understanding of lighting control. Westover Church currently runs an intern programme for students studying Entertainment Technology at the local Guilford Technical Community College, offering a great opportunity for them to get hands-on experience with the latest technology.

Vista v2 was designed from the ground up to allow all levels of user to get the most from whatever mix of technology they have available, whether lighting, LED, or media. Available in a wide range of hardware, Vista v2 offers both the simplicity to work fast, with the power to control the finest details, so everyone can focus on creating a great looking show rather than on programming a desk.

A.C. Lighting Inc‘s VP of sales & marketing, Fred Mikeska commented “Jeff and his team deliver a wide range of events, always within a short timeframe, and all of which have a consistently high standard. Churches such as Westover are another real world example where the power and simplicity of Vista v2 helps everyone, regardless of their experience level, focus on the main goal of delivering a great looking show that they can be proud of.”