©Rob Sinclair

Europe – “How do we set up the control system to accommodate everything we need for a huge show including capacity for different festival rigs?” Matt Arthur, lighting director for System of a Down’s current European tour, and festival appearances asked Jack Moorhouse, Jands product manager from A.C. Entertainment Technologies.

Rob Sinclair’s ambitious creative design for the Headline European tour by the American alternative, Grammy-winning rock band contained over 800 individually controlled elements, including a touring floor package, festival house rig and a large hybrid video wall. The wall incorporated embedded RGB pixel “lights” alongside a traditional video screen. The lighting pixels themselves required 2,128 DMX channels. Matt originally planned to run the video and pixels from two separate media servers, with overall control from Jands Vista.

The solution was to network two Jands Vista L5 consoles together, alongside a Vista D1 distributed processor.

Jack commented “Doing this provided more than enough DMX universes for the entire show and festival pickups, whilst simultaneously providing tracking backup and networked processing redundancy. Additionally, running all hybrid pixels directly from Vista’s inbuilt FX engine meant that a second media server was no longer necessary.”
The resulting control system allowed Rob and Matt to easily create and manage a fully integrated visual display for the show using a combination of video, lighting and pixel mapped effects.

©Rob Sinclair

Get your demonstration of the Jands Vista range at PLASA London 2017 on the stand (E30) of UK dealer, A.C. Entertainment Technologies.
Alternatively, to arrange a demo or for details of the nearest Jands open house events, contact your nearest dealer.

Gallery – click to enlarge

© Marcus Maschwitz

A Jands Vista console was at the heart of Fall Out Boy’s headline performances at the recent Reading and Leeds Festival main stages. The Chicago band have spent the past decade working their way up the festivals’ bill, and their strikingly visual performances on the consecutive nights, created by production designer Robb Jibson, garnered rave reviews in the media.

Robb, who also helms Chicago-based So Midwest Inc which provided the Vista control package, has been touring extensively with the band, and the Leeds and Reading shows were the culmination of the 18-month American Beauty/American Psycho album cycle. The custom setup, which has accompanied him throughout, consists of a Vista S3 control surface run on OSX via two Mac Minis with stacking dongles, providing an active/backup system with the footprint of just one desk and a total of 16 cores of i7 processing. Robb also used a pair of Jands D1 processors on the network, which helped distribute the load – a parameter count of just over 17,000.

© Marcus Maschwitz

The Vista was in total control of every single visual for the shows, handling all lighting and media output. “Controlling output masters from PRG’s Mbox media server, each output surface can be cued individually and overridden for output control,” explains Robb. “This then meshes SACN with the PRG Director app to supply timecode to the video clips.”

“I use Vista’s Matrix features extensively, having given a little forethought to the programming for the tour at the outset. I use these features for the majority of my movement, colour and intensity FX. Working this way, I can then simply rearrange the layout to suit the touring system to any festival show, even adding and subtracting fixtures that were never in the cues before, and keeping the elements of the cueing intact with regards to timing and size. This really speeds things along because you can add fresh fixtures and get them into the show. Combined with events and rates that actually respect real-world units, you can set events to songs once and lock them in.”

As well as delivering a range of hits on the consecutive nights, the Chicago band created a new show for the festivals, based around their ‘Bloom’ art project, which included a short film. 

“Working in conjunction with LA-based streetwear designer Bobby Kim of The Hundreds, we developed an all-encompassing design directive, unifying stage wardrobe, scenic elements and show merchandise,” explains Robb. “This was a unique expression for Reading and Leeds, as well as for shows in Belfast, Glasgow and Del Mar (CA), and required a reimagining of a few songs and a short intro to tie it all together.”

© Marcus Maschwitz

The Jands Vista morphed the FOB tour’s existing programming across a massive lighting system supplied by London’s Neg Earth for the festival dates, mutually agreed upon to suit both the headliners and the festivals. This comprised more than 250 fixtures of Clay Paky Sharpy, Martin MAC Aura XBs and Vipers, Vari*Lite 3500 WFX, SGM Q-7 and Moles. The lighting was tied in with the show’s media content, which included live camera feeds and striking visuals designed by Robb and his creative team of animators.

Also touring with the band was a custom-built scenic wall with one 12m x 2.6m side consisting of ROE Vanish 25mm LED panels, and the other of flower walls to match the Bloom project’s design. This extended the video raster down low behind the band, starting in a downstage position and flipping on cue to reveal the floral side, before moving upstage behind the band to mix with the show’s video canvas.

© Marcus Maschwitz

“The time line interface and unique cloning and morphing abilities of the Jands software allowed me to handle the detailed festival programming quicker than any other console type I have used,” concludes Robb. “This meant that during the limited programming slot, I could focus on getting things adjusted while others would still have been setting their broadcast outputs…”

Get your personal demonstration of the Jands Vista range at LDI 2016 on the booth of exclusive North American distributor, A.C. Lighting Inc. (#2252).

Alternatively, to arrange a demo or for details of the nearest Jands open house events, contact:
(North American Sales)
A.C. Lighting Inc.
Tel: +1 416 255 9494
northamerica@aclighting.com

(Europe, the Middle East and Africa)
A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd.
Tel: +44 (0)1494 446000
sales@ac-et.com

Gallery – click images to enlarge

All Photo © Marcus Maschwitz

The July issue of Lighting&Sound America includes a review of Dierks Bentley’s current Somewhere on a Beach Tour, which features lighting control by a Jands Vista console.

Excerpt

(LD Chris) Reade programmed the show, and is out on the road with a Jands Vista console. “It’s the most stable console I’ve ever been on in my career,” he says. “It’s more of a visual console, so I can go into the time line—which is a lot like video editing—and I can see the parameters per instrument that are active in that cue, and I can change the parameters in seconds. It’s very logical, as well as intuitive—it makes sense, everything flows really well and I can do fairly complicated things in a much simpler way.” Reade has worked on other consoles, but keeps going back to the Vista. “The Jands Vista is my console and I love it,” he concludes

Read or download the full article [PDF 3.4MB]

This article is reproduced courtesy of Lighting & Sound America / writer Sharon Stancavage.

Gallery – Click images to enlarge

Photo © Jack Edinger

A Jands Vista S3 console and two Jands D1 Playback Processors are being used by designer, Robb Jibson of So Midwest, Inc. to provide lighting and media control for American rockers, Fall Out Boy’s current 2015 / 2016 international tour.

The high-profile US rock band are touring in support of their 2015 album American Beauty / American Psycho, currently undertaking UK and European Arena shows throughout October, following a series of US dates over the Summer.

A long-time Jands Vista user, Robb is taking the S3 and D1 combination on the entire tour. The custom setup consists of the S3 control surface, which is connected to an Apple i7 Mac Mini running the award-winning Vista v2 software, and a Wacom Cintiq Multi Touch pen tablet surface built into a custom case. The system runs with an identical back up and two Vista D1 Playback Processors, which are rack-mounted in a road-case.

“There are a total of 15,496 parameters on the tour, ” says Robb. “The Vista controls all the lighting fixtures and elements of the mBox media server that are Art-Net merged within the Time Code Controller. The D1 processors are needed due to the parameter counts, and I have to say they are performing amazingly well. They simply sit on the network and work – that is the beauty of them! ”

Photo © Jack Edinger

In addition to the massive effects lighting rig, which includes dozens of Aryton Magic Panels, Magic Rings and Clay Paky B-Eye in full parameter count modes, the show set includes a large LED screen situated high above the front of the action, a huge LED wall at the back, and LED screen strips on the three staircases centre-stage. A variety of media content appears throughout the show, including live camera feeds and striking visuals designed by Robb in his capacity as production designer, in collaboration with a creative team of animators.

“The set is custom made and faced with 6mm magnetic video tiles,” says Robb. “Being able to control all the intensity levels of the mBox map surfaces in a matrix (using Vista’s pixel mapper) gives some really cool looks and functionality!”

The Jands Vista D1 expands the DMX processing capabilities of the entire Vista range and connects via Ethernet to any Vista system – providing an additional 8192 channels (16 DMX universes) per unit.

Inside the D1 there’s a high performance Intel processor, 16GB of RAM, a Solid State Drive and dual gigabit Ethernet connections to maximise playback performance and minimise latency. Fixtures can either be connected to the D1 over a network using Art-Net or sACN, or directly via the D1’s eight DMX outputs.

Photo © Jack Edinger

“The Jands Eco system allows me to control the show with the most respect to the timings of things,” Robb continues. “It allows me to quickly dial in timings that are accurate to the musical notations, and get them right. Constraining all the parameters into timing blocks and being able to adjust them without losing the timings is a joy! I also really love the fixture selection and sorting, being able to think less of fixture numbers and ordering, and more about the overall show goal!”

“Jands continues to innovate – the Vista system really is designed beautifully. ”

Following the October Fall Out Boy shows, which include dates in the UK, Belgium, Germany, France, the Netherlands, and Russia, the band will return to North America for a series of dates through December, February and March.

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, production & rental 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 Florence + The Machine, Bring Me The Horizon, Kylie Minogue, Queen + Adam Lambert, and Dierks Bentley.

© thefifthestate.co.uk

Renowned lighting designer, Rob Sinclair and programmer Louisa Smurthwaite used a Jands Vista L5 lighting console to deliver a memorable performance for Florence + The Machine’s triumphant Friday night headlining slot on the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury Festival.

One of the most famous and celebrated music festivals in the world, Glastonbury has provided a global stage for some of the world’s leading rock and popular music artists – with many giving career-defining performances on the iconic Pyramid Stage.

When Florence + The Machine were promoted to top of the bill just one week before the show, after an injury to Dave Grohl forced the Foo Fighters to pull out, Rob and Louisa were faced with the challenge of completely re-designing the show to incorporate the production values of a headliner slot – with only two extra days of production rehearsals available.

Willo Perron’s innovative overall show concept and set design for the band’s current How Big 2015 international tour, along with Rob’s elegant lighting design, formed the basis for the Glastonbury performance’s production values. The band’s brief was to come up with a timelessly classic look which wasn’t era-specific. Set pieces included rows of Par Cans custom painted in a metallic copper finish, providing side and back lighting for the band – as well as creating a visually appealing aesthetic look on stage.

In addition, the upstage featured a huge 48ft by 28ft ’kinetic wall’ animated by 22 DMX fans, which reflected front light and glistened at various points of the performance – creating amazing reflections.

With the band’s tour underway in Europe when the new Glastonbury headline slot was confirmed, Rob had to make the tour’s rig design, which consisted of 5 angled trusses to light the back wall, work for the Pyramid Stage’s rig of three straight trusses, which had already been specified for the Foo Fighters’ performance.

The process began with Rob and Louisa sitting down together and reviewing every technical aspect of the show, and how they could change it to make the very best of the rig that they had at their disposal. With the help of Neg Earth Lights, the lighting rig supplier for the Pyramid Stage, Rob was able to add an additional two front trusses containing 30 Martin Viper Air FXs, to light the back surface.

Although a considerable amount of work to reprogram the show, Louisa knew that Vista’s Generic Fixture Model and FX Engine would make light work of this task.

She commented: “There was plenty of fixture swapping required to reprogram the touring show for the Pyramid Stage. The thing that I love about Vista is that once you ask it to swap one fixture to become another, it simply works. I don’t have to go in and update additional elements or manually link features from one fixture to the next – I am instantly ready to continue my work.

These features allowed Rob and myself the time to meticulously concentrate on getting other show elements perfect. Examples of these elements would be restricting ourselves to a limited, yet precise colour palette which was in keeping with the timeless look and feel of the lighting design. Rob also spent a lot of time working out angles to light the back wall.”

© thefifthestate.co.uk

Having only used the L5 on one previous tour, for Kylie Minogue, Louisa was further impressed with its overall ease of use and reliability.

She commented: “The L5 definitely makes a big difference – just having that wide screen to work on is invaluable, it seems to make your mind that extra bit cleaner. Plus having the extra faders at your disposal is great.

I have used all of the consoles within the Jands Vista family over the years and I find them to be incredibly reliable and robust, but I am always impressed on just how far you can push the L5, and it simply continues to deliver on performance.”

Rob and Louisa used their touring control system – a Vista S1 connected to an Apple Macbook running the same Vista v2 software – as the backup for the Glastonbury show.

Both Vista operators are used to regularly switching between the various hardware models within the Vista range on a tour, to suit different size venues and scale of shows, whilst maintaining all of Vista’s functionality.

Louisa commented: “The Vista range allows me to seamlessly transfer my programming or operation of a show from one size console to another, without any restrictions – the desks are totally interchangeable. This is ideal for programming a show offline before getting onsite for production rehearsals, and for switching between Vista systems for different legs or dates on a tour.”

The Florence + The Machine international tour resumes at the beginning of July in Europe, and is followed by dates in North America and Australia before a UK tour leg. The full tour lighting rig is supplied by Nashville-based Premier Global Productions.

The powerful Jands Vista v2 lighting and media control system has helped lighting designer Derek Jones to utilise an ever-changing rig of fixtures for different venues on American singer Chrissie Hynde’s latest US tour.

Derek was challenged with using in-house or locally-hired fixtures at all of the venues on the tour, which visited cities from Boston and New York, to Dallas and LA.

“Thankfully, I’ve been a long-time Jands Vista user, so I knew that it wouldn’t be a problem with the platform’s fantastic generic fixture model,”says Derek, who has used Vista to provide the tour lighting for high-profile acts as diverse as Cliff Richard, the Scissor Sisters and Yusuf Islam.

The Vista‘s generic fixture model allows LDs and operators to treat all lights in the same way, providing quick, hassle-free and accurate fixture swapping to adapt their show to fit whatever type of lights they are faced with. This proves a perfect solution when the tour picks up local production, as opposed to using their own lighting rig – adapting automatically to newly rigged fixtures from venue to venue without the need for re-programming.

This simplicity to work fast, with the power to control the finest details, means that LDs can focus on creating a great looking show rather than on programming a desk.
Derek comments: “With the help of the generic fixture model it was easy to move between so many different fixtures in so many locations. The Vista was great at just plugging in and after only 30 mins of tweaks, the show was back up and running. ”

The Vista range includes a choice of portable, flexible control surfaces and self-contained consoles all running the same Vista v2 software. Derek invested in his S3 console four years ago and declared that he’d “fallen in love”with it after using it for the first time, adding, “there’s absolutely no going back now.”

Designed to be used with a desktop or laptop, the S3 is a Vista without the computer hardware components. Install the platform’s Vista v2 software to a computer, connect it to the S3 with a USB cable, and you’ve got a fully-operational Vista console.

“I’ve always liked the different sized surfaces of the Vista range that can be used with any suitable computer,”says Derek, who tours mainly with his S3 but also utilises an S1. “That, and of course the ease and speed in which you can get a show built.”

Derek’s design for Chrissie Hynde, who is probably best known as the lead singer of The Pretenders, was “simple and straightforward, without too many colours, as the artist didn’t want a flashy production. ”

The team played a 25-date theatre tour from October to December 2014 in support of Chrissie Hynde’s latest album, Stockholm.

Equally at home on tour or as a venue’s house console, the 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.

Recent shows featuring lighting or media control by Vista include international concert tours by Kylie Minogue, Queen + Adam Lambert, Peter Gabriel, Dierks Bentley, Fall Out Boy, Bloc Party, Deftones and Little Big Town.

Get your demonstration of the Jands Vista range at the following upcoming international tradeshows in March & April:

• CITT – Montreal, Canada, 26th – 27th March, Booth 140 (A.C. Lighting Inc.)
• NAB – Las Vegas, USA, 13th – 16th April, Booth C8439 (A.C. Lighting Inc.)
• Prolight & Sound – Frankfurt, Germany, 15th – 18th April, Booth 9.0-D47 (AC-ET)

Photo ©Joshua Timmermans

Lighting designer, Chris Reade is back on the road with his Jands Vista T2, S1 and M1 consoles, controlling an even more technically ambitious rig for the latest tour by Platinum-selling singer-songwriter, Dierks Bentley.

After recently topping the US Billboard country airplay chart with his 12th No.1 single, ‘Drunk On A Plane’, Dierks Bentley and director Wes Edwards have just added the CMA (Country Music Award) ‘Music Video of the Year’ Award, to the song’s other accolades.

The country artist’s 2014 tour is called RISER, after the recent album of the same name. It kicked off in May in Charlotte, North Carolina, with sold-out shows in amphitheatres and arenas across the United States and Canada – concluding in December.

The tour further builds upon Chris’s impressive lighting design and rig for Dierks Bentley on last year’s Locked & ReLoaded Tour with Miranda Lambert – also controlled using the Jands Vista system.

“I can’t say enough positive things about Jands Vista!” says Chris, who first used the Vista platform in 2008, and subsequently invested in his own T2, S1 and M1. “I know Vista will handle whatever I throw at it. We did a massive show at one venue where we had 23 universes of instruments running, with only our tour floor package. The entire lighting rig (besides our floor package) had to be swapped over and the console handled it all.”

Chris continues: “Dierks is really into the visual aspect of his performances, and the Vista platform, in my opinion, puts me in the best situation to succeed in making his shows detailed in a shorter amount of programming time.”

Chris is using his S1/M1 as a tracking backup on the RISER tour, in addition to his main T2 desk. The consoles network through a Pathport VIA switch and output DMX via Pathport OCTO Artnet Nodes.

“It all works wonderfully, and it’s extremely fast,” says Chris. “I also love the speed of editing very detailed timing via the timeline.”

In addition to the larger venues, the tour also plays a selection of fairs, festivals and casinos, meaning that Chris has to reconfigure the lighting rig based on venue capabilities.

“Without the fixture swap/cloning features of the T2, I would not be able to get through a touring cycle without having to start from scratch on the non-tour dates. The timeline is one of my favorite things about the Vista platform. When I’m programming I can bang out my cue lists and then go back and get into the details per cue, per instrument, per parameter, to adjust all of my timing, etc. It is extremely fast to edit a song once the looks are in. I do quite a few ‘follow’ cues, and making detailed timing adjustments is a breeze within the timeline.”

For the RISER Tour, Chris is using a huge rig (provided by Rod ‘Red’ Gibson of Christie Lites), including the new Martin MAC Quantums, MAC Viper Wash DXs, MAC Vipers, MAC Auras, MAC 700 Profiles, Elation Platinum Beam 5R and Atomic Strobes, along with some conventionals.

Gallery – click to enlarge

The T2 is an all-in-one lighting package providing all the features that make the Vista such a great live desk: big LCDs, 15 playbacks (10 with faders), four DMX outputs and timecode input, and three encoder wheels for manipulating intensity, position, color, gobo and beam.

The Vista range includes a choice of portable, flexible control surfaces and self-contained consoles all running the same Vista v2 software. The award-winning 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 Queen + Adam Lambert, Peter Gabriel, Fall Out Boy, Bloc Party, Deftones and Little Big Town.

©Richard Rhys Thomas

London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall used their Jands Vista T4 console to provide thrilling lighting for Christmas Spectacular – the venue’s first festive show co-produced by the Royal Albert Hall and renowned popular classic music promoter, Raymond Gubbay.

One of the leading providers of concerts, opera and ballet to major venues across the country, Raymond Gubbay’s popular Christmas Festival concerts have become part of a festive tradition.

Christmas Spectacular was the perfect event for keeping Christmas spirits high – with a stunning combination of favourite music classics, breathtaking dance, thrilling lights, sensational lasers and a fantastic indoor firework finale! Special guests included West End star Kerry Ellis and acclaimed chorister, Jack Topping.

Royal Albert Hall (RAH) Lighting Design and Systems Manager, Richard Rhys Thomas utilised the venue’s Jands Vista T4 console to control the ambitious lighting production.

©Alex Griffiths

“The vision for my design was to produce an exciting and dynamic light show in conjunction with lasers and pyrotechnic effects, to complement the music, dance, ballet, and vocal performances,” says Richard. “The music programme was quite varied, with music from well-known ballets, operas, musicals and the movies, and therefore the lighting reflected this with a combination of subtle and colourful looks to more bold and dramatic lighting effects.”

The design utilised the RAH lighting rig, with extras, and consisted of some 130 moving lights – including Clay Paky Alpha Washes & Spots, Vari*Lite VL 3000 & 2500 Spots, Robe Pointes and ETC Source 4 Revolutions.

“The Vista helps by making the job of creating looks with large numbers of fixtures very quick and easy,” says Richard. “You are able to spend more time looking at the stage, focussing on the lighting and less time worrying about the programming, which for a show with a load in, a morning rehearsal and two performances in one day makes a real difference.”

“I love the speed and power of the Vista console as a simple interface to create exciting shows with minimal effort.”

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

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 ‘The Smiler’Rollercoaster launch at Alton Towers (UK) Resort, and international concert tours by Peter Gabriel, Fall Out Boy, Bloc Party, Deftones, Dierks Bentley and Little Big Town.

The Jands Vista console range will be showcased at Prolight & Sound, Frankfurt in March on the stand of UK dealer, A.C. Entertainment Technologies (stand location 9.0, E63).

Since Perth’s Concert and Corporate Productions (CCPWA to their friends) purchased their Jands Vista L5 they’ve barely had the pleasure of its company. And it’s that kind of immediate return on investment that really makes a production company happy. Sean McKernan, General Manager of CCPWA, couldn’t be happier with its absence. “We got it mid-September and we only had it in our warehouse for 12 hours before it went out on its first tour!”

After purchasing from Jands, the L5 flew into Perth to be prepped by the CCPWA crew, and soon turned around and was put on a plane to Brisbane, where it kicked off on UK metal band Bring Me The Horizon’s national tour. As that tour finished up, the desk went straight over to US rockers Fall Out Boy for another lap of the nation.

“It was a good month and a half before it came back” Sean continued, “and it has had nothing but praise from all the LDs who’ve used it.” User feedback coming into CCPWA has repeatedly highlighted the L5’s intuitive operation and great operating system. Sean concurs; “I’m a GrandMA operator, and I find the Vista L5 completely intuitive.”

One of the big hits with operators is the generous 21-inch, 1920×1080 resolution TFT screen. “It’s one of the biggest visual surfaces on the market” agreed Sean. “There’s not many other consoles that have a better work surface.”

After doing two tours of duty, bouncing around Australia’s highways in trucks, the L5 finally made it home in fine working order, ready to go out again almost immediately. “We’ve only had it back for four weeks” explained Sean, “and it has done three shows during that time.”

With the incredibly busy Christmas and New Year period upon us, the L5 is still out working hard for CCP. It was on the Perth leg of the huge EDM-based Stereosonic Festival on 30 Nov/1 Dec. Early in 2014 it will be showing its versatility by working on an opera. Looks like the warehouse crew won’t be seeing much of this workhorse at all in the near future.

American rockers Fall Out Boy recently toured Australia to support their new album Pax Am Days which reached No. 2 on the ARIA Album Charts.

Lighting designer Robb Jibson toured a Vista L5, the latest addition to the revolutionary Jands Vista range of consoles and control surfaces, with a Mac Mini based S3 as a system back up.

Robb has been a Vista user for over eighteen months reporting that he was instantly blown away by the simplicity of the interface and the intricate timings that he could dial in.

“My favourite feature is probably the swing based FX,” he added. “Not having to create multiple macro-based cue lists and the ease in which you can lock sync with the band and those FX. Close second would be the way the console deals with multipart fixtures and matrix FXs.”

Robb further commented that he particularly likes how the software is designed and developed. “It’s not a hodgepodge of many programming styles, it stands on its own two feet. That said, it’s really powerful and super flexible, but does not try to dabble with concepts from here or there, and the networking abilities on the Vista L5 are amazing. ”

“Vista finally allows me to refine my work flow. I can be in After Effects, Photoshop, Vectorworks and all the keyboard commands system wide, that I’m used to, work. I can command tab between my apps and keep things flowing. It’s also a very musical software, being able to build FX and cues that relate to BPM and then divide and multiply, means that I can get dialed in quickly for any project I’m working on.”

With Fall Out Boy, Robb is sometimes touring a system and sometimes not, fortunately the Vista L5 platform allows him to quickly and effortlessly swap, merge, expand and contract all the programming that is being built very easily. “By using matrix FX and global based personalities, I can swap from our rig to spec one day and a hodgepodge of knock off equipment the next!” he said. “I’ve been told a few times by house staff and vendors that other shows have a hard time getting things going quickly or are waiting on fixture personalities to be built, whereas the Vista software has you up and going quickly! I live for the fixture editor we have, scared no more of the abyss of knock off fixtures in remote countries!”

Gallery – Click images to enlarge