Now in it’s fifth season the Kazakh version of the international X Factor series is broadcast on the Perviy Kanal Evraziya channel in Kazakhstan.Dmitriy Karabetskiy is the Lighting Designer and Director of Photography for the show and uses a Vista S3 console to control the elaborate lighting rig.

Asked about his experience with Vista Dimitry commented: “What I can say about Vista? Creative work, extraordinary speed of light programming, unlimited possibilities of effects and reliability for use in Live Production.”

For the LED screens used on the show Dimitry created a custom project in Touch Designer with control from Vista via Art-Net.

The lighting system for X Factor Kazakhstan includes:

• 16 Clay Paky Alpha Spot 800 QWO
• 16 Clay Paky Alpha Profile 800 ST
• 8 Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700
• 8 Clay Paky A.leda K20
• 8 Clay Paky A.leda K10
• 39 Clay Paky Sharpy
• 8 High End Studio Color 575
• 3 Coef MP 700 Zoom
• 8 Coef MP Wash 575
• 16 Jarag 25 lamp blinder
• 14 2 lamp blinder
• 14 4 lamp blinder
• 10 Martin Atomic 3000

Gallery – click to enlarge

Video

Hi res version on YouTube

The Lane University Center at Maryland’s Frostburg State University has invested in Jands’ feature-rich Vista T2 lighting and media console to provide intuitive and powerful control for its rapidly expanding schedule of events.

The Center – which prides itself on offering ‘state of the art event spaces to the students, staff, and the local community’ – is utilising the all-in-one Vista T2 to control an increasing inventory of LED and moving head fixtures.

“We required a console that was effortless to set up, offered a simple-to-master interface with easily accessible controls, and which excelled at live control,” says Austin Huot, Lane University Center’s Assistant Director. “We were sold from the moment we saw the Vista T2 console and were able to have multiple fixtures patched with effects executed in seconds.”

In addition to weddings, live music, and other events, a major party at the University is the monthly ‘Late @ Lane’, when the entire Center is transformed into a nightclub-style venue. For these events, the Vista T2 controls all of the lighting technology for the public lobby and lounge spaces.

“The Vista T2 is our go-to console for our rig, which currently includes Martin and Robe moving lights, as well as Chroma-Q® and Color Kinetics LED fixtures,” says Austin. “Vista is the console of choice amongst our student technical services team and has excelled in one of the core roles that initiated this investment.”

At the heart of the T2 is Vista’s intuitive and visual Vista v2 software interface. Jands designed the Vista’s v2 software to cope with the ever changing demands of lighting, LED, and media server use in a way that makes it simple for all levels of lighting designer – including lighting students. The accuracy and simplicity of the information makes sense of even the most complex shows, so lighting designers can concentrate on lighting rather than on programming.

“One of the most impressive apects of the Vista T2 is how intuitive it is to use,” says Austin. “Our operation relies on student employees who often embark on their career as a member of our technical services team with limited knowledge and context of lighting technology. The patch, fixture chooser, timeline, color picker, and Smart FX features of the Vista software have helped the team here pick up the skills they need fast.”

The University saw the Vista T2 as an easy to learn, powerful, yet simplistic lighting and media control console able to be used by volunteer and student staff, but that would also impress an established lighting designer.

Staff at Lane University Center agree: “The Vista T2 has one of the easiest user interfaces of any console on the market, allowing even our less experienced personnel to be able to develop fantastic light shows with ease,” says Andy Krehbiel, Lighting Designer, LUC Technical Services. Stephen Kuhn, Student Tech Manager, comments: “Almost anyone can be placed at the reins of the T2 and with minimal guidance have complex looks and various cues created.”

Austin concludes: “The Vista T2 has surpassed our expectations by eliminating the learning barriers that previously delayed the development of students, helping them to feel confident in their role as a lighting designer or console operator for our events.”
The Vista T2 was supplied to the University by Matt Williams of BMI Supply of Queensbury, NY who worked closely with Jands North American distributor, A.C. Lighting Inc.

Gallery – click to enlarge

The Vista range includes a choice of portable, flexible control surfaces which connect to the Vista v2 software running natively on a Mac or on a PC, and which are customisable with a variety of DMX channel options. In addition, there’s a choice of consoles running the same v2 software in a convenient self contained hardware package.

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.

To arrange a Jands Vista demo or discuss your requirements, call your nearest distributor or for more information and a list of international Vista users, visit www.jands.com/vista/users.

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.

A.C. Entertainment Technologies (AC-ET) Ltd, one of the industry’s leading entertainment technology suppliers, provided spectacular video projection for the British Racing Drivers’ Club’s (BRDC) dazzling annual British Grand Prix party at Silverstone racing circuit.

Staged every year on the eve of the F1™ Santander British Grand Prix, this year a party was held for the first time at the BRDC Farm, which is adjacent to the celebrated race track. The legendary event attracted high-profile members and personalities from the world of motorsport.

AC-ET, which is a Patron of the British Racing Drivers’ Club’s exclusive ‘Rising Stars’ Programme, worked closely with the BRDC events team to deliver the temporary video and lighting installation.

Although AC-ET has a long-standing relationship lighting the event, with the new Farm location this year, AC-ET’s technical manager, James Bawn, decided to bring the façade of the space’s Georgian building to life. For this he used dynamic, high-speed racing footage from the BRDC’s own film archive.

“The brief from the British Racing Drivers’ Club was that they wanted a spectacular, jaw-dropping visual event,” explains James. “We decided to utilise cutting-edge video projection technologies, and add in some eye-catching outdoor lighting to set the mood around the grounds. Within ten minutes of my initial site meeting I knew that we had to project onto the Farm building itself – it provided the ideal canvas.”

BRDC’s Stuart Pringle was delighted: “It was fantastic to see the BRDC Farm transformed into a dynamic, visually vibrant space full of light and video,” he says. “Video projection brought a new dimension to the site and the idea of projecting archive racing footage was inspired. Not only that, it looked stunning and genuinely set the mood for the evening.”

To achieve the overall look James specified a Green Hippo GrassHopper controlling Barco HD20K Projectors and TV One signal transmission for the projection.

To bring the surrounding site to life and further complement the projection he specified various cutting-edge lighting including eight Chroma-Q™ Color Force Compact™ fixtures, three A&O Falcon Beam 3K and six Robe Robin 300E Spots. All lighting was programmed and controlled on a Jands Vista S1 control surface connected to a PC laptop running the Vista v2 software.

“The Green Hippo GrassHopper was used to full effect – we blended 2 x 20k projectors and used archive racing footage from the BRDC,” explains James. “The effects were stunning. Although the content was relatively straight forward, the ease and speed in which the GrassHopper was programmed on site made it a very easy set up for us.”

The site itself is pitch black at night, so James had to deal with various health and safety challenges: &ldquoHowever as there were so many trees in the gardens it gave me a fantastic opportunity to light them with a number of slow rainbow chases,” he explains. “With the Vista S1’s FX engine I quickly created the look I wanted, yet still managed to provide sufficient illumination to make safe walkways around the site.”

Images – Click to enlarge

A corporate event for 24,000 attendees, featuring several speakers and bands, shows off the Vista’s advanced control and networking capabilities. Regular Vista user Jeff Monuszko programmed the show.

Production Team

• Production Designer: Jeff Reeks
• Programmer: Jeff Monuszko
• ME: Jason Rosenstock
• Electricians: Greg Pfrommer and Mike Kennedy

Control

• 2 Jands Vista S3 with touch screen desktop and external touch monitor
• 1 Jands Vista S1 with touch screen laptop connected wirelessly for remote control
• 1 touch screen desktop used for tracking backup and configured to autosave
• 2 iPads running VNC for remote focus
• 4-way Pathport nodes with sACN for data transmission
• 12 universes of fixtures
• 7 universes of media servers

Fixtures

• 40 Mac Aura
• 35 Clay Paky Sharpy
• 24 Martin Viper Profile
• 30 Vari-Lite VLX
• 10 Vari-Lite 3500 Spots
• 8 Mac 2000 Wash
• 24 Mac 700 Wash
• 4 Mac 301
• 16 Color Kinetics ColorBlaze TRX
• 12 Color Kinetics ColorBlaze 48
• 
190 ETC Source 4 Leko

Digital Scenic

• 8 Green Hippo Grasshoppers
• 600 LED Tiles


Images – click to enlarge

A Jands Vista L5 media and lighting control console, running the latest Vista v2 software, was used by designer Geoffrey Platt to help deliver US telecoms company 5LINX Enterprises‘ corporate vision to over 8,000 sales delegates.

Geoff, of Atlanta based Production People Inc. (PPi), used the Vista L5 with another of the family, a Vista T2, running in full tracking back-up to deliver a stunning stage production featuring video, lighting and LED.

Geoff has worked for PPi for the last five years as a creative and concept designer for scenic, video and lighting. Although he has been an enthusiastic user of the Vista family for a number of years, this was his first chance to use the new flagship Vista L5.

Despite the scale and stature of the event, and not to mention the fast pace of the show, Geoff was completely confident that the L5 was the right tool to deliver the precise look and feel he wanted for the presentations.

The L5 was controlling over 100 moving lights – a mix of VARI*LITE V*L3000 spots, V*L3500 washes, Martin Professional MAC 250 washes and Clay Paky Sharpys – as well as conventional lightsources and 140 LED fixtures including Chroma-Q™ Color Block™, Philips CK ColorBlast and ColorBlaze, Chauvet Colorado TriPAR and Alkalite Opto Strips. All lighting equipment was supplied by rental company 4Wall‘s Las Vegas facility.

Two Catalyst media servers were controlled by the Vista L5 to supply video throughout the event‘s presentations.

Geoff absolutely loved the L5 – especially its striking 21 inch, high-definition screen, which made accessing all the elements of the rig both fast and easy. This really assisted with the fast, intense programming the show demanded of Geoff and co-programmer, Greg Haygood.

Geoff continues to be hugely impressed with the performance of Jands‘ next generation Vista v2 control platform, commenting that its Effects Engine is “fantastic”.

He says the powerful, simple, visual Vista v2 software is invaluable for designing and operating quickly and efficiently on large and complex shows like 5LINX Enterprises, and features such as Vista v2‘s Matrix effects quickly bring extra dynamics and dimensions to the show.

“I think it‘s the fastest console currently on the market for programming – the timeline interface makes all the difference in the world” he enthuses, concluding “Jands have done a fantastic job on the L5, building a product with ’the future‘ in mind. I am very excited to see how things will develop from here.”

After using the recently released Vista v2 software on their existing stock of Vista T2 consoles, Dallas, Texas based Alford Media have just committed to increasing their inventory after the next generation of software delivered the leap forward it promised.

Alford Media is an AV and lighting company, with full production facilities, known for its high end video capabilities as well as imaginative integrated visual designs and solutions. They work on a wide variety of live events for a diverse range of premium clients with exacting standards.

One of two full time lighting designer/directors, Kurt Wunsch has been with the company for 10 years. He was an early adopter of the Jands Vista control platform, and has been an enthusiastic user since. Their first T2 console was bought soon after Vista was launched, and along with the others they have bought since, is still going strong even after constant use. Last year one of his highlights was lighting the Boy Scouts of America’s 100th Anniversary National Scout Jamboree show – 16 universes of DMX controlled from a single Vista T2.

Kurt and his colleagues took the decision that now was the right time to update their consoles to the next generation Vista v2 software, and get access to all the additional functionality that it offers. 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 dimmers, moving lights, 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.

Kurt is very impressed with Vista v2, particularly the way it interfaces seamlessly with media servers. As Alford Media is a video orientated company, this is proving extremely useful to get the most from their recent investment in several Green Hippo Hippotizer products.

Kurt likes many features of the Vista v2 operating system, specifically the user-friendly programming environment, and they way it allows you to “work in a logical, straightforward and creative manner” to build your show. He says “you can really focus on the design, and think in terms of colours and effects rather than number-crunching and percentages. It’s fast, interactive and simple to use” he comments, adding that it also suits the theatrical / rock ‘n’ roll style of his programming which was shaped during his early career.

Kurt believes Vista v2 is now “faster than any other console – the interface makes it so easy to grab fixtures and apply parameters”. This allows him and his team to deliver the high standards that his clients demand within the tight timeframes they set.

On a recent Quake Con event in Dallas, Kurt was using Chroma-QTM Color BlockTM LED fixtures to highlight the trusses, which he was easily able to map using the matrix facility in Vista v2. He says that it worked “Brilliantly”, saving literally hours of programming time, and quickly giving the client exactly what they were looking for.

Upcoming shows on which Kurt himself is using one of the company‘s T2‘s include an event for a large pharmaceutical company in Maryland, for which he has designed a large rock ‘n roll style rig for the live stage that will feature sets by Motown greats The Four Tops and The Temptations, as well as major expo‘s for a natural drink company in Salt Lake City, and an energy company.

With Vista v2 now installed and proved completely reliable on all their desks, he’s starting to train some of Alford Media’s other operators. Apart from really appreciating it, they “are all picking it up incredibly fast”. He recalls a recent trade show in Dallas. He unexpectedly had to go and deal with something elsewhere in the building, so to ensure no valuable programming time was lost, gave freelance LX Teresa Porterfield – who had never seen a Vista T2 before – an express basic training course! “It was amazing! She ‘got it’ so quickly, so well and enjoyed the process so much that she ended up programming and running the whole show!”

VP of marketing and sales at exclusive NA distributor, AC Lighting Inc, Fred Mikeska said “As more people around the world try Vista v2 they see the power and simplicity that it offers to all disciplinces – including concert, corporate, worship, and education. Kurt and Alford Media have embraced Vista v2, and discovered how much extra it gives them to deliver even more to their clients. Vista v2 is a true next generation software that lets all users get the most value from whatever mix of technologies they have available.”

Despite the bitter cold, thousands of people attended the European Capital of Culture opening ceremony

Lighting designer Stephen Page from UK-based DBN used Jands Vista T4 and T2 consoles, running with the new v2 software, for the high profile Opening Ceremony of Turku 2011, celebrating the Finnish city’s year as joint European Capital of Culture.

The event, produced by Manchester-based Walk The Plank, was staged in the fabulous Wärtsilä Shipyard on the River Aura, Turku, in temperatures of up to minus 26! An audience of 50,000 people braved the cold and enjoyed the action, which was also broadcast live on Finnish TV.

The Vista T4 was the main console, controlling over 400 lighting fixtures – including Clay Paky Alpha Beam 700s and 1500s, Robe ColorWash 2500E ATs, Martin Professional MAC 2K & 700 Profiles, Studio Due CityColors and a host of LEDs and generics including conventional PARs, LED PARs, 500W floods, 4-lites and i-Pix BB4 LED wash lights – totalling seven DMX universes of control.

A Vista T2 was running in full tracking backup, and with an in-line Visualiser system.

Comments Stephen Page, “I found the v2 software to be very reliable. I like the new Effects Engine, and the timing control is straightforward to use whilst allowing lots of complexities to be programmed into the cues.”

Most of the equipment was supplied by RMC Sound & Light OY from Helsinki, including the Jands consoles – Stephen’s desk of choice – with the Clay Paky fixtures coming from DBN, also based in Manchester, UK.

DBN has a stock of Jands consoles which have been supplied via UK distributor, A.C Entertainment Technologies.

© Dabney Forest

Once again, a Jands Vista T2 console has provided lighting control for an event winner at the InfoComm / LSA Staged Events Awards. Freeman received the 2010 ‘Best Overall Staging for a Corporate Industrial Entertainment Event’ award for their work on the American Library Association’s Annual Conference.

The annual awards are held at the InfoComm tradeshow and represent achievements in AV excellence in some of the most unique and challenging environments. One judge commented on the winning Freeman event:
“It is difficult for a lighting submission to grab attention when it’s up against so many great total staging projects with video. But lighting is one area that can own a show if it is done properly and this event exemplifies the power of light over the audience.”

Freeman, a world-leading provider of integrated services for face to face marketing events, provided full lighting, audio, video and scenic elements for the winning conference. The multi-day event featured 20 guest speakers discussing their works as well as an awards ceremony.

The event lighting design was by Freeman AV Chicago’s in house LD, Anne Sedlock with programming by Dabney Forest. Anne let Dabney choose her console of choice, the Jands Vista T2, a popular choice in Freeman AV Chicago’s rental inventory. Anne commented:
“We use the Vista T2 on almost all this style of show. It provides us with the flexibility and the ease of use we need to get our shows up and looking great in very little time.”

The challenge was how to give the single stage a unique look for each day of the conference presentations, as well as for the awards ceremony. Anne’s lighting concept was to make the stage scenic elements really stand out by using numerous unique looks to keep the lighting fresh.

For the main scenic element, a massive curved frame covered in white spandex material, Anne used Chroma-Q™ Color Split™ LED fixtures to provide subtle looks of gradiant color uplighting from the base of the structure. Chroma-Q™ Color Block™ compact LED units were used to get into the many curves of the scenic piece and add highlights where needed, as well as adding a hint of colour to the drape line upstage. In addition, Vari-Lite VL3500 Spots provided a layer of downlighting and texture. All fixtures were chosen from Freeman AV Chicago’s in-house inventory.

Summarising her experience of the Vista, Dabney commented:
“It’s not often we get such a great canvas to paint our lights on. As with many shows, for the ALA we got very little time to program. The Vista allows me to create looks efficiently and quickly. I know I can rely on the speed that the Vista’s interface offers to do the things I need to both fast and easily, whether ‘drawing’ precise shutter cuts on my VL3500s, quickly moving icons around my layouts as the rig changes, or copying whole looks across different fixture types. Then of course, there’s ‘extracts’. In the current economic environment, it’s rare for a show to allow for the kind of programming time that was standard in years past. Frankly, without the Vista I could not have made the intricate looks the show needed in the time I had available.”

Lighting designer Dave Boser of Image Technologies Corporation specified a pair of Jands Vista I3 consoles to provide lighting control for the Silpada Designs 2009 National Convention in Missouri. Silpada is one of the nation‘s largest sterling silver jewelry home party companies, with over 28,000 independent representatives. This year‘s three-day annual conference at the Kansas City Convention Center attracted nearly 6,000 sales representatives and featured presentations, an awards night and an entertainment night.

The live event was produced by Doug Flory and production managed by Bob Casey, with technical direction by Mark Scanlon. Lighting design / direction / programming was by Dave Boser, and master electricians Nick Wisdom and Michelle Morin assisted with the rig install and strike. Image Technologies Corporation provided all lighting and rigging equipment for the event.
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