Vista v2 was designed from the ground up to allow all levels of users 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.

Jands Europe’s Neil Vann says “If you haven’t seen Vista v2 for yourself yet, don’t miss this fantastic opportunity to take a proper hands-on look in a relaxed, local environment and see just how much it can offer you.”

The roadshow is being organised in conjunction with Jands’ extensive EMEA dealer and support network, and after Norway moves on to Switzerland, Sweden and then Germany. Other countries the roadshow plans to visit in the coming months include Portugal, the Netherlands, Belgium, Poland, Lebanon, France, UAE, Turkey, Spain, Italy, Greece, Austria, Russia, Finland and the UK.

Over the next few weeks, the roadshow will be visiting the cities below, but more dates are being added all the time….

October

4/10 Zurich, Switzerland
17/10 Stochholm, Sweden
18/10 Borlange, Sweden
19/10 Norrkoping, Sweden
20/10 Gothenburg, Sweden
21/10 Malmo, Sweden

November

7/11 Aachen, Germany
8/11 Wiesbaden, Germany
9/11 Stuttgart, Germany
10/11 Munchen, Germany
14/11 Hannover, Germany
15/11 Hamburg, Germany
16/11 Berlin, Germany

To find an up to date schedule, to register your interest, or to see if we can bring the roadshow to your town, please visit our road show page. To keep up to date with the roadshow’s progress, follow us on Facebook for regular updates.

A Jands Vista I3 console, running the next generation Vista v2 software, was specified by renowned installation artist and lighting designer Fred Pommerehn to control the lighting for a specially commissioned work on display as part of the World Wildlife Fund’s “Deutschland wird Wald Meister 2011” (Year of the Forest) campaign in Berlin, Germany.

The Year of the Forest initiative is supported by prominent German celebrities, and the launch featured a media conference the day after the installation went live. The lit work became a local and international talking point, as well as a popular attraction enjoyed by press, public and passers by alike.

The temporary installation – which was in place on the steps of the famous Konzerthaus in Berlin’s Gendarmenmarkt square – featured 26 fabulous tree sculptures measuring up to six metres in height, each carefully crafted by Fred using recycled cardboard materials, and diligently lit for the darkness hours.

Fred’s inventive set design, sculptural and installation work embraces many disciplines and frequently involves lighting as an integral element.

For the WWF event, Lichtblick Bühnentechnik supplied all the technical production – and also constructed the trees, project managed by Frederik Wehlmann.

Fred Pommerehn has worked with the Berlin based lighting rental company, Lichtblick Bühnentechnik GmbH for several years and always specifies Jands Vista to control any lighting on his projects. He explains that there are many reasons for this, including the flexibility of the system and the speed at which he can achieve his aims, as he is often working on projects where the timeframe is a significant factor.

It was the first event on which Lichtblick Bühnentechnik had used the I3 running on the Vista v2 software.

“Using the Jands Vista allowed us to work very fast” says Fred, “Especially running with Vista v2. It really takes the complexity out of the process, and allows you to concentrate on getting creative visual results fast.” He reckons that within 45 minutes, they had a polished and refined lightshow that added the exquisite twist of magic that Fred wanted. The lightshow was run in 15 minute loops to a soundtrack throughout the evening.

The trees were lit by about 100 fixtures in total positioned at the sides of the steps for neat low level cross lighting, and a row along the top for backlighting. Three fog machines were also run through the Vista I3, operated manually as and when needed.

Lighting programmer Jonas Pruditsh, a keen Vista user since joining Lichtblick Bühnentechnik two years ago, loves the new v2 software platform. He particularly likes the new selection tools, and the powerful effects. “We had a very short time to programme the show once on site” he explains, echoing Fred’s enthusiasm that by using Vista they were able to achieve all they wanted in under an hour.

Fred and Jörg Schildbach (managing director) from Lichtblick Bühnentechnik first made a plan to collaborate on projects – technically and creatively – about 15 years ago and have developed a very successful and innovative working relationship. “We are constantly discussing which kit to buy, and are delighted that we committed to Jands Vista.”

From a rental perspective, Jands Vista is proving a great investment for Lichtblick Bühnentechnik. They use the Vista I3 on all their larger shows, they also have Vista M1s and various channel DMX dongles in their inventory to cover all the smaller options. Their work covers a broad spectrum, including exhibitions, corporate and special events, theatre productions, museum/heritage shows and public and live art.

Vista v2 was designed from the ground up to give all levels of user the ability to get the most from whatever technology they have available, whether dimmers, moving lights, LEDs or media, so everyone can focus on creating a great looking show – or event – rather than on programming a desk.

Jands Europe’s Neil Vann said “Fred is sure that using Jands Vista makes a difference to his creative process, and ultimately the success of the lighting in his work. It is unusual for a light artist to specify a control platform, often they don’t particularly mind as long as the lights are programmed to their specification, but Fred has realised that this choice can make a huge difference. It is great to see Vista v2 delivering again in yet another environment, and helping a designer get the most out of their design”

All photos ©David Biene / WWF.

Jands exclusive Russian dealer, Show Atelier, recently held their first Open Day events to launch the new Jands Vista v2 software to their diverse customer base.

Show Atelier also took the opportunity to announce the winners of their online “Get Your Own Vista” competition, which Jands Europe sponsored with the donation of the first and second prizes – a Jands Vista M1 console with an 128 channel dongle and a Jands USB-DMX interface with 128 channel dongle respectively.

Opening New Doors

The two Open Day workshops took place in different venues, the first at Moscow’s renowned Fomenko Theatre and the second at the prestigious Theatre & Arts College # 60.

Each day started with an in-depth presentation by Jands Europe’s Neil Vann on the Vista v2 software and its many possibilities, with an overview of the power and simplicity this dynamic control system offers.

Areas that were covered included tracking backup – the instant switching of control to a synchronised second console or PC if the main console fails; simple media server control – including automatic thumbnail import of content from most industry standard media servers; effects – including the running of intensity, colour, movement and video files across LEDs and other fixture types, and the variety of timing options which provide quick and easy methods of setting and editing cue timing, from separating up / down times to individual parameter times.

The demo consoles were set up each day so Neil could illustrate hands-on three areas of control offered by Vista v2 – lights, media servers and LED fixtures, and give the wide range of attendees a chance to see the Vista in action for themselves.

Says Neil, “Events like this are invaluable, and really put us in touch with both new and existing users, so we can listen to and learn from their comments and views. Everyone attending was genuinely impressed by Vista v2 and the whole Vista product range, and excited by what it can bring to their specific companies, operations and environments. We had the time, space and a nice relaxed environment in which to demonstrate and explain the products and answer some very focused queries. Show Atelier worked hard in attending to details, and together we produced well organised workshops that resulted in lots of positive feedback.”

From Show Atelier’s viewpoint, Alexey Nenashev says, “This type of event is vitally important both for us and Jands Europe, whose technical support is excellent. It is good to see their representatives here in Russia meeting end users in person. The product information and demonstrations were well thought out and easily understandable, and we think the Vista v2 software provides many solutions and is a perfect product. Seminars like this help to present it in the best way and for more information in Russia, Show Atelier offer a dedicated Russian web site – www.jandsvista.ru.”

The Vista competition generated plenty of interest from Show Atelier’s customers, so it was a hard task to decide on the winners. First was Denis Glinka from Kemerovo, who is the lucky winner of a Jands Vista M1 console complete with 128 DMX channel dongle. Second prize of the Jands DMX interface plus 128 channel dongle went to Sergey Martianov from St Petersburg, and third was Roman Orlov from Ryazan, who won a LightConverse 3D lighting simulation package from Show Atelier.

Neil comments on the competition, “This was an excellent and engaging way of acquainting people at first hand with the power and simplicity of the Vista platform.”

In addition to the Russian Open Days, the Jands Vista v2 software has received high profile international exposure since in its launch at the beginning of April, featuring at a series of major tradeshows in conjunction with other Jands regional dealers. Shows include German dealer Cast C.Adolph & RST Distribution GmbH at Prolight & Sound in Frankfurt; UK dealer A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd at PLASA Focus in Leeds; and U.A.E. dealer IBS Solutions at PALME Middle East in Dubai.

Other upcoming shows featuring demonstrations of the Jands Vista v2 software include InfoComm in Orlando, USA in June (on the stand of North American dealer, A.C. Lighting Inc), ABTT in London, UK in June, and PLASA 2011 in London, UK in September (on the stand of A.C. Entertainment Technologies).

Originally released in 2004, the Vista introduced a whole new approach to constructing light shows, with ‘think visually, work visually’ as the core concept. The Byron release of the application takes this innovative approach to a new stage, introducing a true second generation of software, completely re-written from the ground up.

The Byron release reflects the attention Jands have paid to user feedback about the Vista, as well as the fresh vision Jands have brought to the whole concept of how a console works. The update provides easier and faster ways to do existing functions, and introduces a host of new features.

The Byron software will be free-of-charge to current users. Some of the key aspects of the new software include:

• genuine, zero-configuration, ‘no I.T. guy needed’, automatic networking
• tracking backup that synchronises a second console or PC to take over seamlessly in the case of a failure
• a second-generation timeline providing visual split fade times, a per-step timing structure that lets you instantly set fade and delay times for some or all the events in a step, and new filters that make it easier to see what’s going on with big rigs
• an extended generic fixture model that doesn’t limit the use of non-standard or overlapping features and adapts to all types of new and unusual fixtures
• a completely overhauled user interface reflecting user feedback, with search functions built in throughout
• a brand new visual method of controlling media servers
• new Matrix layouts and effects for use with LEDs and other fixtures
• a Command Line window that accepts keypad input for fixture selection, levels, timing, store and other frequently used commands

Faster and easier to use, the Byron release is a lot more than just an upgrade of the existing Vista. It provides an unrestricted, reliable software platform for building an ever more sophisticated and powerful console in the years to come.

Jands will preview Vista 2 ‘Byron’ on the AC Entertainment stand (1-E10) at the PLASA trade show in London, 13-16 September 2009.

Lighting Designer John Rinaldi of Stage Light Design is one of the first UK customers to take delivery of a Jands Vista S3.

The company specialises in providing a full lighting design and production service for the exhibition and corporate events market, with major clients in the broadcast, telecommunications and electronics sectors.

Intrigued by the Vista’s overall concept and philosophy, John had been following its progress with much interest, but was waiting for the launch of a more compact and affordable version which would be a better fit with his budget and regular pattern of work.
He commented: “The majority of our work is exhibitions, which usually means packing all the lighting control equipment into a tiny little cupboard space on client’s stands. The S3 is ideal for this as I can use it with a laptop to program shows on the stand, and then when I’m happy with the show I can remove it and just play back from the laptop itself – solving any storage problems.”

The S3 control surface becomes a fully operational Vista console when connected to a PC running the Vista software and fitted with a separately purchased software unlock key for DMX output of up to 8,192 channels via Ethernet.

Before ordering his S3, John rented a T2 Vista on a large rig for the Intel stand at this year’s CeBIT exhibition in Germany. The rig consisted of 80 generics, 114 LED battens, 18 Pulsar Chromastrips, various Mac moving heads and well over 1500 channels of DMX.

He commented: “I felt that both the nature of the show and the lighting design leant itself really well to Vista’s way of working. As well as generics and moving heads for lighting the main stand itself, I had 114 LED battens top lighting the enormous ceiling. The brief was to change the ceiling colour, but I went one better and choreographed the colours with the content of the video walls, using SMPTE to lock the Vista onto the Video timecode.”

John split the 114 LED battens into four separate heads per unit to achieve some very bold, dynamic colour sweeps from side to side and front to back of the ceiling. He found controlling the fixtures very easy using the Vista’s layout screen as it created almost a picture of the ceiling from separate icons representing all 456 lights.

The show was programmed by Mark Jones. Stand design and project management was by 2LK Design Ltd.

John used the Vista T2 on several other corporate events before taking delivery in May of an S3 control surface with separately purchased 1024 channel dongle software unlock key.

Visitors to the MINI Stand at the 2004 Birmingham Motor Show were treated to a truly unprecedented light show, courtesy of Essential Lighting and the revolutionary Jands Vista console.

EL’s Managing Director and Lighting Designer Martin Locket (right), together with Moving Light Programmer Martin Seymour (left), were looking to do something totally different with this show:

“The Jands Vista opened up lots of new possibilities. We were able to create all sorts of effects such as multiple offset wipes incredibly quickly. We had 300 cues in an eight-minute show, and some of those we would simply never have attempted on any other console.

If you want to create a truly innovative show without hours of number crunching, the Vista is the only console for you.”

Click on thumbnails for more images