Terry Miranda, managing director and chief lighting designer at Lighthouse Productions visited the IBS Solutions stand at CABSAT in February, and said he found exactly what he was looking for in the Jands Vista with the new Vista v2 software.

“In the past two years I have had my eye on the latest developments in lighting consoles in order to purchase something that fit my idea of what a lighting desk should be. Having seen the first demo of the Vista v2 Byron operating system at PALME 2010, it had piqued my interest till it hit the sweet spot in 2011. The system allows a designer/ programmer to dictate terms to the programming aspect and to decide how simple or powerful it should be,” said Miranda.

“I would say the new Jands Vista is one of the finest, most intelligent lighting desks the industry has seen.”
Gavin Coxon from IBS Solutions, the official UAE distributor for Jands, added: “”With the new Vista v2 Byron, Jands has an even stronger product range to compete with the other top lighting consoles available on the market, we expect big things from the range in the UAE.”

Lighthouse Productions created the design for the BURDA event held on February 15 at the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, where the new console took centre stage. Using the mosque as backdrop to the main stage Lighthouse used a Watchout system and bitmapping to project the images onto the entrance of the mosque, using the Jands for all the lighting cues preprogrammed via wysywig.

Also included in the sale were custom-built flight-cases for each console, manufactured and supplied by IBS Flightcase, another IBS GROUP company.

Lighthouse Productions used the new equipment again at the Zayed International Prize for the Environment on March 14 at the Dubai World Trade Centre. The JANDS Vista was utilised to the maximum with all the lighting cues as well as a Wi-Fi link with an iPad for focusing and fine tuning while walking around Rashid Hall.

Mcgriff Mascarenhas, assistant lighting designer at Lighthouse Productions is also very happy with the new equipment: “JANDS Vista is one of the simplest operating desks that I have ever used that allows me to think visually and work visually.”

© 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.”

All Photos: © Dabney Forest.

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.

When LD Dave Boser first saw the Vista console he was immediately sold on its timeline based editing and impressed by the mid-range Vista I3 model’s full feature set. He felt the console was the perfect all-in-one solution for Image Technologies Corporation, which provides creative, AV, multimedia and other production services to clients worldwide, so they invested in four Vista I3 consoles along with Wacom Cintiq 21” pen-tablet screens.

He commented: “The Vista is my first choice every time, it’s on everything I do since we bought them. The I3 is a fantastic value, I could buy a pair for not much more than a full size Vista T2 console. I like that it’s a closed system with an onboard computer (as opposed to the S3) and using it with the 21” Wacom tablet provides so much workspace!”

Having used the Jands Vista on all of his shows in 2009, Dave had complete confidence specifying the console on the impressive Silpada rig, which incorporated over 250 LED fixtures, moving lights, conventional fixtures, and 150 channels of dimming.

The multi-purpose rig consisted of overall stage lighting for IMAG and scenic lighting for different staging configurations each day, truss toning lit in the Silpada logo’s corporate colors and general house lighting illumination of the arena.

With no time to pre-programme the event lighting and only a day’s rehearsal time, the Vista’s intuitive interface allowed Dave fast and easy access to his rig. In addition, the console’s timeline editing provided a powerful time-saving feature for coping with last minute changes to the show and tidying up programming.

Long-time Vista user Nick Wisdom also oversaw the programming and installation of a second Vista I3 console in the party room, a separate invite-only event for Silpada’s top sales representatives.

Summarising his experience of the Vista, LD Dave Boser commented: “The Vista has been so easy to learn and use because it thinks the way I do. That kind of simplicity and intuitiveness is the key to making Vista the best thing out there.“

The Vista I3 is a mid-range lighting desk that provides all the revolutionary features of the full-size Vista T4 / T2 consoles in a smaller, more economical package.

Photos: © Bob Compton Photography.

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

Martin Locket, the show’s Lighting Designer and MD of London based live events specialists Essential Lighting, decided to use the revolutionary new Jands Vista console after seeing a preview of the desk at PLASA 2003. Locket was keen to try the console as an LD and also investigate it as a potential new rental product. Working with Jands exclusive European and North American distributor A.C. Lighting, he chose the MINI show as the ideal event to debut the Vista.

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