Indiana based Grace Community Church has invested in a range of Vista lighting control solutions as part of a multi-million dollar expansion of its worship facilities. Models purchased include the full-size Vista T2, the portable Vista S1 and the playback-only Vista M1 consoles. This is to expand the church’s capacity to three weekend worship auditoriums, to accommodate as many as 6,000 churchgoers on a typical weekend.

The Church relies on a team of over 100 volunteers to assist the paid production staff during services, which can run simultaneously in up to three auditoriums. Senior Director of Production, Daryl Cripe, therefore felt it was essential to invest in a lighting console that the inexperienced volunteers could easily understand.

He commented: “For our Church’s philosophy, I had equal desire for functionality and ease of use in our choice of lighting console. Instead of being like a typical theater or concert, where a single person is responsible for all lighting, we are passionate about allowing volunteers, all of whom have no previous lighting experience, to be trained on and operate our theatrical lighting system. As such, yes, we need a lot of features and stability, yet we also need a console that is visual, easy to train on.”

Daryl and his production team utilized or tested various consoles, yet nothing they tried in their opinion compared to the Vista in terms of ease of use. He commented:

“From our volunteer’s perspective, the Vista is VISUAL. They can look at a screen and see what they are doing. It feels very familiar to navigate, so they can use their existing computer knowledge. We can configure the Vista screen to look like our lighting layout in the room. The ease of creating groups, presets, cues etc. is all so simple. In addition, patching fixtures in Vista is incredibly simple. I recently showed the Technical Director at another Church our T2 console and when I showed him how to patch an automated fixture, his mouth dropped open!”

Whereas most traditional full-scale lighting desks rely on number-crunching to program shows, the Vista utilizes a graphic based interface. As a result, users can work visually and get on with designing better shows, rather than getting distracted by the actual programming process itself. It makes programming extremely fast and getting to grips with the console a relatively short learning curve.

The lighting console’s ease of use would mean absolutely nothing if it wasn’t up to the job of controlling the state-of-the-art lighting system in the Church’s main auditorium; the centrepiece of their expansion program. Featuring a large 80ft by 40ft stage and seating in a 270° configuration, the Church uses high production values to emphasize the themes of its services via an eclectic mix of music, drama and video. The venue’s extensive lighting rig includes over 850 LED, moving and conventional fixtures controlled using six universes of DMX and over 2,700 DMX channels.

Daryl was looking to bring his creative vision for the services to life using the rig’s many cutting-edge LED fixtures; to literally paint the whole room with light. A full-size Linux-based Vista T2 console provides seamless automation of the auditorium’s lighting rig and blackout window shutters. LED fixtures provide color changing wall uplighting either side of the stage area, while a mixture of moving lights, PARs, ParNels and conventional fixtures provide theatrical performance lighting for music and drama during the services.

In addition, smaller 1,100-seater and 400-seater auditoriums are controlled using the Vista S1 and M1 PC based consoles. The two control surfaces are designed to be used with either a Windows PC or native Mac laptop and DMX channel dongle package, providing portable and affordable Vista solutions.

The ability for volunteers to be able to switch easily between consoles in all three auditoriums was another key factor in Daryl’s decision to choose the Vista. All models share exactly the same visual interface and controls, making a transition between models seamless.

Daryl commented: “Frankly, I cannot overstate how important this consistency is. Going back to the reality of utilizing volunteers, of DESIRING to use volunteers, the ability for those volunteers trained on the T2 to walk into a room with Vista PC and S1 / M1 and sit down and get to work creating… that is extremely valuable! In addition, if someone was trained on Vista PC, it’s not difficult for them to then utilize the T2. Also, we have had volunteers take Vista PC home, to experiment with it on their own. Again, it’s a great value to our philosophy and a great opportunity for our volunteers!”

Another labour-saving feature of the Vista, its innovative timeline editing function, is proving invaluable to helping the volunteers understand how to program a show. The timeline gives users the complete picture of their lighting events, making it easy to make sense of complex changes and put the finishing touches to their show.

The Vista’s intuitive interface is proving popular with leading US houses of worship. When launched, the product was voted ‘Best Automated Lighting Controller’ and ‘Best Overall Lighting Product’ by an expert panel of judges at the 2006 WFX Show New Product Awards in Dallas, due to its suitability to the industry’s unique production environment.

Grace Community Church Senior Director of Production, Daryl Cripe, commented: “While a few ‘big name consoles’ often get most noticed in the touring world, the reality is that nothing I have seen compares to the combination of functionality and ease of use that the Vista series provides. We still need a robust console based on our lighting rig, but it is critical that it is easily trainable to volunteers. These consoles allow us to push our creativity and ultimately, our volunteers have the joy of combining creativity and support of our services. We want them to be spending their time having fun programming, not trying to figure out some complex function on the console itself. ANY church that desires to use theatrical lighting and wants to provide volunteers the opportunities to create should be examining this series of consoles. We love our Vistas.”

Feature photo – the Grace Community Church lighting team. Courtesy of ©Kris Rinas

Finnish professional systems integrator, Electrosonic Lightinen Oy Ab, has supplied Jands Vistas to the Levi Summit venue in Lapland. Multi-purpose facilities, hi-tech equipment and an auditorium large enough to stage world-class performances and major product launches make the Levi Summit a first class venue for diverse events.

When tasked with providing the best lighting control system available for the main auditorium, Electrosonic specified a Jands Vista T4 as the main console and Vista PC with M1 playback hardware as a secondary console. The Vistas can be remotely controlled via the building’s AMX system, enabling seamless automation of the auditorium’s lighting and AV systems. A rack of Jands FPX units, which were specified due to their high quality, reliability, and excellent price, provides the lighting rig’s dimming.

Distributor A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd. (formerly known as A.C. Lighting Ltd.), has supplied a Jands Vista to The Grand in Clitheroe, UK. The former cinema has been completely revamped as a multi-million pound live music venue, studio and AV installation with the ability to record performances in HD audio and video.

With the venue used for many different events, each with their own technical requirements, A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd. was contracted by audio installation specialist Wigwam to provide a system featuring lighting, rigging, and a substantial electrical and network infrastructure, which offered the venue total flexibility. Central to the system is a Jands Vista T2 console, which controls various LED, moving light and conventional fixtures.

Norwegian lighting company, Live Technic, has supplied a Jands Vista I3 to PA Compagniet AS, main production equipment contractor for the new Spot nightclub in Kristiansand, Norway. One of the country’s most technically advanced and sophisticated nightclubs, Spot features two levels split into numerous ‘mood’ zones, each with its own live stage.

Live Technic specified the Vista due to its stability, fast programming and flexibility for the club’s hectic environment. The user-friendly visual interface meant Spot’s inexperienced lighting operators, the house DJs, were instantly comfortable with the console. A Vista I3 controls the main dancefloor and adjacent stage lighting, including a pair of Robe’s new DigitalSpot 3000 DT, the first combined digital moving light projector and LED-based wash light.

Featuring an intuitive visual interface, innovative timeline editing function and generic fixture model, the Vista is both fast and simple to use. The console’s graphic-based interface will be immediately familiar to anyone who’s ever used a modern computer application, whilst the introduction of programming via a ‘timeline’ gives you the complete picture and total control of your lighting events. The generic fixture model allows you to treat all fixtures in the same way and takes the hassle out of changing fixtures, adapting automatically if you have to run the same show with a different rig.

The Vista M1 – a console in your back pocket.

The Vista M1 is an ultra-compact and extremely cost-effective playback-only Vista control surface. The M1 is ideal for situations where you can do your programming in advance on your PC, but you still want hardware to control the playback of your show.

Designed to be used with a laptop, the M1 gives you all the playback benefits of a Vista show in a compact and portable package that’s perfect for trade show booths, hotels, clubs or any venue where space is tight.

With five playbacks including faders and flash buttons, plus a rotary master fader, the M1 is a complete and portable Vista playback module. When you want to travel light but you don’t want to compromise your show, the M1 is the ideal live playback solution.

M1 Product page