A temporary nightclub installation in Kristiansand, Norway used a Jands Vista T4 lighting console to control a state of the art LED digital lighting, projection and video system featuring Robe DigitalSpot fixtures and a large Chroma-Q™ Color Web™ video effects wall.

Club Salamander was part of the five-day Quart music festival. Built partially over a pond in the middle of a forest, the 3,000 capacity venue was packed out every night to house and electronica performed by leading international DJs including Bob Sinclair, Guru Josh, DJ K-Mixx, Inkfish, Trulz og Robin, Kenny Shifter and Andy Carvell, to name a few.

Stage Concept A/S provided the main production, with additional system equipment sourced from Norway-based production suppliers including Konsertsystemer A/S, Baerum Lyd, Norsk Sceneteknikk A/S and UK-based HSL.

The club’s lighting design was a creative collaboration between Stage Concept A/S, Thor-André Sæther and Baerum Lyd. With little time available for programming the ambitious temporary LED installation, the Jands Vista T4 console was specified due to its stability, fast programming and user-friendly interface, which the team felt would be ideal for their collaboration.

The lighting rig was hung from an 11m by 13m ground support roof over the dancefloor area. Fixtures included Robe’s DigitalSpot 7000 combined digital moving light projector and LED-based wash light, ColorWash 2500E AT and ColorSpot 700E AT moving lights, high power strobes and strip light battens. Further Robe moving lights, Griven Colorado fixtures and LED Par Cans were scattered around the venue to uplight the surrounding trees and create reflections over the water alongside the club. The DJ booth featured a 7m wide by 8m high Chroma-Q Color Web LED video wall, pixel-mapped via a Madrix system and lit through by ColorWash 575AT Zoom fixtures. A Green Hippo HippoCritter media server also fed content to two 50” plasma TV screens in the DJ area.

The Jands Vista console used 12 universes to control the various conventional, moving light and digital lighting and video sources. In addition to using the desk’s four DMX outputs, eight universes were distributed via Art-Net output using the new Chroma-Q Magic Box™ EtherSwitch 7™, a robust, high quality network switch that supports seven simultaneous Gigabit Ethernet network connections.

Club Salamander lighting co-designer, Thor-André Sæther, commented:

“I was the first to take on the Vista in Norway and I have never looked back since. As one of the Club Salamander lighting co-designers and having responsibility for the system set-up, in my opinion there really was no other suitable option than using a Vista T4. We were pressed for time and wanted a console that could handle the 12 universes we needed, as well as having the physical playbacks to make a lot of pre-programmed stuff available without having to cycle through page after page to get to what we suddenly needed. The Vista amazed me again with its ease of setup. Everything connected and worked flawlessly on the first attempt. The speed of programming achievable was a huge factor; along with the encoders it gave total control.

As for the Color Web, I personally don’t know of any other product that could have done the same job.
It comes together easily and it’s lightweight. Two hours with two people was all it took to configure, assemble and hang it. It created a fantastic visual framing for the DJs and drew a lot of attention from the clubbers towards them during the nights, which was what we wanted.”

Forming the centrepiece of the event was the “Live Action Arena”, an action-packed show performed in front of 4,700 people six times a day. The show featured a spectacular range of demonstrations, breathtaking wheel-to-wheel racing and record-breaking stunts.

Lighting designer Nathan Wan has used the Jands Vista console on a variety of concerts and exhibitions in 2008, so had complete confidence in the console making light work of the impressive rig, which featured over 80 moving lights, various pyro flame effects and 72 ways of dimming.

The brief was to create a dynamic light show choreographed to music and 14 different car races. The performances lasted 90 minutes on the arena’s oval track and included video links from Formula One’s David Coulthard and commentator Louise Goodman.

The Vista’s intuitive interface allowed Nathan fast and easy access to his rig, in addition, the console’s innovative timeline editing proved a powerful time-saving feature for coping with last minute changes to the show’s running order and tidying up programming.

Hire company Network Productions Ltd. supplied the Vista console and lighting rig. Fixtures included Robe ColorSpot 1200 & 700 EAT’s, Robe ColorWash EAT’s and ten Safex Flamejett used for various racing sequences. In addition, 72 ways of conventional dimming provided source lighting for the racing drivers.

Summarising his experience with the Vista, Lighting Designer Nathan Wan commented: “I loved using the Vista because it enabled me to generate a dynamic show in less than a day. Also, the Vista’s Smart FX allowed me to create striking custom colour intensity and movement effects. The console’s playback controls and timeline really impressed me on this type of choreographed event, especially when the show director changed the order of the performance, and I was able to deal with it without a headache. I’m already planning to use the Vista on various installations and gigs confirmed for 2009.”