Texas-based Whites Chapel United Methodist Church (WCUMC) has invested in a second Jands Vista T2 lighting console and GLP LED fixtures, to enhance the delivery of traditional worship messages in its main sanctuary.

WCUMC seeks to make traditional worship relevant for today through inspiring messages delivered with a fresh and innovative approach. The Church’s main sanctuary is a multi-purpose venue hosting services, concerts, conferences, weddings, funerals and other special events, complemented by a smaller venue used for contemporary and youth worship.

A few years ago, WCUMC decided to upgrade the lighting in their contemporary worship venue to help deliver their message. Keen to utilise innovative lighting technologies to give services a look and feel that would appeal to their youth audience, the Church invested in their first Jands Vista T2 control console and moving heads.

Tim Georgeff, Director of Creative Arts at WCUMC, commented: “The lighting in this venue really accentuated the mood of our services. Not only were we able to create exciting moving light shows to complement our worship, we were able to use the capabilities of the gear to highlight special moments, spaces and timing in the services.”

Much positive feedback from the congregation helped the Church see the benefits of utilizing similar capabilities in their large sanctuary space, which was only equipped with conventional PAR Cans and an old lighting console.

In addition to using their own Vista T2 console in the contemporary worship venue, the Church had been renting another Vista T2 desk for big events in the main sanctuary for nearly three years, so Tim was convinced it was the right console to purchase for their needs.

When it came to upgrading the sanctuary’s lighting to automated fixtures, WCUMC adopted the new GLP Volkslicht due it combining the benefits of an automated moving head with the latest
energy-saving LED technology. The cost-effective fixture uses 60 Rebel LEDs to create a full color palette from strong saturates to subtle pastel colors. The small size, light weight and low power consumption make the Volkslicht ideal as a sustainable upgrade.

Tim commented: “The ability of the GLP fixtures to be aimed remotely has allowed us to place them in hard to access areas that give us great flexibility in our lighting looks and designs. We are able to create different looks utilizing their colors and mobility, providing highlighting of our architecture in the choir loft and organ chamber and backlighting of our chancel and stage area during worship. They are also used to provide effectual movement through the congregation on occasions that call for those moves.”

The upgraded lighting system includes GLP Volkslicht fixtures, Chroma-Q™ Color Block™ multi-purpose LED fixtures and High End Systems Cyberlights. The Church rents additional moving lights, LEDs and hazers for larger special events.

The Vista console is patched into the sanctuary’s house lights system, enabling WCUMC to control the house, architectural and worship lighting with it. The venues’ Vista consoles are programmed and operated by both the Church’s volunteers and paid production staff.

Featuring a volunteer-friendly simplicity which has made it such a hit in the worship market, the award-winning Jands Vista lets users work visually to get on with designing better looking shows, rather than getting distracted by the actual programming process itself.

Summarising his experience of the new lighting system, Tim Georgeff, Director of Creative Arts at WCUMC commented: “We use the Vista to control the lighting for everything we do in our worship venues. The addition of intelligent lighting and the Vista console have allowed us to have confidence that our worship is going to look great, and that our staff and volunteers can be effective at providing great support through the versatility of the Vista. Our congregation is really enjoying what we call our ‘ancient future’ look: a traditional sanctuary enhanced with intelligent LED lighting. It is AWESOME!”

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.

The State University of New York at Geneseo has purchased a Jands Vista T2 full size console for its School of the Arts faculty, which provides degree courses in stage lighting design, technical theatre and stagecraft.

Located in the historic village of Geneseo, the University is a premier public liberal arts college with a rich tradition of academic excellence. The campus facilities include a state-of-the-art theatre used for practical lessons and assessments, as well as an array of faculty-directed and student-directed productions, community-produced shows, dance concerts and musical theatre revues.

With a focus on teaching students to use the very latest industry technologies, Johnnie Ferrell, associate professor of theatre and technical director at the School of the Arts, decided it was time to upgrade their lighting console to something more modern, powerful and capable of handing the increasing number of intelligent fixtures.

Being active in the U.S. Institute of Theatre Technology, he decided to visit the USITT show to get hands-on experience of the latest lighting consoles available. After evaluating several popular industry consoles, Johnnie was impressed by the Jands Vista so arranged a demonstration for himself and his students at the University, provided by Jands exclusive North American distributor, A.C. Lighting Inc.

The Vista’s modern, graphic interface, pen-tablet control and ease of use made a big impression on Johnnie and the students, so he purchased a full size T2 console for the University’s theatre via local company, BMI Supply in Queensbury, New York.

Johnnie commented: “I have never had a lighting desk that is so easy to use. You can set cues faster and easier than anything I have ever used. The patch is always a snap as well.”

The console is primarily being used in the University’s 386-seater Alice Austin Theatre to control a lighting rig which includes various Altman, ETC, Elation and Vari-Lite intelligent and conventional fixtures. The Vista has also been used in the campus’s 950-seater Wadsworth Auditorium and 150-seater Robert Sinclair Black Box.

Student productions programmed on the Vista include The Clean House, Fool for Love, Rent, Pirates of Penzance, The Two Gentlemen of Verona and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, as well as dance concerts every semester.

In addition to using the console on-site, the students also frequently edit their shows away from the campus using the free PC and native Mac-based Vista offline editor software.

Summarizing his experience of the Vista, Johnnie commented: “As my mentor stated about the Vista: did I want a lighting console that students could learn to program, or did I want a console that the students could light with? The students love the Vista and it has quickly become their console of choice.”

Lighting and video designer Nick West specified a Jands Vista T2 console to provide lighting, IMAG and video control for the recent tobyMac annual Winter Wonder Slam tour. The American Grammy award-winning gospel rapper’s explosive show featured Diverse City, his 8-member touring band, and played a series of US Arena dates throughout November and December. The touring schedule re-commences in March to promote the launch of tobyMac’s latest studio album, Tonight.

Tour lighting was provided by Axxis Inc., with lighting design, direction and programming by Nick West. Video was provided by Big Picture.

When it came to specifying lighting control for the tour, the Jands Vista was Nick’s desk of choice. Nick is an experienced user of the Vista range, switching between a rented full size T2 console for tours and his own S1 control surface for fly dates or using as a wing, which he takes on every show.

He commented: “When I saw the Vista, the timeline and ability to swap fixtures were major selling points. Often I fly to a show that morning and I may only have 30 minutes with the rig before we play, which gives me just enough time to focus. With the Jands Vista’s Mac or PC based offline editor, one quick advance call to get the fixture types and addresses from the local company and I can have the console ready to go before I even show up on site.”

The tour rig centered around a Barco Slite LED video wall upstage for IMAG and a low resolution Barco MiStrips LED wall in front of a 40 foot wide by 5 foot high riser.

120 Par Cans arranged in a 30 by four configuration were also flown in and out during the show, providing a major set piece used to spell out words. Nick was originally going to pixel map the Par Cans, but after starting to pre-program them on the Vista he found the console’s graphical based approach to programming made it very easy.

He commented: “The show starts off with ‘TOBY MAC’ spelled out in the Par Cans. After a couple of shows, Toby asked if I could do something specific with them, such as having them come on as if someone was writing it. I was able to instantly grab the fixtures, work with them in the timeline and have the effect within 30 seconds of him asking for it.”

The rig also included 22 Martin Mac 700 profiles, ten 26 degree Source Four Lekos, three ETC Sensor racks and two Motion Labs 220V Distros. Video came from a Catalyst HD media server. The lighting, video and live camera feeds were all triggered from the Vista T2 console.

Summarizing his experience of the Vista, Nick commented: “I use the Vista for anything and everything I do. It’s great having on-board visualization of your fixtures and the flexibility to layout the console to your specific needs. The Vista is great for controlling lights, IMAG and video. Technical support for anything is very quick. Jands listen to their users and continually make requests and ideas happen.”

Other production staff on the tour included Tour Manager Ryan Lampa, Stage Manager Sam Shifley, Lighting Crew Chief / FOH Cam Anthony Morgan, Lighting 2nd John “2Tone” Sumitra, LED Tech / Robotic Cams Jeff Culmer, and Shoulder Cam / Video Tech Nick Bush.

Click on the image above to see more photos.

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.
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Jands Vista T2 consoles helped worshippers celebrate Easter at Europe’s largest all-night worship event, attended by 30,000 people at London’s ExCel, and a separate event at Wembley Arena.

Worshippers packed out ExCel’s main hall for ‘Festival of Life’, a unique event supported by over 150 churches in the UK which has become the largest all night non-denominational gathering of people in Europe coming together to celebrate God.

Reading-based production company SFL Group provided the complete technical solution and production management for both events. This included over 120 speakers of d&b audiotechnic with Yamaha digital control surfaces, Barco projection and control systems, acoustic draping and stage lighting.

Brighton-based Tamplins Stage Lighting, which has a reputation in the industry for providing lighting production services to conferences, rock concerts and one-off programmes in the Worship market, was engaged by SFL to provide the stage lighting element.

Show lighting designer Sam Tamplin knew there was only one console he’d want to use for the job of providing the lighting control on the massive ExCel event, and knew his choice would also have the full backing of his client.

He commented: “Last year I was looking for a more powerful desk to handle our growing show control needs and entered a competition to win a day’s free Vista training. I had to build a basic show using the Vista demo software, which left me very impressed by how user-friendly and intuitive it was. After then spending a whole day training on the console, I was absolutely convinced it was the only way to go, so I had to invest in one!”
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Photos from Flickr - see more >>

At ‘The People’s Opening’, in Liverpool, Stephen Page of DBN Lighting controlled the main stage with a Vista T2 while Rob Sinclair used his new suitcase-sized S1 for the CBS broadcast of their ‘Good Morning America’ programme.

From etnow.com News
HSL supplied all lighting equipment including over 200 moving lights and 12 crew for ‘The People’s Opening’ extravaganza that launched Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture year. The spectacular event was staged at - and around - St George’s Hall in the city centre.
The performances involved approximately 700 people including Ringo Starr, Dave Stewart and local upcoming indie stars The Wombats, all of which took place on eight surrounding rooftops including the Walker Arts Gallery, St John’s Beacon, the Empire Theatre, Lime Street Station, etc. as well as on top of and in front of St George’s Hall.
The site was hugely challenging on which to work. Lights had to be craned into position and rigged at all these locations, and also onto a series of scaffolding constructions around the main area.
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Lighting Designer Chris Reade has specified a Jands Vista T2 lighting console for the current Dierks Bentley Throttle Wide Open US Fall tour, supplied by Bandit Lites Inc.

Known as the hardest working guy in country music, Dierks Bentley’s tour schedule has been at full tilt over the last four years. The multi-platinum singer/songwriter returns for an arena headlining tour, spending the next four months focusing his attention on connecting with his fans in larger venues.

Tour lighting is provided by Bandit Lites Inc. and Video by MooTV. The tour is managed by Todd Ortmeier. Production staff include Crew Chief Chris Hallman and Lighting Technician Dave Langford.

LD Chris Reade has worked with a diverse range of leading rock and pop artists, most recently providing design and/or programming for Marc Anthony, Jennifer Lopez and Aerosmith. Although Dierks Bentley is Chris’s first experience working with a country artist, the partnership has been very successful, with him taking on lighting duties for a fourth consecutive tour.

Chris admits to having been a die-hard user of another console and pretty set in his ways before seeing the Jands Vista, so he wasn’t really looking to change consoles when he decided to see a demo while prepping the rig for the recent Dierks Bentley Summer tour.

He commented: “My first impressions of the console were fantastic. I was concerned about the learning curve, as I have done things a specific way for so long. I was impressed with the graphical layout and the visual timing features per instrument and per capability of the instrument. All without using a keypad. I was also impressed with the cloning features and duplication of instruments.”

On most consoles, changing or ‘cloning’ a fixture type involves substantial re-programming - a job that can take hours. In contrast, the Vista’s generic fixture model feature records the actual target look on stage so when the user changes a light, the console compares the abilities of the lights and works out how to achieve the same look on stage - even if the new light doesn’t have identical features.
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Chicago-based Willow Creek Community Church has purchased two Jands Vista T2 lighting consoles.

Willow Creek was named ‘the most influential church in America’ by The Church Report in 2006 and has provided resources, training and encouragement to more than 11,000 like-minded member churches from 90 denominations in 45 countries.

The Church currently has five campuses across Chicagoland - the main South Barrington site and regional campuses in Dupage County, McHenry County, North Shore, and Downtown Chicago - whose combined weekend attendance tops 20,000.

All regional campuses receive videocast messages from South Barrington, which are hosted by an onsite campus pastor and complemented by live services mixing together drama, multi-media and contemporary music.

McHenry County campus Technical Director, Gary Melder, was looking to expand their Main Auditorium’s production capabilities, so approached equipment specialists Intelligent Lighting Creations after they had been involved in a large expansion of South Barrington’s technical facilities.

Although Gary wanted to upgrade to a full-scale production lighting console, he was concerned that many of the campus’s lighting team, which is primarily made up of volunteers, would find some of the consoles they considered foreign and daunting.

After considering a number of consoles, a member of the production team at the main South Barrington campus suggested looking at the Jands Vista after seeing the console used during a concert performance recorded in the Church’s Main Auditorium.

A subsequent Vista demo at the campus left Gary and the lighting team immediately sold on the console. Gary commented: “The user interface and timeline editor features just made much more sense than on other consoles we had seen. Many of our team have video and audio experience as well as lighting, so the thought process behind the desk made a lot of sense.”
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Excerpt
With Heartland’s track record of “changing things up,” the auditorium’s lighting configuration both reflects and enables their innovative style. A favorite among Heartland’s technical team is Jands’ Vista lighting console platform. According to Hayes, a huge advantage is the console’s operating environment, designed around a timeline concept as found in a video editing system, making it more volunteer friendly. “The ability to cross train volunteers to all three levels of lighting boards (a different model of the Vista console is installed in each of HCC’s three venues) sold us on Jands