BRISBANE, Australia – Originally released in 2004, the Jands Vista's "think visually, work visually" approach is getting an update with a new release – the Vista 2 Byron. The company has previewed the new release at recent trade shows, and the volunteer lighting crew at Brisbane City Church was also able to get a front-pew seat to the new features as beta testers. Although all of those involved in the production team at City Church are volunteers, the two "shows" per Sunday seen by as many as 2,000 worshippers at City Church's Bowen Hills auditorium are anything but amateurish. With a volunteer staff, however, the church crew was well-qualified to put the upgrade's user-friendly features to the test.
"I am a non-professional lighting guy," admitted Scott Bernoth, one of the church's long-serving lighting volunteers. "The ease of use that is provided by the visual interface, coupled with the timeline approach familiar to anyone with experience in video or audio editing, made Vista the standout choice when we purchased production equipment for our new auditorium in 2006," he added.
After hearing about the impending release of Byron, Bernoth was anxious to begin using it. He persuaded Alex Mair, Jands lighting control specialist, to include him in the beta testing program.
"We have a basic rig that is supplemented for special events," said Bernoth. "After only a few weeks testing we found the beta version so reliable that we switched to using Vista 2 Byron to control all our services, even though it was still in the beta period.
"I like the ability the window themes give you to customize the interface, and I have found the drop-down default timing bar in the fixture chooser saves heaps of time because I don't have to switch to the timeline view as much as I did previously," Bernoth added, also crediting the "flexibility of the effects engine, particularly the ability to create multi-step swing effects."
When operating the lights during a worship service, Bernoth noted that his favorite feature is the sync button that allows tap-timing control of smart effects rates.
"To be able to have all the lighting effects in sync with the music simply by tapping one finger in time to the drum beat is so great," he said. "Songs where the drummer is switching from 1/4 times to 1/16 staccato accents and then back, that used to be near-impossible to follow using Vista1, but now it is dead easy."
Bernoth recounted that the effort Jands has put into making the new interface intuitive, which translates into less effort for him train others. "Jesse took to it like a duck to water, and was off programming cuelist and effects with less than five minutes instruction," he said, of the training experience of crew member Jesse Donovan.
Bernoth also commended Jands for their response to user feedback during the Beta development. "I was amazed at the number of times Jands has taken a comment or functionality request and worked them into feature that was better than what we asked for," he noted.
Free to existing users, Jands Vista 2 Byron builds on the visual approach with features including zero-configuration, automatic networking, and tracking backup that synchronizes a second console or PC. A second-generation timeline provides visual split fade times, a per-step timing structure for instantly setting 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.
The extended generic fixture model allows limitless use of non-standard or overlapping features and adapts to all types of new and unusual fixtures. The overhauled user interface reflects user feedback, with search functions built in, and provides a visual method of controlling media servers. New matrix layouts and effects are also included, and a command line window accepts keypad input for fixture selection, levels, timing, store, and other frequently used commands.
For more information, please visit www.jandsvista.com.
