Brisbane City Church joins beta testing for Jands
Published: WORSHIP
AUSTRALIA: The lighting crew at Brisbane City Church has participated in extensive beta testing of Jands’ upgraded Vista T2 lighting console, dubbed ‘Byron’. The church is a long-established user of the original Vista system, first launched in 2004.
The Jands Vista is said to have introduced a new approach to the construction of light shows, with the slogan ‘think visually, work visually’. The upcoming Vista 2 Byron release takes this to a new stage, introducing a completely new generation of software.
Everyone involved in the production team at City Church’s Bowen Hills auditorium is a volunteer, yet nevertheless executes two ‘shows’ per Sunday to a congregation of up to 2,000 people. ‘I’m a non-professional lighting guy,’ said Scott Bernoth, one of the Church’s longest serving lighting volunteers. ‘So the ease of use 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.’
After hearing about the impending release of Byron, Mr Bernoth was so anxious to begin using it that he managed to persuade Alex Mair, Jands’ lighting control specialist, to include him in the beta testing programme. ‘We have a basic rig that is supplemented for special events,’ explained Mr 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 customise the interface, and I’ve 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.’
When operating the lights during a worship service, Mr Bernoth relates that his favourite 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.
Vista 2 Byron adds key features including zero-configuration, automatic networking and tracking backup that synchronises 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.