VISTA - What all lighting consoles SHOULD be
No I am not talking about that operating system made by windows that has more problems than adults who were child actors.
I am referring to the console that all other consoles should aspire to be like. I have been a huge proponent of the console since I was able to demo it in late 2007 and they have not disappointed. We finally got our Jands Vista T4 consoles in April 09 and they have been a huge blessing. If you have any experience with lighting and you’ve ever said while programming “I wish I could” more than likely this console has what you were missing at the time.
Looking at the physical dimensions of the console one immediately sees the huge Wacom screen. This screen is used as the interface for the entire console adjusted with the stroke of the pin. This at first might be a bit intimidating to people that have never come across the Wacom technology but it is an ingenious way to layout a console. The screen gives the user a huge amount of flexibility in virtually laying out all the fixtures in such fine detail that just wouldn’t be possible with a standard touch screen display. This allows out volunteers to easily find fixtures with limited training.
There are so many things to love about this console I am only going to touch on a few software based favorites but if you want to check out more in detail you can go to the vista site: http://www.jandsvista.com/
The color picker is one of the first things that caught my eye. A lot of the consoles these days are being made with some form of a color picker. The vista’s is so well integrated on the primary programming screen along with the ability to quick choose intensity or beam.
The other side of the programmer that sold me on the console from day one was the timeline feature. I have a background in non-linear editing so the GUI (graphical user interface) that the timeline provides for actually being able to finely adjust different aspects of fixtures within a cue or clip just makes so much since it is nuts that other consoles haven’t picked up on it.
The console has the ability to take any fixture un-patch that fixture and re-patch it in a different location on any universe and the programming that has been done will still be recognized by the console and work in all preprogrammed palettes and clips. This seems like such a brain dead idea, like duh you should totally be able to do that but most consoles can’t. The programmers at Jands even took it one step further to give you the ability to un-patch a fixture swap it out for a completely different type of fixture, all be it the more similar the better, and that new completely different fixture will still work as close as possible to the original fixture. This means the console is smart enough to figure out how to get the colors to match as close as possible, to get the intensity and the position and every other aspect of the new light to match as close as possible to the previous fixture. This feature is so revolutionary it is hard to completely comprehend how it works but I can only imagine how helpful this would be to a road show that might be in a different venue with different rented gear every couple of days.
My final reason, for absolutely loving this console, is the ability to VNC remotely into it, with any computer giving the user the ability to control the lights from anywhere. This allows me to focus lights very easily from the lift. I can check the angles of the lights from anywhere in the room. If I get a camera set-up in the back I could even run the lights from my couch at home.
JANDS is not satisfied with having what I consider the best console line on the market today they have one upped their own game and are releasing completely reworked software later this year. They aren’t leaking to much information about the new software but all indications is that it is a completely rethought operating system that takes into account all the new LED technology and the integration of video that, that allows.
I’m not on the lighting team — just looking around. Love your comment about vista and child actors. Perfect.
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