Brian Anslow, a lecturer in technical production at WAAPA, designed and programmed the lighting for this latest show trusting in a Jands Vista I3 for control. "I recommended that the Circus buys a Jands Vista I3 as I think it is fantastic," said Anslow. "I really think it's the next step forward in technology. We've had one at WAAPA for the past two years and I think the whole control system is very innovative; the whole idea of it, the visual reference - everything."
Anslow pre-programmed the opening of the Great Moscow Circus on his laptop with another screen connected to it so he could run both Vista and WYSIWYG with the audio track in Vista. "It allowed me to pre-programme everything," he said. "I just like that whole technological advancement whereby you can pre-programme on your computer, take your USB, stuff it in a desk elsewhere and away you go."
Containers for the set up of the Circus were flying in to the opening in Queensland from all over the world but unfortunately the container holding the truss and moving lights was held up by customs. This meant that Anslow didn't receive the truss and moving lights until 2.15pm on the afternoon of the opening night. He had also never seen any of the acts only a few bits of DVD footage and, due to the late arrival of the last container, a proper rehearsal was not possible. By the time everything was set up, plugged in and turned on there was only ten minutes until doors and although Brian had the show pre-programmed in WYSIWIG he decided to run the Vista on the fly.
"I had to use a different LED par can fixture in WYSIWIG than what we had in the tent so when I cloned in the new fixtures I didn't really have time to test them so I opted to run the show live," he explained. "However, it was fantastic and it was easy to busk the whole thing. Afterwards, during the after show party, I ran all of the pre-programmed stuff and it all worked perfectly. I guess I hadn't quite been confident enough, maybe in myself, to jump in and run it having never seen it run before."
(Jim Evans)
