Lego Friends to the Rescue is set in the resort's new land, Heartlake City, which recreates the fun and colourful world of the popular Lego Friends toy range.
During the show, guests join Heartlake City's five female characters on an action packed adventure which is full of music, dance and special effects. Dominating the effects is the harbour's lighthouse, which is pixel mapped with over 700 RGB LED emitters using a Traxon Dot media string wrapped around the structure.
Lighting contractor, A.C. Special Projects Ltd. (ACSP) specified the Jands Vista S1 console to control the lighthouse LEDs in addition to the stage lighting. ACSP Director, Lance Bromhead, commented, "Vista was ideal for this project - primarily as it has an incredibly powerful FX engine capable of pixel mapping stunning shapes and animations with ease. This meant that there was no need for additional products such as a dedicated media server, which kept production costs down whilst still delivering on the client's requirement for striking visuals."
Secondly, to reflect the energy and vibrancy of the action on stage, the show required complex lighting sequences played back through 100s of cues. These cues needed to be recalled accurately, without the use of external triggers such as timecode. Vista again had the answer to this. The show is utilising a feature called Learn Timing, which recorded the exact timing between cues the first time they were played back. As a result of this, the operators only have to press a single button and the sequences play back exactly as intended, allowing the technicians to concentrate on other show aspects such as the sound and stage automation.
Finally, ACSP had to take into account the limited amount of space available within the control booth. They needed a small console that didn't compromise on power, features or performance. All Jands Vista products run the exact same software and offer the full feature set as found in the range's largest consoles, so the S1 connected to a laptop provided this small footprint solution.
Laura Jackson, project manager for the resort's chief production contractor, SGA, commented, "Jands Vista is really proving to be a great choice for the show's control requirements. Not only has it exceeded everyone's expectations in making the lighthouse and stage area look fantastic, it actually proved just as useful during the show pre-production process - because Vista is so visual, it was possible to program part of the show 'blind' before some fixtures arrived on-site, saving valuable time in production rehearsals."
(Jim Evans)
