Atlanta is the eighth Castle to be opened in a very successful expansion program across North America which has so far attracted attracted nearly 35 million guests to the show.
Georgia-based Stage Front is one of the most respected and successful performance and presentation contractors in the Southeast, and has been the design and build contractor for Medieval Times ever since providing the lighting and special effects for the original Florida Castle in 1986.
Lighting plays a key part in creating the mood and environmental setting for the 1,200-seater arena shows, which include equestrian events, tournaments and games, jousting, hand-to-hand combat scenes, a Wizard sequence and a lighting overture in between opening scenes.
LD Marty Huntoon had recently upgraded to a Jands Vista S3 console for Stage Front's production and rental jobs after being impressed by its unique timeline programming feature - a concept he was instantly familiar with having used video and 3D modeling software for almost 15 years. He was therefore keen to compare the experience programming the Medieval Times show on a Vista to see how much simpler it would be using the desk's timeline and other features.
Huntoon says: "When I started looking into newer consoles for Stage Front the Vista just made a lot of sense because of its innovative timeline approach, generic fixture model and software interface. Being able to program the lighting to a timeline for this show was a real breath of fresh air. The snapshot feature and the way the Vista allows operators many ways to deliver scenes and presets to fully assignable faders and buttons also made the job a lot simpler and quicker than it would otherwise have been. With the consistency of the software interface across all hardware solutions as well, it was hands down the choice for SFPS and this project. I truly appreciate the value, power and agility of the Vista."
Another major benefit Huntoon found to programming the show using the Vista's timeline was the ability to import audio into it. After noticing some difficulties in other Castles' running segments that required precise co-ordination with the audio engineer, he knew he could easily resolve these using the Vista by simply playing back both the pre-recorded audio track and lighting steps from one button on the console.
Following Huntoon's recommendation, Medieval Times purchased a Vista S3 for the Atlanta show rig, which is connected to an Apple Intel iMac and provides control for 154 ETC Source Four PARs, 35 ETC Source Four ERS, 9 Coemar iSpotT 575EB, 16 Coemar Prowash 250, Reel EFX DF-50 Hazer and Le Maitre G300 Fog.
Huntoon also specified 72 Chroma-Q Plus colour changers for the Atlanta Castle, based upon the impressive reliability record he'd found for the hundreds of Chroma-Q units installed and maintained over the years in previous Castles by the company.
Since completing the installation, Stage Front's own Vista S3 has been used for various concert, corporate and house of worship events in the Southeast.
A.C. Lighting is the exclusive North American, European and Middle East distributor for the Jands Vista range and is currently running a competition to win a 1024 channel Vista lighting control system. The company is also the exclusive worldwide distributor of the Chroma-Q product range.
(Chris Henry)
