Atlanta’s Medieval Times Gets A Jands Vista

Production company Stage Front Presentation Systems (SFPS) has supplied a Jands Vista S3 lighting console and 72 Chroma-Q™ Plus color changers for the new Medieval Times Atlanta Dinner & Tournament. Atlanta is the eighth Castle to be opened in a very successful expansion program across North America that has so far 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 seat 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 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 advanced features.

Huntoon comments, “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.”

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 iSPOT 575EB, 16 Coemar Prowash 250, a Reel EFX DF-50 Hazer, and a Le Maitre G300 Fog.

Huntoon also specified 72 Chroma-Q™ Plus color changers for the Atlanta Castle, based on 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.