Jands Vista L5 Takes Control for Queen and Adam Lambert A Jands Vista L5 was chosen by lighting and visuals designer Rob Sinclair to control lighting and media for British rock legends, Queen. The group's recent string of high-profile shows featured American Idol star Adam Lambert as lead singer. The first show truly tested everyone's technical and creative skills. Performed in front of enormous crowds (estimated at up to 500,000 people) in Independence Square, Kiev, Ukraine, the concert was televised live as part of the Euro 2012 Football Championships as well as streamed online. Although Rob has been a keen Vista user for a number of years, this was his first experience using the new flagship L5 console. Choosing to do so on a show of such stature and visibility was a real testament to his confidence in the reliability and flexibility of the Vista family. Sinclar's design concept began with the classic look of the massive Queen PAR-can rigs of the 1970s and 80s. It was then evolved into a contemporary version by taking advantage of the latest LED, automation, and control technologies. The touring rig featured over 200 moving lights, arranged on six moving pods over the stage, which were able to shift into different positions throughout the show. Custom video -- co-ordinated by Sinclair -- was played back from a Catalyst media server, which was also under control of the Vista L5. Sinclair says, "The L5 has definitely been designed to make controlling even large and complex shows like this extremely easy." He adds that he found the console's 21" high-definition screen made it "very easy to find everything quickly." Sinclair took full advantage of Vista's "matrix effects" to quickly get looks out of the rig's 180 Martin Professional Mac 101s when they were configured as a big "PAR wall." He concludes that Vista gives the tools to "achieve straightforward tasks very easily, whilst retaining the ability to engage in complex programming. You don't have to do any maths to write a cue." Given the choice, Sinclair has specified Vista control extensively on his shows for the past few years. As well as Queen, these include Peter Gabriel, Adele, Pulp, Pet Shop Boys, Keane, and Will Young. The Jands Vista console is distributed by AC Lighting. 
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