Located in South-East England, The Elgiva presents a wide-ranging programme of professional and amateur productions, touring concerts, top comedy, musicals, ballet/dance, one-night shows, professional pantomime, movies, and private events.

After upgrading its house rig to all-LED, the theatre’s ageing control desk had been struggling with the quantity and greater sophistication of the fixtures, and the extra workload created by additional shows as a result of the venue’s increased popularity.

This was limiting what could be achieved creatively in the time available – both for Elgiva’s own productions, and in the theatre providing high quality technical support for its clients, which include major international tours.

The theatre therefore decided to invest in the next generation Vista 3™ control system, purchasing the latest Vista EX™ control surface, plus a Vista MV™ to use as an extra playback wing.

Tristan Collett, the theatre’s Technical Manager, commented: “I have found that the speed with which Vista allows users to work benefits Elgiva not only with saving time, but also positively impacting shows’ quality and budgetary constraints.

He added: “Our technicians are extremely creative, and finally don’t have to struggle to transpose their vision onto the stage. What would previously take hours to program now takes minutes or seconds using Vista.”

Tristan is new to the Vista control platform, but after an onsite demonstration he and the theatre’s technical team took to its simplicity immediately.

He commented: “Vista is so intuitive. It thinks like a lighting designer and skips any obtrusive and unnecessary levels of programming that other desks we’ve used seem to bog you down with. It has already made a big impact here at The Elgiva and allowed us to think with a much larger creative canvas, whilst being able to program much faster than any previous desk we’ve worked with.”

The Vista system was supplied by Andy Mahaffey at A.C. Entertainment Technologies Ltd.; Chroma-Q’s UK dealer.

Tristan commented: “Andy and A.C. have guided us every step of the way, to allow us to get the very best out of our lighting system. A.C. has always provided us with good value for money, backed up with Andy’s thorough demos and training. After just a day of Vista training, we were able to get straight to work on shows for a prestigious contemporary youth ballet and high-profile touring rock bands.”