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As a Zero88 stalwart user and supporter for more than 30 years, I asked a few questions just about what we might expect in the way of support following Edward & Jon’s departures. I did receive a prompt reply in red below. It at least gives their intent and maybe a base for us to push from…. With my two good friends, Jon Hole & Edward Smith departing in quick succession, can you describe the changes to the support services that we are likely to see going forward. I understand how this must look but I would like to reassure you the software development team that are in the background are still very much here and as will has a dedicated support department. The support department is manned in the UK and US so we can offer better global coverage. Up to this point I’ve had personal FLX Support response to emails usually within one working day. We do still try to respond withing 24/48 hours to direct emails, however this will also depend on workload as we also cover on site visits. Instant phone call response for show critical issues. Are there still FLX console experts available to take technical enquiries? We have and have always had an out of hours emergency response number, this is available from the Vari-lite website. Please find below the link. https://www.vari-lite.com/global/support/technical-support Daily monitoring and responding to forum posts, usually within one working day. No spam posts. The forum appears already to be out of control. The forum has slipped behind as we have been dealing with direct customer support, we are currently working on a solution to this. Fixture Library addition requests created and emailed back usually within one working day. We are creating fixture files for customers but as the workload has increased we have had to increase the estimated turn around time to up to a possible 21 days. We understand this is a big difference and we do endeavour to do them ASAP which is usually between 1 and 3 days. If the file is urgent, we recommend the customer creates the file themselves as this is a very easy process within the ZerOS Software, please see the link below. https://www.zero88.com/manuals/zeros/patching/add-fixtures/fixture-creator Ongoing ZerOS development with bug fixes and new features. Are there still dedicated ZerOS software developers actively in post? As I mention above, the software develop team has not changed this has in fact increased with developers in the UK, US and New Zealand. A roadmap for ZerOS progression, shared with users. A monitored ‘What would you like to see in ZerOS’ poll. Regular beta testing releases with feedback being acknowledged and logged. Updates and improvements to training manuals and YouTube content following ZerOS releases. Thank you for your suggestions, I will forward them to the product management team. As you can see from the above, Zero88 provided a truly comprehensive service to its users, at no extra cost. I would like to hope that a similar service will continue to be provided from the company that has the iconic and industry respected name of Vari-Lite. Thank you for your questions and I hope you find our response reassuring. We are constantly looking at our processes and internal procedures to improve the customer experience.

Hear hear... Where's the downvote button when you need one ⬇️ I wonder how long until the FLX S is canned - I had slight optimism at the ZerOS 8 launch that it sounded like FLX S would be hanging around for a while (https://www.vari-lite.com/global/news/releases/zeros-8-0) - perhaps not much longer with the 'core' Z88 team all gone now. Still wonder if we'll ever hear from our new Vari-Lite admins on this forum? (it's not too late to introduce yourselves, we don't bite! Would be great to get some of your insights on the future of FLX to allay our concerns!) Signed - a loyal Z88 user

Hi Fixture is just the generic term for a light, from a simple tungsten fresnel to a LED moving head with gobos etc. Programming a fixture to 0 intensity should just work. However zero intensity is ‘special’ in that with SmartTag enabled, only the intensity (of zero) will be recorded for that fixture, not any changes to other fixture parameters (colour etc). This is deliberate, to support (amongst other things) move on dark, but sometimes it’s a little inconvenient (for example when also wanting to do Effect Off in the same cue). Maybe you could elaborate when setting intensity to zero is not working for you? Inserting cues is possible for sure. These are called point cues and you can have 2 decimal places (so possible 99 point cues between integer cue numbers). On FLX S you don’t have a keypad to type numbers as I do on my ‘full’ FLX so the touchscreen keypad needs to be involved. I’ll have to look this up. Having an external USB keyboard plugged in would get you to most of the programming syntax available on FLX and other higher end consoles. https://www.zero88.com/manuals/zeros/cues-playbacks/recording-cues-2 On FLX S, the cue number you require can be defined by tapping Record Z/Shift and using the on-screen number pad to type your cue number. Then, tap the playback's button to record as usual. Regarding tracking, there are a bunch of ‘terminology’ videos I’ll link shortly which will give you the idea. But some of these are ‘complex’ topics so you’ll have to learn the nitty gritty from the more specific training videos. Much of this terminology is industry standard so will benefit you on a whole range of consoles not just your FLX S. Please start working through these videos. Your FLX S has capabilities well beyond a basic fader-based lighting desk you may have been used to at this point. It’s a big step up, there is a significant learning curve.

Thanks, that's all great info. It turned out the desk was programmed for Cue Only (setup), not Tracked, and then I changed to Tracked and SmartTag (record Option), and things worked intuitively. There are a few other sections on this page (Tracking, Fixtures...), but I can't find anywhere in the manual that explains these? I also found the Copy (on Z/Shift), and it worked great. The one thing I struggled with was setting a fixture to 0, which seems this did not get saved (i.e. when I set a fixture to 0, which was on this did not get saved when I recorded the next Cue. Is there a way to insert a Cue between 2 existing ones? Thanks for all your help Ben

Nor me. In fact I don't think I dare to dream. ☹️

@Davidmk I suspect you are pretty much bang on with all you say. I don't think Vari-Lite are interested in the console business, or any of Zero88's products. I think Zero88 was just a tiny operation that came along with their bigger purchase of Signify (or whatever transient companies bought the stable that included Zero88 on the way). Zero88's Cwmbran manufacturing operation is (/was, if it still exists) pretty much over to subcontract electronics build. They'll make a few Zero88 product batches as and when demand requires it. I suspect that will dwindle and drop off as demand drops and the lack of successor products means the Zero88 brand disappears. This forum will be funded until someone high up in VL realises they are spending money on it and/or the traffic drops off to a level they think there is no need for it any more. We've probably missed the boat but it would be desirable to get the schematics, Bills-of-Materials and if possible software source code out of the remaining Z88 databases and into the "public" domain before VL type "rm -rf /*" on it all and forget it ever existed. The software source code might be tricky as it might contain sub-licensed IP such that it doesn't have a GPL type license, I don't know, this is not my area. I've not heard anything about any new products with the Z88 brand and there is no evidence to date on the beta forum of ZerOS development work post 8.0 (although JonH did suggest there was an ongoing development plan on his leaving speech). But I don't think there is "anyone" left from Z88 to do this. I think Simon, the key software guy, was probably a sub-contractor [I could be wrong], so will have moved on to other ventures to keep paying his mortgage. If he is about, he's been very quiet and hasn't posted on here at all to say "don't panic guys, we're still here (just)". Time will tell. But I'm not holding my breath.

@kgallen Correct, although I suspect the processor board isn't custom, more likely an off the shelf unit that has become uneconomical because other customers have moved on. I figured that... The problem with producing FLX is the availability of the processor/screen combination. ZerOS has been shown to run on Rasberry Pi, not only that but an old model of RP. Newer RPs have more muscle than old ones. So it is possible, probable even, that a RP 5 has the capability to run as an FLX The problem with that is interfacing the hardware bits the FLX has and the S doesn't. I speculate that the various peripheral boards inside an FLX actually talk to the processor via USB. We know the fader wing does so its possible the internal faders do as well plus it is the sort of interface an off the shelf board might use. Even back in the day, Zero 88 wouldn't want to develop a whole new protocol so, even if it isn't USB, it will be something for which an RP hat might already be available. So, assuming the hardware interfaces are USB, or something that someone in the community could sort out with widely available circuitry (OK, that might not be possible), then, with access to the source code, you have to identify how it 'knows' what hardware it is running on and all the places it uses that information. For that, you need a software specialist. I'm rusty, and it would probably be in a language I'm not familiar with but I reckon I could give that a go and I'd bet I'm not alone. I don't know the background of everyone in this and the Facebook forums but, given that about half the LX techs I know have backgrounds in IT and/or telecommunications the expertise is out there. The flaw in this is that Vari-Lite have paid for the ZerOS intellectual property and are highly unlikely to give it away for free. Plus they wouldn't want all the support calls which would result from the unofficial versions that would spring up as a result. The other thing is why has there been no announcement of a Pi based FLX S+ to replace the full FLX? Is it that it is much harder than I have assumed or that they bought Zero 88 for the other products?

I believe the FLX S are based on Raspberry Pi and the touchscreen is essentially a generic peripheral you can buy for it. FLX is more a custom hardware and screen.

Still for sale.......??

I doubt it will happen but, if they did, the first thing to look at is whether an FLX could run with a Raspberry Pi processor board and touch screen. Vary-Lite could do this themselves of course.

Hi 1. [Fader Funct] is one button and it’s to the right of the fader bank. It’s what switches the faders between channel control and playback control. So no not the individual buttons under each fader! 2. Also there is no ‘delete’ going on, no data is being lost. This operation *releases* playbacks. Release means to stop a playback from controlling fixtures. If you release all playbacks and the master playback that means no playback is controlling any fixture. If the programmer is also clear (clear-clear) fixtures will revert to whatever default value is set for the fixture (which is usually the same as its Home values but with intensity zero). 3. If you are in Cue Only then you should never see purple digits in the Output Window. This means any fixtures are only controlled explicitly by any cues (from playbacks) you have done ‘GO’ on (or triggered by raising the associated playback fader) or any values overridden in the programmer (values will show in red text). CLEAR-CLEAR will fully clear the programmer CLEAR+[Fader Funct] will release playbacks 1-48 (or however many playbacks S24 has, I can’t remember) and CLEAR-[Master GO] will release the master playback. Doing those three things should mean all fixtures are released to their default. Unless you’ve reprogrammed default for any fixture I’d thus expect your stage to be dark. You have SmartTag enabled which is useful unless you’re an advanced user. Cue Only is the most basic mode of the console and means your cues will only ever contain exactly what was on stage when you recorded. However Cue Only stops you overlaying playbacks or controlling individual fixture attributes in more complex and creative ways - you need to be in Tracking mode for that. How are you doing with the training videos?

Thanks for the info. The manual bit on releasing playbacks (apart from Master Playback) says "To release all the playbacks (and UDKs on FLX), except the Master Playback, hold [Clear] and press the [Fader Funct] button. " Is [Fader Funct] the buttons below the faders? So each has to be cleared separately? It does say to delete all playbacks, not a playback, but it could be confusing English. So is there a way of releasing all playbacks by pressing a cople of buttons (except master playback). I have SmartTag enabled (I pressed and held down [RECORD]). SmartTag is enabled, and tracking is set to Cue Only. Is this correct?

If Vari-lite aren't interested in ZerOS, it would be good if they could put the source code in the public domain so it could be turned onto an open-source project.

Hi Ben, Can you attach a showfile here? It sounds like you have those other lights live on stage when you record the cue, or you have other playbacks active when playing back the (master?) playback? Do you have SmartTag enabled when recording? Is Tracking enabled or disabled when recording? You can look at the colours of the intensity values in the output window. Usually you would expect to see blue and green numbers. If you see purple numbers these intensities have "tracked" from another cue. If you see white numbers then these are "snapshot" (blocked) values. If they have a red background then these are "parked". Maybe you could attach a screenshot. Another idea is to install PhantomZeros on a PC/laptop, then start it in FLX (not FLX S) mode then load your showfile. FLX has a Sources screen that shows where control for each channel is coming from. This might help you debug your programming method until you are more used to the console. All colours are documented here: https://www.zero88.com/manuals/zeros/desktops-windows/output-window CLEAR+Fader Func will release all non-master playbacks. CLEAR+Master GO will release the master playback. https://www.zero88.com/manuals/zeros/cues-playbacks/playing-back-cues/triggering-releasing-playbacks Hope that helps! Kevin

Sure, I am missing something, but sure I am missing something. Often after programming a cue in a playback, when testing the playback other lights seem to come on when I go to cue. Also, is there a way of stopping all playbacks running (kind of resetting the desk without turning it off/on)? There are a few of us using the desk and I think we must have our workflow wrong and we are all finding it a bit frustrating. Ben

I unfortunately agree! 😏

Merci 👍je jette un œil sur la vidéo

You need to be in tracking mode - or at least not using snapshot. If your intensity values are in white in the Output Window then you have programmed "blocking" cues which will stop move on dark from working. If you programme with SmartTag then if a fixture is dark (intensity=0) in a cue and needs to reposition/re-gobo/re-zoom, then move on dark will do this automatically. If you have programmed snapshots then you could change to tracking then use Update with SmartTag to un-block cues to allow MOD to work. There is also an UNBLOCK you can do on the whole cue-stack. However as with all such bulk changes you should check your programming afterwards, not on a live show! If you are busking with playbacks then you can exploit the playback GO button to execute the move before you raise the fader for intensity, otherwise raising the fader will trigger the move etc as the intensity builds so you see the move etc. Other users here will be able to advise you better if you're busking. There is this video:

Bonjour, Comment procéder avec des lyres mobile pour ne pas voir le déplacement du projecteur et du zoom ? Il faudrait que qu'il se place dans le noir. Merci

They do now! Thanks! 🙂

Sorry about that. Fixed, I think, for posterity.

The answer to that lies in this forum over the last few months. As a 30 year user/buyer myself, it’s spelled out in big fat letters. It’s the end of the line folks I’m afraid, they’re not interested. Jon managed to get in a last gasp with ZerOS 8 before he left. That will be the last, I’m sure of it. Zero88 and its beloved products and employees are no more.

Wow... The fixture editor is Ok for quick personalities but isn't GDTF nor easy to create multicell profiles. Zero88 Sirus, Alcora, Frog, Solution and FLX consoles have been at the forefront of the theatres and village halls that I've worked in over the past 35 years so am wondering if there's any direction for future Vari-lite theatre lighting consoles? The market needs rejuvinating with a new console to superceed the FLX or I can see venues moving to other lighting consoles with enhanced capeabilities and free personalities 😐

it's great!! thank you very much!

@jeansté Here you go, all of them in one file. I'm sure the 1ch profile fixture is not much use over just patching a generic dimmer, but at least it would have the right name. The 2ch version has 16-bit dimmer which will benefit you if you are programming a cue stack (but note if you are busking on a fader then you will get 8-bit resolution). Let me know if you have issues with them or you spot an error. Enjoy! FOS.ift