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I expect I am one of the older (age) members of the Forum doing my first stage lighting in January 1975 when I was 19. In the 50 years since I have hired and owned many types of lighting desks including those from Zero 88. For 12 years I was using an American computer based desk which was fine untill the company was taken over and things started to change. Support staff left and software development slowed to a crawl. At this time I knew I had to change and along came the FLX S48 which a school I was working in had just bought. Afterwards I went to one of the Zero 88 roadshows at Exeter University and shortly afterwards bought my own because I liked it so much. Fast forward 6 years and I am sorry to see the main support team change so much. I wish everyone well in their new ventures. I hope this is not the thin edge of the wedge. Best wishes to everyone for their productions for 2025. I hope you all enjoy things as much as I do for many years to come. With kind regards Trevor Steer

I'd hope by the end of September we'd have a beta for you. However, the roadmap has changed a little bit to enable us to fix some high priority bugs. Instead of being "ZerOS 7.15", this will now be: ZerOS 7.14.4 will be a bug fix release for all consoles ZerOS 8 will be for FLX & FLX S only, and will include the free of charge capacity increases We see these two releases being very close together - it's even possible (not guaranteed) that ZerOS 8 starts testing before ZerOS 7.14.4 is released. We're doing this to split the bug fixes across all consoles, and the new features / increased capacity on FLX & FLX S.

Hi all, To ensure Vari-Lite can provide the best possible support, I’d like to quickly remind everyone of the three active support routes: Emailing entertainment.service@signify.com or calling +1 214 647 7880 (While the legacy Zero 88 contact methods are still monitored by the UK-based support team, the above contact details are the “official” routes which are monitored by the global support team). This “Vari-Lite Controls Support Forum” (Over the years this has become a fantastic resource of data and is home to some very knowledgeable users. The Vari-Lite team regularly monitor the forum (your forum admins are Darren - @DMH and Ryan - @RJP from the UK-based support team). However, if you require immediate direct support from Vari-Lite, the contact details above are the correct method). “Vari-Lite Console Programmers” Facebook Group Lastly, I’d like to take a moment to say farewell, as I’m stepping down from the team. I’m so proud of the products we’ve launched over my time - FLX, ZerOS Wing, FLX S24 & S48, ZerOS Server, RigSwitch, AlphaPack 3, BetaPack 4, Splitter 8, Gateway 4, Gateway 8, Neo X15, Neo X5, Neo X Server and RigSwitch+. And I’m delighted to have finally released ZerOS 8! Here’s a couple of ZerOS screenshots comparing when I started (ZerOS 5.4), to now (ZerOS 8): But it’s not all about the products - there’s been so much more too. Three (1, 2, 3) PLASA Awards for Innovation, several patents, our industry’s best RDM implementation with RigSync, the first console to implement Art-Net 4, Zero 88’s 40th Anniversary and the “Me and My Zero 88” competition, being ahead of the curve on natively supporting GDTF, the Simplifying Jargon videos, “Live at the Congress” Events and #WeMakeEvents campaigns over COVID, updating the Zero 88 website, our yearly Advent Calendars, our April Fools Day posts (anyone remember FLX switching to Roman Numerals or the new ZerOS Wing SD?) and the High Altitude Balloon into near space competition. So many great memories, fun, experience, knowledge and friendships have been made during this time which are, and will continue to be, very, very special to me. The Vari-Lite team are committed to continuing this good work – with plans to develop and support both ZerOS & FLX S, along with RigSwitch+, Neo X and VisionNet. I wish them all continued success with those projects. So, from me, it’s Time to Say Goodbye. And thank you.

Vari-Lite has announced the ZerOS 8 software update for FLX, FLX S and ZerOS Server. The update doubles the capacity of Vari-Lite’s FLX S Series consoles, removing the need for paid universe upgrades, and further increases the integration between Vari-Lite’s FLX S consoles and new RigSwitch+ power platform. With ZerOS 8, FLX S24 & FLX S48 now support 96 & 192 fixtures respectively, both now across 2,048 DMX channels (equivalent to 4 full DMX universes). Not content with doubling the fixture count and channel license, ZerOS 8 also doubles the number of playbacks, groups and palettes available on all FLX S consoles. The full size FLX and ZerOS Server also receives an upgrade to 4,096 channels (equivalent to 8 full DMX universes). With ZerOS 8, users can add relay circuits to every fixture on their console without further eating into their fixture count. These relays can be manually controlled or users can allow ZerOS to automatically control the relays - switching each individual circuit on when the fixture plugged into it is needed, and switching it off when they’re not. Vari-Lite has also simultaneously released ZerOS 7.14.4 specifically for legacy ZerOS consoles, improving both performance and stability to these consoles. Download the latest version of ZerOS free of charge from the Vari-Lite website: https://www.vari-lite.com/global/products/zeros-software

Dear All, After over seven years, and over 3,000 forum posts, it is time for me to say farewell to my time at Zero 88 (now Vari-Lite). Working for Zero 88 has been a pleasure, and I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of this active group of forum members. We were on ZerOS version 7.9.2 when I joined, and FLX S wasn't even around yet. Since then, ZerOS has come a long way, and is now more stable and feature-rich than ever. The ZerOS online manual, plus all the ZerOS training videos, mean that all aspects of ZerOS are now documented to enable users to get the most out of their consoles. I want to say a massive public thank you to @Jon Hole. Over these years he has been a brilliant mentor and friend (and my manager for a period of time!), and was instrumental in me getting into my role at Zero 88 in the first place. Jon and I will of course keep in touch, and hopefully work together again some time in the future. So, I'll type ENTER ENTER @ . RECORD ENTER, and record a fade to black on this chapter. Thanks again to everyone. I really have enjoyed my role. Edward

Hi all, I've been reading your replies and they've really meant a lot to me, thank you. I've deliberately waited a few weeks before replying. All the very best for the future and, if you're at a trade show in the future, please come and say hello - this LinkedIn post shows where I've headed to, if you're interested! Jon

Good luck Jon but I'm not surprised. TBH since the Varilight take over it's felt like the beginning of the end. The issue of the latest software will probably be the last so I hope we all got our wish list items sorted.

My sentiments exactly. Keith, Edward and now you. My disappointment knows no bounds.

I notice the two support personnel Jon quotes above have a combined contribution of posts on this forum of exactly zero (since Sept/Nov 2024 when they joined). Looks like we're on our own folks, or they've got some work to do to establish their credibility and start making an active contribution - which I guess is part of what they are paid to do (unlike us). A 'hello' and a short resume would be a start…

@Jon Hole I wish you future success in your forthcoming move. I think Zero88 now have their work cut out to maintain the support levels we have enjoyed in recent times.

I'm my red mist I've so far failed to acknowledge @Jon Hole. My apologies. Thanks for so much Jon over the years - great products, accurate and timely support, recruiting some other great team members, and putting up with some quite strong feedback and comments from us on here. You will be missed as will all of the legacy Z88 team. Good Luck!

I took "forum admins" to mean they sort out the forum when it dies and deal with inappropriate posts. So, yes, my assumption has been that the prompt and helpful days of Edward and Jon are over and we are, as you say, "on our own". I, for one, would be delighted to have this cynical and depressing assumption proved wrong. The newish thread - 16 bit intensity really 8 bit - is one that seems to require their attention (even though you have tried to help).

Que dire de plus, sinon la même chose qu'à Edward : Merci Jon pour ta pédagogie, ta patience, la pertinence de tes réponses, cela a toujours été un plaisirs d'échanger avec toi, un grand professionnel qui m'a toujours bien aidé ... bonne continuation à toi

What? No! I only just discovered Edward had gone. Pantos will never be the same again. Many thanks for your above-and-beyond support for a little minnow. Simon in Wargrave.

Wow, is really the end of almost an era and of those I knew in Cymbran. Thank you for all your help and guidance over the years. Will miss catching up with you when I was driving by and also at the trade shows 😢 @Jon Hole all the best for the future

You always knocked up a fixture profile so quick, and your advice was worth its weight in gold. I sincerely hope Veri Lite realize what they are losing. I hope you remain in the industry, you are too good to lose. Thank you so much for all the support you have given me and ultimately the theatre group and audiences who benefited from it. All the best Edward. Rob McDonald

I have been trying another way to find colours within Lee Filters Mood Boards and have cut and pasted the moods with a description for each one from the Lee Filers web site and The Art Of Light publication. I have not done the Inspired By ones yet. Lee Mood Boards ZerOS 7 Screenshots.pdf

Spam seems to be getting worse on the daily! Perhaps some sort of user verification is required?

Hey, so I tested the show file during the final rehearsals on Friday and on two shows today. They work perfectly. Without you, those fixtures wouldn't have been used in this production. Thank you SOOOOOO much, you're the best! ♥ ♥ ♥ All the best from Leipzig Lena

Update as promised: Using the personality in the desk, and when viewing the DMX Output charts under the Z Key, the values corresponding to CMY remained on '0' even after changing colour parameters, or running colour effects etc. Definitely confirmed it was a personality error at this point. So using the inbuilt fixture editor, I took a copy of the existing personality and amended the CMY control channels to be 'Other Colour' control parameters. This worked and enabled the encoders to control the CMY parameters, however colour palettes or picker didn't work as the desk didn't know what colour they actually were. So I then edited the 'copied' personality, changed the 'Other Colour' parameters back to CMY, which then worked as it should have done so in the first place. I now have full control of CMY, using colour palettes or the colour picker! No idea what was going on, but quite the oddity and an annoying time sponge trying to resolve! Either related or unrelated, I also had the desk crash four times throughout plotting, so will forward on the crash reports to the team after the show is done. Thanks again all for suggestions, research, and the created fixture profile @kgallen

Hi @Lena Here you go, all three modes (phew!). Everything is in there including all channel "details". You will find lots of channels under Colour and Beam(shape) so you'll have to rotate through the "pages" of them on your S24. However there is a limitation in what I've created. The FLX S24 will support multi-cell fixtures and the TMH-W555 looks like it could benefit with being defined as a multi-cell fixture for the 36 and 48 channel modes. However the Windows Fixture Editor does not support this (as it's a new console feature). You would need to request such an enhanced fixture definition from Vari-lite (or write one using GDTF which I'm not capable of!!!). I'm not sure if the colour palettes will work in the 36 and 48 channel modes as I've not picked any of the RGBW 1/2/3/4/5/6/7 as "primary". But they should work fine in the 24 channel mode. You'll have to see how you go on in 36/48 channel mode and come back to me if it's a little unworkable - I would need you to tell me which segment 1-7 you want to be "primary". Just put this file on a USB stick and use Load on the console. When you patch it, it will show in red text as a "non-library fixture". Enjoy! (ps there is a lot of info I've had to enter so if you see an error or spelling mistake, let me know) eurolite_tmh-w555.ift

Raise lower effectively emulates moving the faders, which are limited to 8bit. All other calculations for fades etc, are 16bit. I have raised this as issue ZOS-12581 for future consideration.

Thanks guys, saving a group with intensity is a great help. Confirmed it doesn't link the group level into the cue, so unlike a palette, changes to the Group levels don't affect existing cues. I also found the trick to turn off Smart Tag so I can save lights into the Group with zero intensity. Allowed me to clean up existing cues that were a bit randomly balanced so they're all identical. S

Wasn't expecting to see this, thank you for all of your support @Jon Hole, hopefully the other support reps will be able to match your knowledge and activity. I wish you all of the best in the future, you'll be sorely missed!

denks @kgallen and @Davidmk for taking the time to answer. Just to complete if anyone is interessted; to get different fade in times for different lamps i did following (with the exemple my post above): Programming channels 1 thru 6 with fade time 10sec on MasterPlayback. Programming an empty cue on PB1 and a second cue with channel 7 and 8 with fade-time 3sec. with the cue on MasterPlayback it auto-trigger a macro (recoded as -go PB1-) befor i trigger the cue on MasterPlayback, raised the Fader on PB1 manually so the empty cue is active. (did this even befor the show started, so i didn't had to worried about anymore) easy. good evening

@Jon Hole just announced a ZerOS 8.0 'Release Candidate' in the beta-release testing forum yesterday. (7.15 is no longer a thing..!) I should imagine a couple more weeks with final testing and it'll be published.

Yes it does and yes it works. RGB now!

I think the issue is that DMX values can run to a lot more digits than percentages. Allowing for all those digits in the screen layout would require less information visible and/or smaller fonts. Also if it was displaying 128 (for example) how would you know if that was 128 (50%) out of 255 or out of 65536 (20%). There is method in this particular bit of madness. The wheels show the DMX value by default. I have a feeling you can change that to % but I suspect most people change it back pretty quickly.

@kgallen @Charlie Newman Hmm. A DMX value of 5 (out of 255) is pretty much 2 and I think the fixture profile works in DMX value while the display works in %. If in doubt check the manual and/or the DMX output window.

The school has a new lighting desk so there is a working Jester going free to anyone who wants to collect it, Aylesbury area. Just message me if interested

These two beta's are now available though our beta forum (I said by the end of September!) I wasn't expecting both together, but it's great that we've managed to!

Apologies on picking up on this so late. Ed was such a great tutor and producer of fantastic reference material I hardly visit the forum now. None the less I would also like to say a huge and genuine thanks to Ed. He even put time aside in the evenings for Skype calls to help me understand and run ZEROs. Good luck Ed in your chosen new direction and thanks again. It was folks like you who fuelled my loyal support for and in Zero 88. All the Best.... Mac

Thank you for your precious help, you will be sorely missed! You set the bar pretty high, whoever comes next is going to have some really big shoes to fill! Best wishes for the future!

Oh... 😞 But congratulations! You chaps have had admirable sticking power over the years and many changes at what "was" Zero88. I thank you for your support, help and professional friendship over these years and wish you all the best for the future! Hopefully you are staying in the wider industry so might still "see you around"? I do seriously fear for the brand now though. It would be quite understandable that Jon might consider his future with the loss of several of the core "team". I would but hope he choses to stick around but it must weigh on his mind. Kindest, Kevin

Hello Edward All looks good. Many thanks for your reply.

This might be helpful as well... https://www.zero88.com/manuals/zeros/patching/add-fixtures/edit-export

Far and away my biggest want is Mac Phantom zerOS. My Apple silicon Mac runs Capture at 100+ fps without the fan even turning on! Phantom is pretty stable under Parallels 19 running side-by-side on the same monitor with Capture, but there are some glitchy bits that I assume are due to the emulation.

Note to Z88 folks ( @Edward Z88, @Jon Hole ) and other active members: It seems on other forums, misinformation is being spread that suggests or states (incorrectly) that all FLX - including FLX S- production has been stopped. Prospective buyers are being dissuaded from FLX S series consoles because they are "discontinued". I'm rebuffing this where I can, including a link to Jon's original statement at the top of this thread. Please be aware of this misinformation being propagated and do your bit to correct the statements where required.

Dear Forum Members, Some of you may have heard already, but to make it official, after 29 years I am leaving Zero 88 or Vari-Lite as we are now. My last day is Thursday 28th March. Since I started with Zero 88 way back in August 1995, as production test technician, testing both the PCB and complete units for the classics like the Sirius 24/48, Betapack Mk1, Rackmasters to name few, have seen many changes through mergers and acquisitions. I am proud to have been part of them and am looking forward to seeing what the future holds for the company. To those of you i have met personally, sorry about that …..not 😉 Those i have spoken or exchanged post/mail with, lucky you, got away lightly then 😉 In all seriousness, thanks to you all for the support and kind words over the years. I wish you all the best for the future, and will leave you in In Edward and Jon’s capable care.

I have my own solution for playlists with manually started timecode for zero 88 if you need it. The playlist looks like this. #20 colorado manual stop setup|C0/20,C14/9,C47/5|ready 00:00.0|P2|*LED* TIMECODE START 00:01.8|L1/100/4|hihat 00:24.7|R45,P3,C47/5,P36|narvaný kapsy 00:40.1|C33/2,P2,R47,R36|z billa 00:55.5|R33,R2,C47/5,P36|tam kradou 01:29.6|C33/2,P2,R47,R36|z billa 01:45.0|R33,R2,C47/5|Roman solo 02:00.8|C33/2,P2,R47|z billa 02:14.8|R33,R2|o ty 02:15.5|C33/2,L16/100/1|o ty Explanations: C0/20 = cue 20 in playback 0 L1/100/4 = level Playback 1 to 100 via 4 sec. P3 = playback 3 max R33 = release playback 33 Automatically converts to OSC commands for FLX.

Have fixed.. full update tonight. Thanks both!

I'm a big convert of using groups as much as possible! Definitely speeds up programming no end, and as David has mentioned I'm 99.9% sure you can save intensity within a group. (From a FLX user) I've also found sensible fixture numbering really helps (although it sounds like your venue is fairly small) to pick up your Fresnels, PAR side lights, cyc etc. e.g. 1X fixture numbers for Fresnels, 2X numbers for PARs etc (add the hundreds digit as required..!) I'm not experienced on Solution to understand how this would translate, but I'd definitely be looking at doing syntax based control via keyboard if it allows. Copy/Paste of cues is obviously another big time saver for when you're moving back and forward between locations.

Select fixtures. Make the colour however you want. You could start with an existing palette then modify with the encoder wheels. Then RECORD and touch an empty palette location on the Colour screen. Same process for position, beam, shape (but on those generally parameters are separate). This is in the manual. https://www.zero88.com/manuals/zeros/palettes/recording-palettes @van den abbeele Eric can help you with a French manual.

https://www.zero88.com/manuals/zeros/controlling-fixtures/parameters#syntax

Was just thinking if I'd see you at Plasa this year and then saw this post... Sorry to hear you're moving on, losing your wealth of knowledge will be a big loss to the community. Good luck in your future endevours Regards Mike

Wow Edward, big news! A real shame for us here on the forum & FB community groups, as your support was always immediate and spot on! Wishing you all the best with whatever you turn your hand to next! Cheers Alex

Hi. Yes, use SHIFT+COPY for a MOVE. See this page in the manual ("MOVING CUES IN A PLAYBACK"): https://www.zero88.com/manuals/zeros/cues-playbacks/moving

Yes of course - if there is a particular cue you'd like me to look at in a show file, just email it to me and I can take a look.

Triggering on the release of GO was a deliberate change several years ago - it allows for the “GoTo” command to jump to a specific cue

Hi, Ed thanks, I'll correspond via email.