chappy Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 I went for a 'course' in the new Duston School site today. Everything looked really good, until I got to the main hall/theatre and drama room. There is no stage. Just some sliding doors at the back of the hall that go into the drama room which is supposed to be the stage. There is no height difference or anything. So I am a little annoyed. But anyway, onto my original subject, the school has supplied us with a Zero 88 Jester. What do we think? Good? Bad? Just plain ugly? I would just like to hear your thoughts. Cheers,chappy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PDD Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 Why are you annoyed? For quite a lot of schools I should think it is highly uneconomical to include a separate dedicated stage in a new build, particularly if its not a school with drama/performances high on its agenda. "Multi purpose" is a buzz word of today's consultants, as is "cost per square metre" of course. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mac.calder Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 It is a very nice no frills controller. It is quite a sexy little beast, and reasonably priced. That said, it is built for a purpose - and that is your venue with very little dimming, and wanting the ability to push a fader up and get light, whilst still giving the ability for the more advanced user to actually program cue lists etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 If you need any help with the Jester, don't hesitate to let me know, Chappy. Hopefully you should find it fairly straightforward - my top advice is to use a monitor with it, if at all possible. Everything becomes a lot clearer then :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 I always used to have at least one student say during their first week "why have we got no stage, or wings?" - a bit further on in the course, they get involved with proscenium, thrust, in-the-round, and promenade theatre layouts and realise, they'd only been exposed to a very small amount of possibilities in the staging department. For info, new builds rarely have a traditional raised stage - and many older schools with the 'school hall; type stage are having them taken out, or permanently separated into two spaces. Nowadays, when you need a raised stage, you build one, and then go multi-purpose again once it's no longer required. I'm in a school this week doing Grease (and I am keeping my head very, very low - I'm pretending to be a bass player) and they have absolutely no idea of lighting, scenery, and have hired in 12 channels of UHF radio mics that they are trying to use with nobody to operate them apart from a rather timid girls who is too scared to touch anything. The suppliers (thank you Viking) sent somebody in today, who set up each one, set gains, eq'd them and it sounded really nice, until about 5 minutes after he'd gone - when they had tweaked all of the settings again! The concept of anything technical is 100% beyond what they have the skills for. Any lighting desk (and I agree, this Z88 one is quite decent for a school) needs somebody to work it! This school has two teachers, and no technical support at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the kid Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 We have a just got a jester, I'm not a fan of it its, nice and easy but if I want to select channels above 48 I still cannot work out how ( I have skimmed the book but I need to have a deep read) and personally I don't like the feel of it. Maybe it just me because I have not had a SERIOUS play with it. WE also have have a illusion 120 which I quite like as a small desk, I can channel select I can group select and things which I prefer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jivemaster Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 Once the desk has more than you see at first glance the manual and a day's playtime become essential. How do I.... is usually answered in geek speak in the book and becomes clear as you actually DO it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMC Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 That last time I came across a Jester, a colleague was having a very bad time with it, and shotuing; "Why the bl**dy hell is it called a Jester?! It's not funny, and it doesn't tell jokes!"... :) I would tend to agree... But then again I have never, ever, ever come across a Zero88 console I actually get along with... And I've used most of them! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter Posted July 12, 2007 Share Posted July 12, 2007 We have a just got a jester, I'm not a fan of it its, nice and easy but if I want to select channels above 48 I still cannot work out how ( I have skimmed the book but I need to have a deep read) and personally I don't like the feel of it. Maybe it just me because I have not had a SERIOUS play with it. WE also have have a illusion 120 which I quite like as a small desk, I can channel select I can group select and things which I prefer.The Jester has 24 (or 48) generic channels available, which can be patched anywhere within the 512 channels of its DMX output. By default these are patched to 1 to 48. If you require more than 48 individual channels, I'm afraid you've been sold the wrong desk. For someone to step from an Illusion to a Jester is not an easy transition - the mentality of the two desks is very different (one uses a keypad for channel access, the other uses faders per channel). If you'd like to talk in more depth about the differences between the two desks, please drop me a PM. That last time I came across a Jester, a colleague was having a very bad time with it, and shotuing; "Why the bl**dy hell is it called a Jester?! It's not funny, and it doesn't tell jokes!"... :) I would tend to agree... But then again I have never, ever, ever come across a Zero88 console I actually get along with... And I've used most of them!Sorry to hear that, JMC. Perhaps you could send me a PM highlighting any particular issues you've had with our desks, so that I can address them. We've had a lot of positive feedback about the Jester and have many hundreds of happy users. As a simple controller for upto 48 channels of dimming, with memories and submassters, USB support, monitor output as standard and many other features, I think it's a great desk. If anyone would like to spend some time looking at the Jester, please contact your Zero 88 dealer who will be able to arrange a demo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chappy Posted July 13, 2007 Author Share Posted July 13, 2007 just to clear things up a little, I am employed as the technical support for the school....I was just wondering what peoples thoughts were on it, as I havent had a chance to have a day of just playing on it...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stutwo Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 I think it's an excellent solid little desk which suits certain circumstances, i.e. 48 or less channels of dimming and no intelligent fixtures. Easy and fast to use for even novice lighting ops. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digitalangel Posted July 14, 2007 Share Posted July 14, 2007 As far as the Jester goes, I would have thought it perfect for a school. We have a 24/48 for our am-dram group. Have found it really easy to program the sort of things that are quite complicated on other boards (although I've always gotten on better with Z88 boards). It does lots of flashy chases for musical numbers and is about the right size for running live for gritty drama type pieces - the sort of thing I remember lighting when I was back at school. And soft patching is really easy too for when you have more than 48 channels worth of dimming.Would also recommend a monitor tho. Makes things that bit quicker to see if programming large cue stacks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.