Zero88 solution

[Ian der Laan]

What are peoples thoughts on these consoles please?

 

I am looking to control around 50 generic channels of dimming and around 40 intelllegent fixtures.

 

I have also considered magicq pc wing amongst others. but I'm open to suggestions in this price band.

 

 

Sorry if there's already a thread on this topic, I'll be grateful if someone could point me to it!

 

Thanks.

[WiLL]

I've used a lot of these desks, sirius, illusion,Jester, Fat frog, Frog 2 and now Orb. I've always found them very easy to pick up and use and with great tech support.

For the amount of fixtures you're looking at the upper end, Frog 2 or orb for ease. The Jester ML only handles 30 fixtures and in terms of ease of control the Orb is by far the best and most similar to other desks in terms of syntax etc. Far less expensive then other consoles of similar capabilities such as the ETC desks. I have come into some prejudice against frogs and such in these forums as they have been seen as the poorer cousins and 'school desks' but it is hugely undeserved in my eyes.

Unless you go down the PC route most consoles will be massively overkill on generic channels in order to give you the 40 fixtures you need.

[Ian der Laan]

thanks. we are upgrading from a leapfrog 96 so I'm familiar with the zero88 support. the orb looks impressive especially the xf version.

 

it may prove a tad pricey when it comes to it though; hence the interest in the solution which looks like an updated version of the leapfrog.

[rossmck]

The Solution is the *same* as the most recent LeapFrogs (it's a rebrand not a new product)

 

The Orb is worth a look though, nice to see Zero88 aiming at the higher end of the market too - I've always liked them as a company, excellent support and well made products.

[Ian der Laan]

The Solution is the *same* as the most recent LeapFrogs (it's a rebrand not a new product)

 

 

Yes, that's what I thought. Our current desk is the old leapfrog with the floppy drive.

 

I think I'll try and get the money together for an Orb.

[jonhole]

Hi Lan der Laan,

 

The Solution is a MASSIVE improvement over the older Frog range (with floppy disks). Completely new hardware, completely new software.

 

If you'd like a free demo of either the Solution or/and the ORB XF, we'd be more than happy to come and visit you.

 

Send me an email if you are interested :-)

[rossmck]

The Solution is the *same* as the most recent LeapFrogs (it's a rebrand not a new product)

 

Yes, that's what I thought. Our current desk is the old leapfrog with the floppy drive.

 

I think I'll try and get the money together for an Orb.

The Solution is a big step up from there - runs the same ZerOS as the Orb so a very powerful desk by comparison to the old ones ;)

 

 

[Ian der Laan]

I suppose the question is- Is the Orb overkill for my needs?

 

 

Note: the 40 or so intellegent fixtures will mainly consist of LED PARS and Battens with one or two movers and scrollers as and when.

[jonhole]

It's not so much 'what' you want to control, but 'how' you want to control the fixtures, and what you want to do with them.

 

There are many venues who have ORBs / ORB XFs who don't have a single 'fixture', because they liked the advanced control you get over the submasters, cue stacks, chases etc etc

[rossmck]

Take jon up on his offer... have a look at both desks. It's probably more what you want to do with them than what you control, personally if I had the choice of an Orb or a Solution even for just generics I'd take the Orb, it's a more flexible console and it's laid out much nicer (in my opinion anyway) ;)

 

 

[Ian der Laan]

If it was as easy as choosing between the two solely on their individual merits, I would be silly not to choose the ORB (wouldn't I?!). However, there are more considerations; price being the main one!

I need flexibility; we're a College and we host conferences, gigs, dance & drama performances etc. the rig is a mishmash of positions which are often too high with a steep angle. As a general rule, I wan't to do as much as I possibly can with the fixtures/generics I've got! Don't we all!:D

 

Jon, thanks for your offer- email sent.

[totnes techy]

I know this is a little belated but

 

I have used the orb XF (it is the main desk at the college I go to) I grew up using the fat frog. making the transition was not easy and I still change the desk back to the frog when I am doing lighting.

I find the orb incredibly long winded to operate, program, set up and to use. I find it is trying to do to much and that it has been based on to many other desks also this is zero 88s attempt to compete with the alike of: grandMA2, pearl 2010 expert and the warthog but as you can see by the cost it doesn't . also I think the zeros system could be improved and functions added on this desk.

 

Whereas the solution xl will be a more familiar layout (if you are alredy using a frog of some type). although it to runs the zeros system as well, you have much more hands on control, seperate faders for dimming and sub masters, also the easy to select intelligent fixtures (without having to go thru a syntax key pad). and I think zeros is much better suited to that desk.

I am looking at getting a Solution desk.

 

also download this: http://zero88.com/su...e/View/435/161/ it is the phantom zeros where you can try all the zeros desks on the computer

 

martin skinner

[karl]

I find the orb incredibly long winded to operate, program, set up and to use. I find it is trying to do to much and that it has been based on to many other desks...

 

...also I think the zeros system could be improved and functions added on this desk.

The second statement would seem to contradict the first, there.

 

I too use an ORB XF and it is a very powerful bit of kit. I do agree though that the clever stuff has been allowed to compromise the ease of use. Things that you do very regularly should be as straight forward as possible. On the ORB this isn't always the case, usually in order to accomodate some fancy feature that few people will ever use.

 

I think it is always a good idea to 'try before you buy' to make sure you can get along with a piece of equipment before you commit to spending big sums of money. And give them a proper work-out, something that isn't too annoying when you program 2 or 3 cues could become a real PITA when you're trying to program hundreds of cues against tight timescales.

[jonhole]

also I think the zeros system could be improved and functions added on this desk.

Hi Martin,

 

It would be great if you could expand this a little further? Which features woud you like to see included within ZerOS? Which improvements do you think we could make? We are continuously working to improve ZerOS, and software updates are completely free of charge, so maybe you can make some suggestions that will actually be included in future software releases!

 

 

I too use an ORB XF and it is a very powerful bit of kit. I do agree though that the clever stuff has been allowed to compromise the ease of use.

 

Hi Karl,

 

Maybe you could let us know which features / commands you think we could make even easier?

 

Zero 88 is all about bringing features that are super easy to use, and at a price that is affordable, and we always love to hear feedback from our users - we listen to it all very carefully, and log everything into a database to be actioned.

[totnes techy]

Hi John

 

The 1st problem I have with the orb range is that I have used a couple of different desks and they all seem to crash when they feel like it and if you ask them to do some complex tasks. So for me that would have to be the 1st thing that must be fixed, because where I am at college we tend to use the old fat frog as it doesn't crash and it 'just works'. Also if the desk was to be redesigned I would like to see intelligent fixture hot keys, so to have dedicated buttons to select them when programming and then these can bubble up as group buttons, I know that there are the UDKs on the desk but if there are more of them and that was there dedicated purpose. I also like to work with every thing to hand so no MFF I feel that a fader should do 1 purpose so if it is a channel fader then that is all it does. the last thing I would like to see is to get rid of the track ball (is I find this rely hard to operate MLs and instead to see a track pad in its place, as this would make the mouse on screen easier to manipulate and after using a laptop with daslight V2 on it and you control the MLs thou a square box I find this easer (http://www.daslight.com/en/download.htm).

 

what I like about the desk is the ready made pallets although the effects one needs more in it and I love the fact that all major Gel manufacturers gel is shown in the colour pallet when using LEDs

 

The other thing I feel is that the orb XF has been designed before the zeros system and that the solution series has bean designed to compliment the zeros system (if that makes sense) it may just be that it is a familiar layout as for years the fat frog was my desk of choice.

 

I think just by reading thou this again most of the things I have mentioned are just features on the solution desks but I hope this helps any way