Zero 88 Gets Behind the Fringe Wednesday 11th September, 2019. Over 100 different Zero 88 consoles were in action site-wide at this year’s Edinburgh event, which is the largest arts festival in the world, producing nearly 60,000 new performances in over.

Away from the “glamourous” world of intelligent stage lighting, the humble manual lighting desk is still the cornerstone of small venue and school lighting control. The Zero88 Jester is actually a rather sophisticated DMX memory lighting controller aimed at a budget market who need control of a small conventional lighting rig. On Stage Lighting recently took a Zero88 Jester 12/24 on the road as part of a UK tour and noted the good and bad points of this small lighting desk.

Two sizes of the Zero88 Jester are available, the 12/24 and the 24/48 and they feature:

• 12/24 or 24/48 channels of control
• 24 or 48 submasters
• Playback stack
• Patching to 512 DMX channels
• DMX in allowing snap shots of all 512 DMX channels
• 12 or 24 auxiliary buttons
• VGA-Text Monitor Output
• USB storage
• MIDI notes
• Multi-lingual Online Help

Lighting Desk – Good Stuff:

Having both cue stack control and a good number of submasters means that you can control your school play or busk along to a band gig.

Chase memories can be assigned to submasters, giving you the flexibility of a grown-up DMX lighting desk.

The Jester can be used in Wide mode, giving you a huge 24 faders of control with the 12/24 (48 for the 24/48). Quite a lot for such a small lighting desk

The lighting desk can also be set up to control simple Auxiliary DMX channels, good for smoke machines, scrollers etc.

Although a small lighting control, the Zero88 Jester supports a screen via VDU output , giving you feedback about channel levels and times. You can also preview the contents of memories and patch information.

Labelling memories and chases using the flash buttons on the desk. Good for use with the screen.

Nice solid control buttons and faders and very good overall build quality for a budget lighting desk.

USB memory stick backup. No more messing about with floppy disk or special memory cards.

Sound to light control of chases. A simple way to control a band or disco lighting.

DMX input. Enables the Zero88 Jester to accept a whole 512 DMX universe AND record it to a memory for output. Good for using the lighting desk as a backup and playback complex scenes recorded using a larger controller.

Lighting Desk – Not So Good Stuff:

The functions are accessesed in the “usual” Zero88 way of using up/down, left/right buttons to navigate through menus. Using only the LCD screen, this can be a bit tiresome, especially with tasks such as patching. I frequently hit “enter” when I should have hit “>” – my own inexperience with Zero88 lighting desks.

No connection for a QWERTY keyboard Update: Greg tells us in the comments section that it is possible to connect a keyboard via the USB. Further investigation of the user manual says that this is available on the later r2 hardware version This would make labelling memories easier, not having to bump through flash buttons á la text message.

The rear connections, including DMX outlet, are protected by being set back inside the frame of the lighting desk. You have to tip the desk up to access connections and releasing the 5 pin XLR DMX connection is more difficult.

Complex patching and use of Auxillary outputs. Very useful idea but the concept of set up and use could be daunting for anyone new to stage lighting control.

The Auxiliary control channels cannot be recorded in a memory, but are fired using the flash buttons.

Conclusion.

The tour ended in London at the Purcell Rooms on the South Bank. A fully equipped theatre venue with a Strand 520i (aargh!) lighting control, the Jester 12/24 slotted in alongside, the house patch done and we were soon running the whole show from a console that looked like a TV remote compared to the monster beside it.

The Jester is a small lighting desk that is cheap enough for a school, with enough credibility and features for the professional. Many hire companies in the UK are replacing their ageing small lighting desks with the Jester range and with good reason.

A look at the Jester ML , the intelligent lighting control in the same Zero88 range, is definitely on the On Stage Lighting “Things To Do” list.

You will also like:

Hardware: Jester, Jester ML and Jester TL
A range of easy to use generics and moving lights desks from Zero 88, very popular with the schools due to their low cost and small form factor. Two models of the Jester are available - 12/24 and 24/48, three models of the Jester ML are available - ML, ML 24, and ML 48, together with two models of Jester TL (TL and TLXtra).
Wiki page:

Zero 88 Jester Ml 24 User Manual Pdf

Jester, Jester ML and Jester TL
Product page: http://support.zero8...n/en/product/52, http://support.zero8...n/en/product/89 and http://support.zero8...n/en/product/94
Manufacturer's website: http://www.zero88.com

Zero 88 Jester Ml 24 User Manual 2

Announcement supplied by: Peter Kirkup
Software release: v3.4 (ML v3.0)
Release date: 10/12/2009
Link:http://support.zero88.com/main/en/product/52, http://support.zero8...n/en/product/89 and http://support.zero8...n/en/product/94
Release 3.4 (ML 3.0) adds MIDI Show Control functionality, support for Inverse channels, plus a number of other improvements.

Past Releases

Announcement supplied by: Peter Kirkup
Software release: v3.3 (ML v2.5)
Release date: 14/08/2009
Link:http://support.zero88.com/main/en/product/52, http://support.zero8...n/en/product/89 and http://support.zero8...n/en/product/94
JesterML/TL release 2.5 improvements to the loading of RDM (Remote Device Management) fixtures, plus a number of other fixes.

Announcement supplied by: Peter Kirkup
Software release: v3.3 (ML v2.4)
Release date: 12/06/2009
Link:http://support.zero88.com/main/en/product/52, http://support.zero8...n/en/product/89 and http://support.zero8...n/en/product/94
Jester release 3.3 fixes a potential lock-up when a USB keyboard is connected (r2 hardware only).
JesterML/TL release 2.4 adds the following new features, in addition to a number of other improvements to the desk software:
Features:

• RDM (Remote Device Management) controller functionality.
  
• Redesigned Assign Fixtures menu to allow quicker selection of fixtures from the library.
  
• Dwell times and Auto-triggers for the memory stack.
  
• Recordable fade times for submasters.
  
• German Online Help for Jester TL.

Announcement supplied by: Peter Kirkup
Software release: v3.2 (ML v2.3)
Release date: 27/11/2008
Link:http://support.zero88.com/main/en/product/52 and http://support.zero8...n/en/product/89
Features:

• Virtual Intensity support for Jester ML & TL
  
• Initial support for Jester TL
  
• Pan/Tilt Swap options for Jester ML & TL
  
• German Online Help for Jester ML
  
• Bug Fixes

3.1 (ML v2.0)

• The Offline Editor for the Jester & JesterML desks - Phantom Jester - has been released.
  
• Pageable submasters on JesterML
  
• Improved DMX Input capability on Jester ML
  
• Improved monitor displays
  
• USB keyboard support (Jester ML).
  
• A number of minor improvements to the software

2.1

• Pressing Go mid-fade no longer snaps to the end of the current crossfade before starting the new crossfade - it now fades from the current memory stack outputs.
  
• If Preset A faders are used for live Auxiliary control, they need to be moved back to their previous positions before they regain control of the Presets. The LED in the Preset flash button will flash to indicate that the corresponding fader needs to be moved before control is regained.
  
• After adjusting a single Submaster Chase or Memory Stack Chase using Shift and the Speed Control, on releasing Shift, other chases no longer snap to the new speed.

2.0 - 08/11/2006

• Recorded DMX Input is now replayed correctly.
  
• MIDI timecode is now generated in test mode (this can be used for testing Frog Boxes, Frog2s etc).

1.9 - 29/08/2006

• Dutch language help text added.
  
• Beat function now uses the last two presses rather than the first two.
  
• Manual chases no longer jump backwards if the fade pot is moved shortly after a step advance is completed.
  
• In Program Mode, the Copy function now also copies the memory/submaster name. This will be pasted into blank memories/submasters only.

1.8 - 15/05/2006

• The Copy button is now enabled in Run Mode, to allow snapshots of the current look to be taken ready for pasting into a new memory/submaster in Program Mode.
  
• In Program Mode, when selecting an unprogrammed memory/submaster, the outputs now remain unchanged (previously they used to snap to the current fader positions).

1.7 - 16/03/2006

• When in Program Mode, after a program operation, the desk will now only automatically increment the memory number if the next memory is unprogrammed. This avoids unwanted output changes when changing from Run Mode to Program Mode to make edits.

1.6 - 17/02/2006

• French language help text added. Use the 'Help Language' menu in Super-User to set the language for the on-line help.
  
• When naming memories, submasters or shows, pressing a different letter button will now immediately advance the cursor before typing that letter.
  
• The problem of submasters outputting from the wrong page (introduced in version 1.5) has been corrected.

1.5 - 31/01/2006

• German language help text added. Use the new 'Help Language' menu in Super-User to set the language for the on-line help.
  
• There is no longer a requirement to enter leading zeroes for numeric fields.
  
• Chases no longer slow down at high step numbers, giving greater consistency between Program mode and Run mode.
  
• The live override of chase speeds now functions correctly when changing between Program mode and Run mode.
  
• When programming chases, the maximum limit of 999 steps is now imposed correctly.
  
• When previewing chases in program mode, the chase now runs from the selected step.

1.4 - 29/09/2005

• Fixed marginal timing problem accessing the NVR.

1.3 - 12/09/2005

• Fixed real-time-clock.

1.2 - 07/09/2005

• Fixed crossfade bug in Run Mode.
  
• Fixed lumpy DMXIN from DMX DeBug.
  
• Now shows error correctly when no panel PCBs connected.

1.1 - 30/08/2005

• Load Show - re-load DMX patch after load show.
  
• Test Mode - Show all button presses on LCD.

1.0 - 22/08/2005

• Original

This post has been edited by peter: 11 December 2009 - 11:48 AM