CWMBRAN, UK – Cooper Control’s entertainment lighting control team spent the month of August onsite in Edinburgh supporting the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. More than 150 venues involved in the Fring chose Zero 88 control desks and dimming, with 200 products supplied from a host of Zero 88 dealers.
More details from Cooper Control (http://www.coopercontrol.com):
Fringe Benefits From Zero 88
Cwmbran, UK – Cooper Control’s entertainment lighting control team spent the month of August onsite in Edinburgh, supporting one of the largest and most diverse performance festivals: the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
More than 150 venues selected Zero 88 control desks and dimming for their Fringe appearance this year, with products supplied from a large variety of Zero 88 dealers including Northern Light, Black Light, Hawthorn, HSL, Stage Electrics and Stage Lighting Services. Zero 88 provided on-site backup throughout the month long festival, including a number of training and support consoles supplied directly to give venue staff members an opportunity to try out equipment even while theirs was in use.
Continuing its partnership with the festival, which began in 2003, the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe proved to be one of the busiest years for Zero 88 with up to 200 products in use throughout the month.
As a testament to their quality and reliability in this demanding environment, the usual eclectic mix of old and new products were in operation at the festival, from a bank of vintage ID1216 dimmers controlled by a Sirius 24 console right through a large number of current products such as nine of the new ORB series consoles (ORB and ORB XF). The ORB consoles featuring the new ZerOS 7 software proved popular with its new enhancements since 2010.
Returning operator (and now deputy electrician at the Pleasance) Owen Evans commented, “Zero 88 listens to its customers – an important factor in choosing a lighting control provider. The new software has improved on previous versions allowing for greater flexibility, faster programming and has helped our operators to get to grips with the consoles faster than last year.”
When developing their products, Zero 88 listens to Fringe operators’ feedback – even to the inexperienced operators. Each year it proves a test-bed to sound out new ideas amongst operators of varied skill levels.
Zero 88 Product Manager Peter Kirkup said, “There’s no other opportunity like this, where up to a thousand shows a day can be using our equipment. No matter what, you can guarantee someone will come up with something we’ve not heard before!”
Photos courtesy of Idil Sukan
