Lighting designer Richard Lambert chose a Zero 88 Orb XF desk from Eaton’s popular
lighting control brand to control lighting for Cirque Enchantment’s 2017 UK tour.
He wanted a powerful, physically small and quick-to-programme console for the
inaugural tour of an exciting new performance concept which blends the breath-taking
audacity of circus acts and aerial performance, hi-energy choreography and a
powerful rock, pop and classical soundtrack, fusing the disciplines of the circus, dance
and concert performance in one edge-of-the-seat experience.

Produced by Umbrella Productions and directed/choreographed by Stuart Glover,
Richard was delighted to rise to the challenges of tight get-ins, a conveniently sized
lighting rig – which had to stretch a long way to cover the show’s varied dynamics and
fit into a small van.

The Orb XF sat right at the heart of the lighting scheme. Richard specified it because
it’s his favourite desk for fast programming. “When time is tight, you have to move
very fast on-site at each venue’ he explained, “and the Orb XF has many assets
including offline functionality, so I could programme Stacks, or set up Groups and
Palettes utilising pockets of downtime’.

He also likes the fact that it feels like a busking desk. However, you can record on the
fly, another benefit when working in short timeframes.

He made the most of the “Learn’ function on this show, where the Orb XF records the
follow time of the music automatically. So, while it’s not directly synched to the
backing track/s, if you start the process at the correct moment, it will stay synched in
time via an internal clock.

“The Orb’s cue list also allows for fast timing changes to be applied to parameter, so
no lengthy keystrokes or key combinations are needed to get it sharp.’
Richard also specified a Zero 88 FLX as a portable and practical backup console.
With the Orb XF, he was controlling the touring rig comprising 12 x GPL X1s and 8 x
GLP X4Ss, five Chauvet Intimidator LED 350 Spots, and a pair of Claypaky HPE 300s
for the moving lights, plus two ChromaBank LED battens – all running over ArtNet.
These, together with the Orb XF, were supplied by west London based lighting rental
company, Entec. At each venue, this “specials’ package was integrated with the house
“top rigs’.

In addition to the sheer scope and variety of drama involved in the performance,
other lighting challenges included a host of specifics related to the unique nature of
the acts.

The rope aerialist and his colleague onstage spinning the rope had to be able to see
one another so that they could coordinate the angle and speed of the rope.
The archer – mixing acrobatics and dance – stood on her hands and pulled a bow that
shot a flaming arrow across the stage with her feet so she could not be blinded by any
lights. However, her act builds to the music, so there were multiple opportunities for
lighting sequenced with the music all of which needed to be behind her.

For artists using the Cyr Wheel, depth perception is critical for when they are rolling
around and pivoting up and down from the floor. Therefore there could be no gobo
patterns during these acts. There were moments when the lights could be moved to
interact with a singer also onstage simultaneously, contrasted with others, where the
look had to be static for the Cyr Wheel to function safely.

All these elements and much more had to be taken into consideration when lighting
the show.

Over his career, Richard has been involved with many circus shows from a lighting
technical aspect, but this was the first time he’d lit one himself. “It was a huge
learning curve and highly enjoyable’ he started, “And so when I start describing some
of the parameters, you can understand why I needed a lighting desk with plenty of
flexibility’.

He programmed the Orb XF during a production rehearsal period. He brought in a
“sample’ of his specials package plus some hypothetical front moving lights and side
floor fixtures, so he could have a selection of house rig cues already existing, which
could be cloned and tweaked as they reached the first – and subsequent – theatres.
At the first venue they had a load-in day, tech, and then show, so he had to have
fixtures paletted and all ready to “Add and Go!’ This time-efficient idea worked even
better than anticipated.

He programmed on the Orb XF and utilised its eight DMX universe capacity. Ethernet
was run to backstage where ArtNet was converted to DMX via a Zero 88 EtherN.8 – a
19-inch rack device offering flexible and reliable Ethernet to DMX / RDM data
conversion.

This brought adaptability with the house rigs, three universes of DMX for Richard’s
touring rig, another universe for house dimmed sources, and then others were
available for elements like house star cloths which could be patched into any of the
spare universes.

Richard thinks Zero 88 has a great range of lighting control products from entry-level
to professional, all well priced and straightforward to use and understand. “The
products have come a long way in recent years,’ he commented.

The Cirque Enchantment tour was extremely well received, and Richard loved being
part of the team, enjoying the opportunity to learn new techniques, the great on-the-
road camaraderie and working with a hugely imaginative team which also included set
designer Becky Athewes.