Dimmers/Zero88 Betapack

Dimmer Racks in Early 2009

The Zero88 Betapacks were a series dimmers used in Venue One until late 2010.

They consisted of a rack-mounted tower of 6 dimmer packs, each taking 63 amp single phase. They were grouped into 2 units of 3, and each group took 63 amp three-phase, which it received from the Distro. Each unit was labelled with its phase colour - Black, Gray and Brown. It is important that these phases are not crossed (for example, by sending brown and black phases down a single Socapex).

Each rack consisted of 12 sockets in 2 rows of 6. The top row of sockets was paired with the bottom set - hence socket 1 was paired with socket 7, socket 2 was paired with topic 8, etc. This meantthat both sockets work together in unison. They were typically attached to the Demux from bottom to top. Each rack took up 6 DMX channels, and thus typically had the following DMX arrangement

Rack 6
31	32	33	34	35	36
31	32	33	34	35	36
Rack 5
25	26	27	28	29	30
25	26	27	28	29	30
Rack 4
19	20	21	22	23	24
19	20	21	22	23	24
Rack 3
13	14	15	16	17	18
13	14	15	16	17	18
Rack 2
7	8	9	10	11	12
7	8	9	10	11	12
Rack 1
1	2	3	4	5	6
1	2	3	4	5	6

The Union also has a pair of Betapack 2s, which were often referred to as "racks 7 and 8". They worked on the same principle as racks 1-6. The only difference is their signal input is DMX directly into the unit, rather than though a Demux. They are stored in flight case understage.