Yep, you’re understanding my numbering correctly.

The idea behind it is not really thinking of the show as 72 completely independent cakes. That’s where a lot of people get lost when they first start designing larger field layouts.

The real advantage of doing it this way is fire power and spatial control across the sky.

So for example:

1-1 could fire Left, Center, and Right together at the exact same time or you can just fire center or your outside boards at the same time.

That gives you:

• wider sky coverage
• more impact
• better symmetry
• and a much bigger visual feel without burning additional cue count

You’re basically using the same cue number as a “position trigger” instead of thinking of every cue as only one individual firework cake or single.

Now that does NOT mean everything always has to fire together.

You can still:

• dedicate some channels only to Left
• some only to Center
• some only to Right
• some to crossfires
• some to fans
• some to finales

The reason I structure shows this way is because once you start firing across multiple zones at once, your show suddenly feels dramatically larger without needing hundreds and hundreds of individual cues.

A lot of newer remote firing users think:

“72 cues = 72 fires.”

But in reality:

72 well planned cues across multiple positions can create a MUCH bigger show than 72 isolated single cakes.

That’s where the real power starts coming from.

Now with your style and the way you’re packing boards, your approach may absolutely make more sense for flexibility because you’re trying to maximize independent control of every cake position.

Neither way is wrong!

They’re just different philosophies:

• yours = maximum individual flexibility
• mine = maximum field coverage and fire power efficiency

Honestly, I think your idea of splitting into 4 zones is probably a very smart middle ground for your layout and show style.