We have an Elation Professional DMX Operator and (4) CMY Zoom 250's.

My first question is regarding channel assignment. The CMY Zoom 250 manuals state "... is a 11 channel fixture, you should set the starting address of the first unit to 1, the second unit to 12, the third to 23, and so on."

However the DMX Operator mentions 16 channels for each fixture. That would be fixture #1 = 1, #2 = 17, #3 = 33, and so on.

So do I set the light fixture address to the Zoom 250 manual or the DMX Operator manual?

I appreciate any response to this question. This is my first time setting up lighting and want to be clear before begining.

You have to use the assignments mentioned in the DMX Operator manual.

When you do that faders 12 - 16 won't do anything (because your fixture only uses 11 of the sixteen available per fixture), but that is OK. Each fixture button will control each CMY Zoom the same.