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05|09 AMSR STEPHEN BENNETT finds that sometimes, the best things in life really are free. This certainly holds true for DiGiCo, that has upped the bhp on its SD7 ‘engine’ for absolutely nothing at all. When DiGiCo released its nautically inspired SD7 console (previewed in Audio Media March 2008), it was already one of the most innovative and highly specified live consoles on the market. The company has now released the MACH2 upgrade, which takes further advantage of the processing power provided by the Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) Stealth processing and Tiger SHARC chips in the SD7. “Say that you’ve just bought yourself a standard Porsche with a 350bhp engine, and the company call you up a year later and say; ‘if you bring it back in we’ll give you an upgrade to 580bhp free of charge’ – the MACH2 update is a bit like that,” says DiGiCo’s Marketing Director, David Webster. “We knew we had that capability in the SD7’s FPGA engine, so the performance goes up and there is now a higher feature set. In most consoles based around DSP processing, you know that every chip you buy will only do so much – it has a limited amount of power. So you link those together and you decide how many of these chips you can afford to build into a console and what you want the feature set to be – you limit the power in the design stage by the number of chips you install. Because of this new FGPA technology, we are not limited by the DSP engine in there. To continue the motoring analogy, when we initially released the SD7, we knew that our engine was capable of 1,000bhp, but we didn’t know what bits to put in it yet! We gave you that THE REVIEWER 350bhp last year, but we are going to give you all these extra STEPHEN BENNETT has been features in the future as you’ve already paid for the engine involved in music production with the FGPA.” for over 25 years. Now based in In more specific terms, the MACH2 upgrade features the wilds of rural Sweden, he a huge number of enhancements. Dynamic EQ is now runs Chaos Studios and writes available on all 256 processing paths, and is individually books and articles on music technology. He’s also a film- switchable and easily monitored via the gain reduction/ maker with several music videos expansion meter. The multi-band compressor can now JOECOAMAD1.QXD and short films 04/03/2009 to his credit. 10:15 be AM loaded Page on all 1 256 paths along with an extra two www.stephenjamesbennett.co.uk compressors per path – giving an additional 512 instances. �� “There are eight band parametric EQs on the outputs available to compensate for problematic installations,” says Webster. “In addition, there’s a dedicated talk-back facility which can be easily routed to anywhere you want – even on stage.” When activated, this function also has the ability to instantly dim the audio to a particular mix by the desired amount required by the engineer or artist. Along with upgrades, the MACH2 enhancements also include something of a first on a digital live console – the DiGi-TuBe Super FPGA preamp tube emulation. “It’s got its own drive and bias, just like you have with a real tube unit,” says Webster. “It’s a great feature because you can have tube emulation on all 256 paths.” Some of the previously available effects have been given an algorithm overhaul in the new upgrade, but there are also other plug-ins which have been designed to take advantage of the SD7’s processing power. “We use the Tiger SHARC chips to run all the typical 32 floating point stereo effects algorithms such as pitch shifters, modulation, and delays,” says Webster. “But the Super FPGA allows you to also have 16 stereo high quality reverbs – so from a quality point of view we are talking about something akin to a TC Electronics TC 6000 in SD7 MACH 2 UPGRADE SD7 Software Update there. In a traditional console, you’d need 96 channels for just the effects returns – so the majority of desks out there wouldn’t even be able to handle the returns alone.” DiGiCo claims that this saves you the equivalent of 48 units or 2.13 metres, of rack space – which could be a major advantage in a rig designed for live use. “You don’t really need any extra hardware or plug-ins,” says Webster. “Everything you need is ‘in the box’ – and that’s how we have designed the console”. DiGiCo also provides application specific software extensions (ASE) for the desk – for example the company’s SD7T Digital Theatre Mixing system is physically the same product as the ‘standard’ SD7, but it’s the software package which allows you to operate it as a ‘T’. “Even though it costs you more than the standard package, if you already own the product SEE THE BLACKBOX RECORDER AT THE LONDON INTERNATIONAL MUSIC SHOW 11–14 JUNE STAND E 38 ��
� and get it out on a long running broadway show, for example, it still comes in for less than the D5T package used to cost – and obviously gives you a lot more features,” says Webster. DiGiCo believes that many rental companies are moving into different markets – it’s not just rock ‘n roll shows anymore. “They are doing corporate live shows, or live to air broadcast, or theatre shows,” says Webster. “The original design concept for the console was that it would be able to perform many different tasks. Currently it will do live and installs, and the SD7T will allow you to do theatre installations.” Another of the many innovative functions on the original SD7 was the video talk-back function, which enables the engineer to patch in a signal from a camera for a more visual indication of what is going on on-stage – but the screen accepts any video input signal so it’s also useful for other tasks, as Webster explains. “I’m with Lenny Kravitz at the moment. He was watching Dynamic EQ now available on all 256 processing paths. the baseball playoffs in HD via his Mac straight �� into the console – but he obviously wasn’t doing �� this during the show!” The MACH2 update is part of DiGiCo’s ongoing �� commitment to its customer base. The software �� will ship with all new SD7 consoles from May 2009 and will be also be available free to all existing � SD7 users. � ................................... INFORMATION �GB£FOC to all SD7 customers � DiGiCo UK Ltd., Unit 10, Silverglade Business Park, Leatherhead Road, Chessington, Surrey, KT9 2QL, UK � +44 (0) 1372 845600 � +44 (0) 1372 845656 � www.digico.org � info@digiconsoles.com � � � �� MACH 2 unlocks hiterto untapped power in the SD7. 05|09 AMSR AUDIO MEDIA MAY 2009 59
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