X2's “Audio As Data” Approach Addresses Wireless ... - FOH Online

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And Others Chime In
FOH
Not to be left standing at the alter,
DiGiCo introduced the D5 Live, upping
the ante with pressure-sensitive touch
screens; Studer developed the Vistonics
panel, the first (and only) interface
to feature rotary encoders actually set
into the touch screen. Digidesign rolled
out the Venue and D-Show, and Midas
introduced the XL8.
While these guys were giving new
meaning to the term mortgage, cell
phones were getting smaller, and companies
like Motorola and Analog Devices
were developing their next generation
of DSP chips.
How does that affect my life? Here
is one example: The Mackie tt24 provides
a 24 x 12 x 3 analog I/O (plus
another 24 digital channels), the nowexpected
EQ, dynamics and filters on
every channel, on-board effects, scene
store and recall, 24 digital I/O via Light-
Pipe and optional expansion cards for
full DSP on the 24 digital channels. It
has a touch screen interface, and you
can get it for under $10,000. There it is
again, La Cerra’s Star Trek Trickle Down
Principle: Expensive technology eventually
makes it way down to the working
man.
Futurecast
FOH
What’s next? Well, if I knew exactly
where technology was going, then you
and I would be discussing this over martinis
on the French Riviera. However, we
can get some hints from the latest developments
in the world of live audio.
In addition to an affordable digital desk
with some pretty serious audio muscle,
Mackie has taken a big stab at a source
of aggravation for every live sound company:
the snake.
Mackie’s DS3232 Digital Snake solves
a bunch of long-standing problems. Microphone
preamps are located at the
stage where they belong and are remote-
ly controlled from the desk (keeping the
preamp close to the mic reduces possibility
for RFI as well as degradation of the
mic signal). Signals are sent to and from
the stage using Cat5 (“Ethernet”) cable,
which is way lighter and cheaper than
copper multicore. A full DSP package
is included with the DS3232, providing
4-band EQ plus dynamics, pad, phantom
power and high-pass filter for all 32 input
channels. All of these parameters may be
stored and recalled from the desk.
The Roland Systems Group has
been busy with expansion of their V-
Mixing System. At AES last fall, Roland
announced the M-400 Live Mixing Console
which features 48 channels, 18
buses, 56-bit internal processing, EQ
and dynamics on every channel and a
USB interface for recording to a USB
drive or storing and recalling M-400
libraries. Also newly introduced to
the V-Mixing System is the S-1608
digital snake, little brother to Roland’s
S-4000 snake. As the name implies,
the S-1608 is a small format (16 in/8
out) digital snake containing highquality
mic pres that are remote controlled
from the mixing desk.
Roland’s REAC (Roland Ethernet
Audio Communication) is used to
transport audio that’s been converted
to digital data at 96 kHz/24-bit resolution,
via Cat5e cable. The companion
S-0816 complements the S-1608 with
8 analog ins and 16 analog outs, expanding
the capabilities of the system
to accommodate larger setups (try
that with copper multipair). There’s
even a dedicated splitter (S-4000 SP),
which enables extension and splitting
of the REAC data stream for simultaneous
broadcast and recording purposes.
AES showcased additional small
format/big technology mixers such
as Studer’s Vista 5 compact digital
console with that same Vistonics interface
as the big boys, as well as the
Allen & Heath iLive-80, which uses
similar technology at a way lower
price point.
The bottom line here is that you
can’t ignore high-end technology because
it ultimately works its way into
your life somehow or another. Think
about that when you see the Dexter
from Jazz Mutant. It’s a control surface
for DAW programs like Logic Pro,
Sonar and Cubase. It provides touch
screen faders instead of physical sliders.
Hmmmm…faders without any moving
parts…
Steve “Woody” La Cerra is the front-ofhouse
engineer and tour manager for
Blue Öyster Cult. He can be reached via
email at Woody@fohonline.com