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Connecting to third party networks and plug-in libraries is easily accommodated with option cards that fit into Allen & Heath iLive Series consoles.
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Digico pioneered the trend toward integration of large color touchscreens into the console surface, as evidenced by the three enclosed in the SD7.
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Soundcraft’s new Vi3000 incorporates the new SpiderCore DSP and I/O engine as well as full integration into Dante networks.
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The user interface on Yamaha’s CL1 shows more color, a larger screen, and tighter integration of controls and displays than previous generations.
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Avid’s S3L live mixing system connects using the new, open-architecture AVB networking protocols.
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The fully integrated, Ethernet-based REAC network makes for trouble-free interconnection of consoles, stage boxes and recording gear in Roland Systems Group’s V-Mixing system.
If your church made the analog-to-digital mixing transition a decade or more ago, the time to re-think the situation is now. Although your first-generation digital console may be performing satisfactorily, it may not be fully up to speed with the demands of 21st century worship audio production.
In other words, it might be time for your church to upgrade to “Digital Mixing V 2.0.” The new consoles could offer significant advantages not only in sound quality but also in production versatility, ease of operation, and seamless integration with networked systems for personal monitoring, multi-track recording and web streaming.
To bring us up to date on today's consoles and to forecast future trends, CPM queried some of the world's leading console manufacturers.
EDITOR'S Note: This article is concerned with large-format consoles, somewhat arbitrarily defined as those offering
48-plus inputs. Smaller consoles raise a different set of issues (including the still-unresolved analog vs. digital debate) and will be treated in a later article.
Evolving interfaces
The mixing console’s user interface is the point where technological complexity meets human ingenuity—and human frailty. The trends here are aimed at enhancing creativity while avoiding confusion.
“Our interfaces are based around the patented Vistonics and FaderGlow technologies of Soundcraft and Studer consoles,” says Keith Watson, global marketing director for Soundcraft, Studer and AKG. “Vistonics combines knobs embedded in glass with touch control while FaderGlow illuminates fader tracks according to currently assigned function for fast recognition by the engineer. Also, the touch screen controls in the Soundcraft RealTime Rack effects suite employ graphics based on classic audio product work surfaces—familiar tools even for modern audio mixers.”
At Avid, the trend in interfacing focuses on modularity and integration of recording, according to Derk Hagedorn, the company’s senior marketing manager for live sound, who offers the new S3L as an example. “It’s a networked and modular design, with the processing engine external to the control surface,” he points out. “That gives churches more flexibility to locate the mix position almost anywhere, and the footprint is much smaller than traditional consoles, analog or digital. Also, in addition to running Venue software, the S3L control surface can be used standalone to mix Pro Tools—or other DAWs—like a true recording studio control surface.”
For John Broadhead, vice president of technology at communications at Roland Systems Group, designing an interface for church use demands a balance of simplicity and sophistication. “We’ve focused on the user experience at a level the professional can respect but that a novice still can understand,” he says. “That’s a tricky balance to achieve but I think we’ve done that.”
Broadhead also points out how the V-Mixing system allows system-wide access from the console UI [user interface]. “You can use it for full access to the M-48 personal mixing system, accessing every personal mixer with read-only or full control. You also have full control over the R-1000 48-channel recorder-player, with the ability to arm tracks and change patches from the console UI.”
Yamaha Marketing Manager Marc Lopez astutely points out that “there is nothing new under the sun” (Eccl. 1:9), and that “new” developments in user interfaces are more often a matter of continuous improvements. Noting a list of Yamaha UI feature introductions such as wireless remote computers (2001), add-on DSP functions (1999) and touchscreens (2005), he remarks that “many of these great technologies have existed for years and we have been refining their functionality.” Indeed, across the board, the touchscreens are larger, the colors more plentiful, and wireless remote practically taken for granted.
Networking: Plug it in
In networking, some companies choose the simplicity and certainty of a proprietary network, other companies offer third-party options, while some others offer both.
“Moving audio over Ethernet is the easy part, but what makes REAC work so well for us is its richness in control knowledge.”
John Broadhead
Vice President, Roland Systems Group, Los Angeles, CA
“Allen & Heath consoles have always been about networking,” reports Michael Palmer, vice president of sales for Allen & Heath USA. “Our options include proprietary Ace and D-snake low-latency multi-channel solutions for networking our own consoles as well as options for Dante, Ethersound and Waves SoundGrid third-party solutions.”
His sentiments are largely echoed by Watson: “We support all leading standards, including Dante, CobraNet, MADI, and RockNet as well as our own proprietary options like BSS BluLink.” Yamaha’s Lopez joins the chorus noting that, “there are options for Dante, Ethersound, CobraNet, RockNet, Pro64 A-Net, Optocore and Pivitec for all of our digital mixers.”
Broadhead stresses the seamless integration afforded by his company’s REAC low-latency protocol, which provides bi-directional control and audio networking over Cat-5e/6. “Moving audio over Ethernet is the easy part, but what makes REAC work so well for us is its richness in control knowledge. This is why we have such tight and comprehensive integration among all of our products. We do offer a MADI bridge, however, and we are watching the third-party protocols closely as they evolve, and will adopt them as they are widely accepted and offer the depth of controllability required.”
Avid has become an early and strong backer of the open-source Ethernet AVB standard, and has made it the networking backbone of its new S3L system. “We believe that AVB takes the complexity of managing and optimizing the network out of the equation,” says Hagedorn, “thereby simplifying setup and daily use. The seamless interoperability of live worship and studio/post-production systems, both audio and video, will be increasingly important for churches that want to deliver a message to the widest possible audiences.”
Power boosts
Without question, over the past decade there has been an exponential increase in the available processing power inside digital consoles. There is debate as to whether, for example, 96 kHz sampling is noticeably better than 48 kHz sampling in a live worship setting, but there is no doubt that newer console can offer much higher resolution and expanded channel counts thanks to this massive boost in processing power.
“Recent developments have leapfrogged over older processors,” notes Watson. “Examples include our new SpiderCore processor, developed with Studer for the Vi3000 console, and at the top end the new Infinity Core which can process over 800 channels of I/O with up to 10,000 by 10,000 internal routing channels.”
“The latest advancements are primarily in higher speed multi-core processors,” continues Palmer. “For instance, our new QU series uses five cores or ARM processors with up to 56-bit processing on the output busses. This technology wasn’t available anywhere five years ago.”
Broadhead concurs, but with a caution: “Processor speeds are now so fast that you can mix a lot of channels in a small package with very low latency. Certainly bit-depth of processing is important, but most important in the path is the quality of the preamps as well as the A/D and D/A converters.”
Third parties join the party
A snowballing trend has been the integration of third party technologies into digital consoles, largely through digital emulation of proprietary analog circuits.
“We’ve chosen to work with Universal Audio to develop the Soundcraft Realtime Rack, which offers around 90 classic UAD plug-ins seamlessly integrated into our Vi Series consoles,” notes Watson.
Yamaha had a wealth of its own digital processors to insert in its consoles, but lately has tapped some other well-known names. “Yamaha has plug-in card options for Lake Processing, Dugan Automixing and Waves SoundGrid,” says Lopez. “Now our CL and QL Series have built-in Rupert Neve Design 5033 EQ and 5043 compressor emulations. QL has the Dugan automixing included, and it will be added to CL later this year as standard.”
Of course, Pro Tools essentially invented the software plug-in concept, and the tradition continues with Avid’s live consoles. “All Avid live sound systems come standard with a comprehensive plug-in collection, which can be expanded with a choice of hundreds more from both Avid and third-party developers,” says Hagedorn. “All of the plug-ins run directly inside the system, with no outboard processors required, to deliver the lowest latency and tightest integration.”
Even more mobile?
Now that Apple’s iPad has become the universal user interface for just about all audio devices, what’s up next for mobile devices in the realm of large digital consoles?
“Our StageMix iPad app now controls many console features, including EQ, dynamics, scene memories, sends on faders and metering,” notes Lopez, “but there are many more features we want to implement in the future.” Stay tuned….
“The use of tablets for remote control has given the operator the freedom to roam around the venue to adjust critical levels, rather than being stuck in a mixing position that is often sub-standard in terms of the loudspeaker coverage,” Palmer observes. “This integration on the Apple iOS platform is fairly extensive at this stage, but I anticipate we will see more Android-compatible offerings coming soon.”
Watson foresees a time finger on the tablet may someday give way to head-mounted interfaces. “Mobile devices are still in their infancy, and I’m sure there are exciting new opportunities ahead. I was reminded of this when I saw Google Glass beta-testers walking the floors of this year’s NAMM show. Technology never stands still.”
Others on the (low latency) bus
Some major manufacturers of digital consoles were unable to provide direct comments. However, their products are relevant to the discussion.
In consoles like the ProX, Midas sports a distinctive UI with lots of colored buttons and dual trackballs. Processing power is top-notch, with the core engine churning away at a 109 Gigaflop rate. (That’s 109 billion floating-point operations per second.) Although the AES-50 networking is not proprietary, it’s not widely adopted outside the Midas/Klark Technik family; however, a K-T bridge to Dante and MADI is available.
Digico has been known from the outset as the pacesetter in UIs with large, colorful touchscreens, and that tradition continues in the large-format SD7. The processing power is definitely new era, with 256 processing paths at 96 kHz sampling or, for ultra-purists, 128 paths at 192 kHz. The highly regarded Waves plug-ins are now available as fully integrated within the console.
Although a legendary name in recording, SSL is new to the live arena. But the SSL Live jumps in right at the pool with the trendsetters. The 19-inch central touchscreen has true, tablet-style multi-gesture control while the separate “channel control tile” has its own touchscreen. The processing engine handles 192 simultaneous mix channels at 96 kHz and all A/D and D/A conversion is 24-bit at 96 kHz.
Time to upgrade?
So, that’s Digital Mixing V 2.0, available now in sizes suitable for all mid-sized to larger churches. Is it time to upgrade your worship production technology? Look at it this way: Windows Vista was introduced in 2005. Yes, I still have a working laptop that came with Vista installed, but it’s strictly an emergency backup.
Which is older, your current digital mixer or Windows Vista?
