Avid Updates to Venue 7.1, Debuts Stage 48 Stage Rack
Avid’s new Venue 7.1 software provides access to Waves plug-ins directly from the S6L control surface without requiring an additional host computer, allowing live sound engineers to store all Waves parameters within the 1,000 snapshots available within Avid Venue | S6L consoles. Included are 128 voices, with each supporting a chain of up to eight plug-ins available in Avid VENUE | S6L and the Waves SoundGrid. Just a couple of months after updating Venue, Avid introduced Stage 48, a lower-cost, 48 mic-preamp version of the Stage 64 Stage Rack. Like all other Venue I/O devices, it is compatible with the entire S6L product lineup. Key features of the new remote I/O rack include 48 mic-preamps, 24 analog outputs, two Ethernet AVB ports, a pair of fiber AVB ports, and a MADI coaxial output split directly from the preamps with 48 channels at 96 kHz, and a redundant 48 channels at 48k.
Calrec Argo Modular Mix System
Calrec has broken down geographic barriers with Argo, a new modular audio mixing system that features interchangeable hardware panels, allowing for transferable processing across multiple surfaces, in multiple locations. The system uses Calrec’s Assist UI at its core, offering familiarity whether working on physical hardware panels or on a remote GUI.
Argo is built around an expanded version of Calrec’s ImPulse IP core, which can now be located anywhere and can power up to four independent mix environments, including headless mixers accessed on the public Internet, with each mixer able to access more than 2,350 processing paths on a single console.
Cerwin-Vega CVM Series Mixers
Expected to ship in Q1 2023, the new CVM Series mixers from Cerwin-Vega will be outfitted with Eleven Engineering’s SKAA/SKAA Pro technology, allowing them to communicate wirelessly via SKAA Pro Mode to SKAA-compatible speakers or SKAA-compatible power amplifiers. The CVM series will offer 8, 10, 12 and 16-channel models, offering 3-band EQ, highpass filters and adjustable compressors on all microphone channels. USB/SD card recording/playback will be onboard, as will be various DSP effects and a USB interface that can connect to a computer for playback and recording. Each system will house an antenna for SKAA—a wireless HiFi audio standard developed by Eleven Engineering— transmissions, allowing engineers to work with iOS and Android mobile devices, Mac and Windows computers, televisions and more.
DiGiCo Quantum338T
The latest in DiGiCo’s theater-targeted Quantum consoles, the Quantum338T, is aimed at “in the box” mixing, with a lightweight control surface and the company’s most recent theater-specific software, including a programming and operating workflow that enhances the cue system with DiGiCo’s Auto Update and cue data management tools. Auto Update allows designers to establish intricate inter-cue relationships, with changes made to channel settings automatically propagating to other, related cues.
The Quantum338 line is based on seventh-generation FPGAs and includes 128 input channels with 64 buses and a 24×24 matrix, all with full channel processing. Three 17-inch, 1000-nit, high-brightness multitouch screens allow both the meter bridge and soft quick-select buttons to be displayed on each screen.
Lawo A__UHD Core
The A__UHD Core is the next-generation audio engine for Lawo’s mc2 audio production consoles. Designed as a network-based, software-defined IP DSP engine, its ultra-high processing density translates into 1,024 mc2-grade DSP channels, which can either be utilized by a single mc2 console or be shared among multiple consoles. The A__UHD Core features eight independent 10/1 GbE* network interfaces to enable the use of redundant networks via ST2022-7 Class C seamless protection switching (SPS) in both LAN and WAN environments. Full hardware redundancy can be achieved using a second hot spare unit, which permanently mirrors all settings. The device is fully based on open standards and supports Audio-over-IP I/O via ST2110-30/-31, AES67 and Ravenna. Each network interface supports 128 Rx and Tx streams per interface—512 streams in total.
