DiGiCo Reveals SD7 Quantum and More at WFX Expo

	DiGiCo SD7 Quantum

Over the past decade, WFX has firmly established its presence as North America's premier conference and exposition for the house-of-worship market. And, once again, DiGiCo joins the growing list of exhibitors at Orlando, Florida's Orange County Convention Center for this year's expo where it will be showcasing its eagerly awaited SD7 Quantum, as well as the 4REA4 audio solution, two new DMI cards for the S21 and S31, and its 32-bit "Ultimate Stadius" Microphone Pre-Amp and DAC Analog Output cards.

Developed with seventh generation Super FPGA devices that further increase audio processing power, Quantum expands DiGiCo's flagship SD7 to over 640 channels of processing in 96kHz operation that can be connected in the outside world to approaching 3000 potential I/Os. The engine is also equipped with eight newly assignable MADI connections and two DMI slots (DiGiCo multi-channel interface) for AoIP and other connectivity options from the complete family of DMI card options. There are other powerful enhancements, too, including nodal processing and true solo.

Nodal processing means that for the first time processing can be applied to any node on the auxiliary section of the console, allowing engineers to send unique processing on each aux send from a single, or multiple channels. This level of creativity will allow engineers to tailor and deliver dedicated mixes that were simply not possible before Quantum.

Coupled with nodal processing is the new true solo system that allows the operator's monitoring system to solo almost any section of the console, and how that source is being processed and heard. This saves time and speeds up the process of managing the potentially daunting number of channels and busses available to the user.

Also shown on WFX stand 313 will be the new DiGiCo 4REA4 audio solution. Designed to expand DiGiCo's live performance reach for multi-area venues and stages, the new 4REA4 combines a robust processing engine, generous number of connectivity options and powerful control software to deliver routing, processing and mix control via a network of local I/O boxes. The 4REA4 processing engine rack features four dedicated mix areas, or zones, each with its own stereo master output, CGs and allocated FX. With an available 128 input channels and 48 buss output processing strips, users can independently allocate processing to whichever area as required.

Managing the mixing and routing of each individual local performance area are a new range of premium designed hardware control panels (ACONTROL1, ACONTROL8) and external I/O units (A168 STAGE, A164 WALL) that interface with 4REA4 to ensure a premium 96kHz audio experience across the largest and most-demanding performance environments.

DiGiCo's S21 and S31 desks additionally will gain enhanced functionality at WFX in the form of two new DMI cards: the DMI-AMM and DMI-ME. The DMI-AMM (Automatic Mic Mixing Card) allows up to 48 channels of automatic mic mixing on any S-Series console and works by automatically managing several live microphones in unpredictable dialogue situations. Meanwhile, with the house of worship market steadily seeing more integration with personal monitoring, DiGiCo is also pleased to exhibit a new ME solution that offers a 40-output interface to Allen & Heath ME-1 or ME-500 Personal Mixers, with multiple personal Mixers able to be connected to the DMI-ME via the ME-U Hub.

Following in the footsteps of the popular 32-bit "Ultimate Stadius" Microphone Pre-Amp, DiGiCo's new digital-to-analog converter, the 32-bit "Ultimate Stadius" DAC Analog Output card, will also be on display at WFX. It includes dedicated analog, ultra-low noise linear power supplies, lightning quick conversion time (104µs), and maximized performance operational amplifiers. Boasting a practically silent -100dBA noise spec, the DAC features a wide dynamic range of 122dBA for plenty of punch and increased audio depth. Highly transparent, the product is also equipped with "muse" acoustic series blocking capacitors as well as "capacitor damping" to remove unwanted vibration pickup. An improved metal XLR design offers "continuous circumferential ground contact," and the product's analog stage is fully shielded.