Roland Systems Group Unveils New Flagship V-Mixer Digital Console

At ProLight + Sound in Frankfurt, Roland Systems Group added the M-480 digital mixing console to its award-winning V-Mixing system lineup. The M-480, like the M-400, M-380, and M-300, is the central component in a full V-Mixing System.

The Roland M-480 V-Mixer boasts a powerful new mixing engine; it also is the heart of a V-Mixing system with integrated digital snakes, personal mixing, and multi-channel recording components, the company says. The M-480 live mixing console is designed for any broadcast, event production, house of worship, education, government, and corporate applications.

It features 48 mixing channels and six stereo returns for a total of 60 channels. Bussing is strong with a total of 27 consisting of 16 auxiliaries, eight matrices, and full support for mono, stereo, or LCR sound design. With a configurable choice of available digital I/O boxes, the M-480 can support up to 90 inputs and 90 outputs -- all fully assignable via the digital patch bay. The patch bay also has the unique ability to route any input to any output without going through the mixer. Each mixing channel includes 2 stages of dynamics processing, four-band PEQ, and delay. Dedicated four-band PEQ, limiting, and delay are available on every output.

The V-Mixer lineup's interface has been retained in the M-480, making it easy to learn and easy to us, the company says.. New users will also appreciate the integrated and context-sensitive help system.

The console features rapid recall of setups/scenes, 25-100mm motorized faders, a high-res color screen, and dedicated channel strip knobs for all bands of EQ, as well as pan and gain. Effects processing is strong with six superb-quality dual-mono effects processors as well as twelve 31-band GEQs. Built-in stereo recording/playback uses uncompressed WAV files via USB flash drive.

In addition to these powerful features the M-480 has a "cascade" function, allowing two units to be connected together enabling a 96-channel mixing solution. The two connected consoles share AUX/matrix/main/dolo buses with bi-directional communication allowing a very compact, affordable and powerful high channel mixing solution. This is ideal in production rental and institutional environments where two consoles can be used separately for numerous events and then brought together for larger productions only when needed, the company says.

This fully digital system is built on REAC (Roland Ethernet Audio Communication), eliminating the bulk and noise susceptibility typically associated with analog snakes and replaces it with Cat5e/6 cable. The system generates superior sound quality by converting analog inputs to 24-bit digital streams at the stage end via high-quality mic preamps located near the source, the company says. The V-Mixing system then secures the quality of audio signal throughout the complete system path en route to the M-480 V-Mixer, back to any outputs and on to limitless split positions.

The two 40-channel assignable output patch bays are ideally used with the M- 48 Personal Mixing system and with the new R-1000 48-track recorder/player. The R-1000 in particular can be used as a multi-channel recorder or player and is perfectly suited for live multi-channel capture or virtual soundchecks, backing tracks, and training. The M-480 V-Mixer integrates with PCs via its remote control software for additional control or sending/receiving setup data allowing users to prepare channel setups and configurations before arriving at the venue. When connected via USB it allows independent control of the M-480.

The M-480 supports V-LINK/MIDI visual control for synchronization with video equipment. Used in combination with the Roland V-1600HD multi-format video switcher enables an "audio follows video" setup ensuring that audio levels are raised when and associated video source is live.