Allen & Heath Releases Ultra Compact Digital Mixer

	The new Allen & Heath Qu-Pac digital mixer.

Allen & Heath has extended its successful Qu range with the launch of Qu-Pac, an ultra-compact digital mixer with both a built-in touchscreen and iPad control app.

Designed for live music and installed sound, Qu-Pac is a freestanding or rack mount mixer, providing a flexible solution for bands and in multi-purpose environments such as schools, hotels, and bars. Qu-Pac connectivity offers 16 mono inputs, three stereo inputs, and 12 mix outputs on the rear panel, but that can be expanded up to 38 in / 28 out by connecting to Allen & Heath's family of remote AudioRacks over Cat5.

The mixer offers total recall of settings and preamps, multi-track recording to USB via Qu-Drive, a choice of personal monitoring solutions, channel ducking, multi-channel USB streaming and the renowned iLive FX Library to deliver outstanding audio quality, making it the most fully featured digital mixer in its class.

Continuing the trend of remote iPad mixing started with the iLive family over four years ago, the Qu-Pad iPad app gives instant wireless control of the mixer's key parameters and settings, freeing the user to mix the show from anywhere in the venue. Unlike rackmount digital mixers which wholly rely on tablet control, Qu-Pac's high resolution, full colour 5" Touchscreen gives easy access to all functions, providing a simple interface for day-to-day operation and a backup in the event of Wi-Fi connection problems disrupting control. A fully customisable Qu-Control screen can be set up with "widgets" for channel levels, mutes and assignment switches, arranged to suit the application and the experience of the user. Fifteen softkeys allow further customisation, while different levels of user access can be set up and password protected.

As well as stereo recording or playback from a USB key, the built-in, 18-channel Qu-Drive can record and playback multitrack and stereo audio .wav files to a USB key or drive. This gives the convenience of computer-free recording in live and field applications. Qu-Pac's 32x32, Windows and Mac compliant USB streaming interface also makes it the perfect recording solution for tracking, monitoring, and overdubbing in the studio. To further increase flexibility for fixed installs and growing bands, Allen & Heath's dSNAKE low latency audio connection enables the mixer to connect over a single Cat5 digital snake to AB168, AR84, and AR2412 remote audio racks. In addition, Qu-Pac offers two solutions for personal monitoring: via the Qu-You iPhone app or using ME-1 personal mixers, which connect to the mixer via the dSNAKE port.

The mixer's mic/line inputs feature crystal clear AnaLOGIQ recallable pad-less preamps, optimized for transparency and low harmonic distortion. Qu-Pac is equipped with a selection of FX emulations developed for the iLive pro touring series, along with all the tools a sound engineer would expect to see, such as RTA and comprehensive metering and monitoring.

Allen & Heath's managing director, Glenn Rogers commented on the new arrival, "Qu-Pac is a response to some of the major headaches in real world mixing. For bands working the bar and club scene, there are countless situations where there just is no space for a regular mixer. For venues, there are many, many scenarios from AV presentations and conferences to hotels, bars and restaurants where background music and simple events are handled by non-technical staff who would be intimidated by a regular mixer. Think of a bar or restaurant that has live music at the weekends. Qu-Pac is ideal in this sort of situation -- password protection and simple custom screens allow general staff to run the system day-to-day, then a sound engineer can use the iPad to mix full shows, with the safety net of hands-on control if anything happens to the Wi-Fi. That's just one scenario where this highly versatile and effective package provides the ideal solution."

Qu-Pac is available from March 2015.