04 l September 2012 news UNITED KINGDOM DiGital deCade
Dave Robinson collects the defining memories from key people who worked with or for DiGiCo, which celebrates its 10th anniversary this month
IT ALL started with a mixing console and two charismatic men from the Midlands. Ten years ago this month,
David Webster (Webby) and Bob Doyle (Doyler) launched a company, and a digital console for the live market, into an unsuspecting marketplace. The DiGiCo D5 went on to turn the touring world on its head – and then the company did it all over again with the 2008 launch of the SD7 and Stealth Digital Processing. In 2012, the company looks healthier than ever as it explores the compact mixer and broadcast sectors, plus peripheral technologies like the UB MADI box. To celebrate a decade of digital delights, we asked key figures from DiGiCo, and some of their favourite friends and associates, to tell us their defining memories from the company’s first 10 years…
JAMES GORDON, DIGICO MANAGING DIRECTOR PLASA September 2002 for the outside world was the beginning but the work started years earlier when the decision was made to take the Soundtracs DSP core and turn it into
something useful for live sound. At that time there were only two other digital live consoles on the market. I can recall our distributor meeting the day before PLASA. It was held in the apartment we had rented for the show. We were all squeezed into the lounge area for a sneak preview of the D5. It was cramped, hot and noisy but it was clear the D5 was special and game-changing.
RICHARD LIENARD, PROPRIETOR OF SOUND HIRE
(‘RICHARD THE FIRST’) The world was ready for digital, but the
industry was reluctant to move on. Soundtracs was working on something, and the company’s James Gordon asked for Sound Hire’s input on what he called the ‘ultimate digital console’.
A year later, it’s PLASA 2002 – and the launch of the DiGiCo brand and the D5 Live. I came, I saw, I bought the first one. It took a leap of faith for a few
owners and engineers to start the digital revolution. It was about trust in the technology, as well as the people behind it: an engineering team with 10 years of digital experience and a sales team to back it up, plus a lot of good cheer and support along the way. Then came the invite to DiGiCo HQ in 2008. James Gordon, Dave Webster, and John Stadius ushered me into their boardroom and outlined how they saw the next generation of consoles. They asked me if they’d got it right. I answered, yes, on every count. James said, ‘So would you like to see it then…?’ They had only gone and built it already! Seeing it there – glowing, with all those colours, like the bridge of the Starship Enterprise – I said, ‘If it sounds as good as it looks, I want one!’ So I became Richard the First: first D5, first SD7. Sound Hire and the whole industry have never looked back.
HELEN CULLETON, DIGICO OPERATIONS DIRECTOR The management buyout
L-R: DiGiCo directors James Gordon, John Stadius, Helen Culleton and David Webster
on 07/07/07 was a defining moment for the company and its future direction. The team gained a different type of knowledge to its every day ‘gig’, and there’s no doubt it did take us to another level. We felt that responsibility and performed to it. Our second visit to Buckingham Palace for the Queen’s Award for International Trade was special too. As a country, we’re a bit rubbish at being proud of our heritage sometimes, and I’ll never forget the joy and excitement felt by our longest serving female employee from the factory as
she left to attend the ceremony. She was there for everyone that builds our product, and to this day it’s still a source of pride for her and the whole Glenrothes team.
DAVE BRACEY, FOH ENGINEER In early 2005 Britannia Row’s Bryan Grant told me of a show coming up with many bands all playing 10-minute sets with two-minute change-overs. We had all done A/B rig festivals before but only 12-14 minutes between uses of a system was unheard of. I proposed