www.prosoundnewseurope.com
September 2012 l 41 UNITED KINGDOM live
Si Performer console is first of its kind to combine high-spec audio mixing with integrated DMX lighting control functionality, writes Dave Robinson
HARMAN PROhas made a daring move into the world of lighting with the pre-PLASA launch of the Soundcraft Si Performer range, compact consoles that combine high-spec audio mixing with integrated DMX functionality. The range is targeted at small
theatres and venues, houses of worship and the corporate market – ostensibly any application where one person can operate both sound and lighting. “We are not pretending this is a lighting console, first and foremost,” Andy Trott, president of Soundcraft Studer, told PSNEurope at the press launch at the Soho Theatre, London in August. “It looks like an audio console, and if no one plugs a DMX input into it, it’s [still] a damn good audio console.” Trott acknowledged that,
while there will already be some technicians familiar with both disciplines, there will be others for whom the Si Performer presents a learning curve. “We are starting a new era
here,” he said. “It’s going to take time for acceptance, it’s going to take time for audio people to learn about lighting.” He added that – “sticking my neck out” – he believes that anyone who is proficient using the console in audio mode could learn how to use the lighting controls in “30 minutes”.
On the audio side, the Si
Performer is a step up from the Soundcraft Si Compact range. It offers 24 or 32 mic inputs (on the Si Performer 2 and 3 models respectively), eight line inputs and four FX return
channels; using optional expansion cards from the ViSi Connect range or Soundcraft stageboxes, the number of channels to mix can be increased to 80 on all models. Lighting control comes by means of the integration of a DMX512 port – giving access to a single DMX universe. The console features four scene masters, with associated slave channels on the ALT fader
The Si
Performer: exploring new business models
throw out [the existing set-up], and do audio and lighting in one console,
layers. Individual colour intensities or parameters are set on the slave faders; an overall master level fader, which itself may be assigned to any of the main fader layers, gives simultaneous access to audio and lighting levels. DMX settings may be stored alongside audio settings in the snapshot system; either audio settings, lighting settings or both can be recalled automatically by a single button press or via an external MIDI command. “I’m really interested in
business models,” Trott continued. “In small theatres, they don’t have much in the way of complex lighting. For them to be able to
that means they can free up a seat, and that seat could pay for the console. Therefore, you have a [new] business model.” Why has no one put lighting and audio control on one console before, did he suggest? “I don’t think the technology has been ready for it to be done, and I think people are so focused on competing in this [compact console] space that they’re chasing each other. You can only chase people for so far, so long, before you’re just producing other me-too products. It gets really, really difficult to constantly innovate, and do something that competitors aren’t doing. I think we’re getting to that point now on
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SOUNDBITES
Soundcraft brings lighting and audio together on one console
Meyer Sound has begun shipping the CAL self-powered steerable column array loudspeakers. “CAL is a digitally steerable column array product in which all high-frequency and low- frequency drivers are tightly- packed in a biamped configuration and are individually amplified and processed,” said Meyer Sound’s John McMahon. “These engineering details are essential in enabling the beam control needed for a human voice to cut through a highly reverberant acoustic space.”
www.meyersound.com
West End star Kerry Ellis sings for guests at the Soho Theatre launch of the Si Performer
digital audio consoles. Where does it go from here?” Trott said he welcomes me-too audio-lighting consoles as Soundcraft has filed a number of patents for the integration of lighting and audio. “So bring it on!” In response to a question
about how the move into lighting fitted with Harman Pro’s bigger picture objectives, Trott said: “One of our mission statements is to expand our business. We are looking for horizontal areas to spread into. This is spreading our wings a bit.”
At the launch for press, guests and Soundcraft staff, West End star Kerry Ellis performed Defying Gravity from the musical Wicked. This was followed by a set of pop and rock classics by covers duo The Beatniks. Pete Freeman at FOH mixed the sound and operated the lighting from a single Si Performer 2 – of course. Pricing and shipping times
for the console will be available at PLASA. n
www.soundcraft.com
Orbital Sound has introduced the CSC tRemote iPad app, which brings remote trigger-list viewing and control capability for the CSC Show Control software. Now available as a free download for iOS devices from Apple’s App Store, the CSC tRemote iPad app is also making its debut on the current UK tour of the hit musical Starlight Express, as part of one of the most elaborate CSC deployments to date.
www.orbitalsound.co.uk
dBTechnologies has celebrated the sale of the 20,000th unit of its DVA T4 line array, first introduced five years ago. The sale was made by dBT’s Chilean distributor Audiomusica Group. Marcelo Aravena, business manager of Fancy Music, part of the Audiomusica Group, says: "It’s an honour for us to receive this award, and we are really proud to be part of the dBTechnologies' family.”
www.audiomusica.com www.dbtechnologies.com
UK rental solutions provider ADLIBsupplied FOH and monitor systems for Lady Antebellum’s recent European tour. Included in the sound system was an Avid Profile console for FOH, two Lake LM44s and two LM26 controllers, a Soundcraft Vi6 console on monitors, a 14-channel Shure PSM 1000 IEM system, L-Acoustics ARCs cabinets, ADLIB’s own MP4 wedge and an L-Acoustics V- DOSC/dV-DOSC rig for the largest shows in London and Manchester.
www.adlibsolutions.co.uk
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