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September 2012 l 05


The ‘game-changing’ D5 BOB DOYLE, CO-FOUNDER


ends, two to flip-flop between and one offline for pre-show session viewing. All the bands sent me their information. I made sessions for them within our template as it was early days and clearly most of the engineers had never used a DiGiCo. There was no comfort zone: we were all used to a working method where you set up your board while the previous band did their set. But this would be load and play. As the show started I was at


home watching it on TV and saw the first bands all revolving, two minutes apart. Yes! It was working! When I arrived on site an hour later everyone was still smiling. Live8 was a great day for the D5 and, for all concerned, an eye-opener. A great memory.


JOHN STADIUS, DIGICO TECHNICAL DIRECTOR For me the most defining experience at DiGiCo was the design, development and introduction of the FPGA stealth processing board. Its simplicity and elegance transformed the way we built consoles. Initially designed for the SD7 we were able to use the same design concepts across our whole range of consoles. I love simple designs both for their technical challenge, ease of manufacture and reliability, so designing a 256-channel console to fit on a single programmable chip is as simple as it gets. The second is again a technological breakthrough and is more recent and not even a console. It was the UB-MADI. The suggestion by others that it could not be done over USB proved to be an interesting technical challenge and one we managed to overcome. The biggest challenge was designing such a complicated product to work within the limited power budget of USB.


JOE O’HERLIHY, U2 SOUND DIRECTOR U2360º TOUR In my opinion the D5 Live is the best touring sound reinforce ment industry game


changer of all time. On


previous U2 tours we would


usually end up having three consoles to cater for the audio requirements. With the introduction of the D5, the audio design capability was now instantly accessible and available on only one console. I remember thinking at the time,


all of the technical stuff we used to dream about having at our fingertips was now a reality. Here was a console at long last, designed by sound engineers for sound engineers, with a little help from a very large bag of chips! In the 10 years to date at FOH with U2, I have used the glamorous D5 on The Vertigo Tour 2005-2006 before gradually progressing to the glorious SD7 on the U2360º Tour 2009-2010-2011. What to say about the people,


speaks for itself really, like every successful company it’s always all about the people who support and believe in the product. A special thank you to our ‘DiGiCo magic man’ Dan Page for his excellence over the years of service.


ANDREW BRUCE,FOUNDER OF AUTOGRAPH SOUND AND VITAL FORCE BEHIND DEVELOPMENT OF D5T AND SD7T THEATRE SOFTWARE; AND BOBBY AITKEN, THEATRE SOUND DESIGNER


conjunction with Andrew. Until that time I had been using enormous 120-input analogue consoles or trying to wrestle early digital consoles into working for us. The time and resources spent on the development of the theatre software was a sign that DiGiCo was genuinely committed to a long-term future in our industry.


JASON KIRSCHNICK, CTO FOR US RENTAL GIANT EIGHTH DAY SOUND SYSTEMS My relationship with DiGiCo starts with the purchase of the D5 back in 2002. My


defining moment would have to be the launch/party DiGiCo hosted on London Bridge when the introduction/surprise of the SD7 teaser was debuted. The way the entire event was so well organised and executed – with the presentation of future technology and what it could mean to the application of sound and digital consoles – and even today has been what other console manufacturers are trying to compete and catch up with.


Bruce (pictured left): The event that best characterises DiGiCo’s commitment to us was when I received two major bug-fix releases to the first beta version of D5T software in the same day. It also happened to be the day we started final technical rehearsals for the move of Les Misérables across the West End to the Queens Theatre and was our first serious foray into the world of digital consoles. There was no going back so we were understandably nervous. It demonstrated beyond doubt that we had been right to put our faith in a company that had completely cottoned on to the nature of our specialised use and who were not based several time zones from London. Aitken (pictured right):My


‘eureka’ moment with DiGiCo was the issue of the Theatre Specific software, developed in


TODD WELLS, FORMER CEO OF SOUNDTRACS John Stadius had been developing a live console in 2001 based on the evolving digital technology of the D3, the second of the Soundtracs post-production consoles. What John lacked was marketing input on key live features. Enter Webby with decades of live sound experience with Klark Teknik, DDA and Midas, and Bob Doyle with his formidable contact list and persuasive personality. In late May 2002, I went to


Wembley with my son Paris to witness the very first prototype DiGiCo live console at front of house for Rod Stewart mixed by Lars Brogaard. This July I watched, with 25 million others in the UK, the opening of the Olympics and texts from James Gordon confirmed there were six SD7, two SD8 and one SD10 console mixing everything we heard! As James observed: “It’s your team Todd, and then inspired by me to believe in the impossible.”


MY FIRST defining milestone has to be the initial exultation of successfully acquiring Soundtracs plc with the knowledge that myself and the team were free to carve out a business in digital technology aimed at providing an elegant solution for audio engineering and cover applications in all aspects of audio design and installation. With the historic profile of Soundtracs in post and broadcast, I immediately discounted retaining the brand name for the intended live sector so Webby and I came up with ‘DiGiCo’ instead. The second defining moment was at PLASA in September 2002 when we launched the D5 and I began to get an inkling that we really had something going for us.


news


Bob with daughters Kara and Kiren A further huge moment for


me was during the SD7 launch at PLASA 2007. I gave the chief engineer with [a leading console manufacturer] a run through the console and afterwards he said, “Bob, you are 10 years ahead of [us].” It was at this point that I got a rush of hope and expectation for things to come.


DAVID WEBSTER, DIGICO MARKETING DIRECTOR


FOR MEthere are so many defining experiences with DiGiCo it is difficult to choose one in particular. The team is extremely dynamic, working with new technologies and developing products that an awful lot has happened in a very short space of time.


I guess one major moment


was the launch of the SD7 to our distributors, key users and customers. It introduced Stealth Digital Processing to the world, which utilises a single Super FPGA chip for all audio processing on the console. It really was a game-changer, from the minute it was unveiled in the high-level Walkways of Tower Bridge to the tongue-in-cheek concept console we revealed at PLASA 2007. We had it in a


JACK KELLY, PRESIDENT GROUP ONE LTD (DIGICO US DISTRIBUTOR) My first defining experience was with none other than Bob Doyle. We were leaving Detroit after a customer demo of the brand new SD7, heading to Chicago on a snowy afternoon. The weather was horrible, the traffic worse, and the U-Haul noisy. For normal people this would have been just another nasty day on the road. Instead, I listened to Bob tell stories, I laughed until I couldn’t, and then we sang the most ridiculous songs for hours. We arrived with enough time left of the evening for a great meal and possibly a cocktail, though that’s where it gets hazy. It occurred to


perspex box on the first day of the show and our competitors said it would never work; then on day two, front of house engineer Chris Pyne actually mixed a multitrack in the box and the rumours went round that it was a D5 engine with a different worksurface; on day three we let some people in and showed them that it was a completely new technology.


me that night not only how hard everyone I had met was willing to work to ensure the success of DiGiCo, but that the ride would be anything but boring. A perhaps more important experience is with the


commitment DiGiCo has to their customers. I’ve had the good fortune to work with some of the best companies in this industry – KT, XTA, Focusrite, BSS – and I can tell you that I continue to be amazed (not easy to do after 35 years of experience) with the team at DiGiCo. n www.digico.biz


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