The rumors had been circulating for months, but on the cusp of last month’s NAB and Musikmesse / Prolight + Sound shows, Avid made the first public showing of its new flagship Avid VENUE | S6L, a large-format live consoles with a touch-based interface Ethernet AVB, Dante, MADI and Thunderbolt support, Pro Tools integration, industry-standard plug-ins, over 300 total processing channels and a new Stage 64 I/O rack with high performance preamps and versatile input/output options.
It’s been ten years since the first VENUE console came on the scene. Since then, the world of sound reinforcement has changed significantly — in part due to changes brought about by the first model, which ushered in now-standard practices such as using DSP plug-ins in a live environment, virtual sound checking and Pro Tools recording (and playbacks) from the FOH position.
Not that it was easy. Back in 2005, Avid had no track record in sound reinforcement and people were afraid of using a “Pro Tools” console based on a computer that could crash — in a day when PCs or Macs on the road were anything but commonplace.
“We got that to turn around in a really nice way. It was all about the product being easy to use and it was reliable. It had those two things going for it and at that point, that was really what people wanted,” says Robert Scovill, a noted FOH engineer and senior market specialist for live sound products at Avid.
“When we entered the market, there were only two or three choices in digital consoles and since then, there has been a lot of activity on that front from a lot of companies. And a lot of the competing consoles we’re going after with the S6L are in the seven to eight year old range now, so we are going to see a big churn of the machine here. And part of our goal here is to reset the market in terms of price and performance.”
Enter the VENUE | S6L
Clearly a lot has changed since those days. VENUE | S6L is a fully modular, scalable live sound mixing system that delivers functionality for a wide range of live sound mixing requirements, including front of house, monitor, broadcast, theater and other applications. Featuring the VENUE | E6L 96 kHz live sound engine, the system can handle huge channel and plug-in counts at the lowest possible latency.
Another key point is the console’s high-resolution, daylight-visible touch screen workflows and OLED displays and intuitive ergonomics that provide immediate, intelligent control. The VENUE | S6L also offers seamless Pro Tools recording / playback and Virtual Soundcheck integration without the need for a separate audio interface.
Users can freely configure modular system components and I/O to meet the demands of any live production. Supported network and I/O formats include Ethernet AVB, Dante, MADI, Thunderbolt, and more. And shared I/O across multiple networked systems becomes simple via Avid True Gain advanced gain tracking technology.
Configurations
A complete VENUE | S6L System includes a control surface, engine and I/O components, the VENUE | S6L control surface, VENUE | E6L engine and Stage 64 I/O rack. By choosing different variants of each, a wide variety of configurations can be created; likewise, the system allows users to start with a more basic console and later expand or upgrade the system to their needs.
Various option cards for the Stage 64 — analog mic/line, digital AES or ADAT inputs/outputs, Dante (with up to 192 kHz support) and Aviom A-Net — will be offered separately, allowing customers to custom configure the system for their I/O requirements. Additionally, multiple Stage 64 (or Stage 16) stage boxes can be combined for even more capacity.
The control surface is offered in three configurations, the large-format S6L-32D (32 + 2 faders, 96 assignable knobs, Master Touchscreen and three Channel Touch Modules) and the S6L-24D / S6L-24 — both with 24 + 2 faders, 64 assignable knobs, Master Touchscreen and two Channel Touch Modules
The VENUE | E6L engine comes in two variations: the E6L-192, with 192 input processing channels, 96 mix buses + LCR; and the E6L-144, with 144 input processing channels, 64 mix buses + LCR.
The new Stage 64 I/O rack provides a choice analog / digital I/O and networking options and multiple racks can be combined for additional I/O flexibility.
Back to the Future
The VENUE | S6L offers an impressive feature set, to be sure. However, its major design emphasis goes well beyond inputs, outputs and DSP.
“The thing that we really tried to accomplish with this console,” says Scovill, “and it really harkened me back to the early days of working on the original VENUE, was focusing on the workflow and not getting too hung up on the mechanics or the electronics. It had to be the right workflow and that is especially important today, because we’re already in a time where console capacity has been growing by leaps and bounds. In fact, if you tried to build this console in analog, you physically couldn’t operate it — it would be too large,” Scovill notes.
“The key is to make a console design that — even with these huge capacities — doesn’t create a lot of mental friction for the operator. I call that the ‘digital handcuffs’ — where you get so involved in navigating that you might miss a cue on the show. The S6L has a lot of focus on workflow and I think you’re going to see a lot of good things on this console.”
The Avid VENUE | S6L can be ordered now (pricing begins around $70,000, depending on configuration) and units are slated to begin shipping to customers in Q3 2015.
For more info, visit Avid at www.avid.com.
