DiGiCo S21
DiGiCo S21
Since it’s inception in 2002, DiGiCo has always tried to innovate and push technology to deliver more in terms of flexibility and audio quality. There are limitless highlights, but two immediately come to mind; DiGiCo was the first console manufacturer to use TFT touch screen technology, and then went on to pioneer Stealth Digital Processing’s FPGA technology to replace DSP as the main audio processor. Stealth Digital Processing has been instrumental in the SD Series range, where, in a recent independent survey, DiGiCo played a pivotal role in eight of the top ten international grossing tours of 2014; evidence enough that when it comes to live sound consoles, DiGiCo pioneers the way. ‘Cutting edge’ means leading the world against the norm by demonstrating what can be possible with new unharnessed technology. That’s exactly what the vision of FPGA and Stealth Digital Processing promised and the thousands of users today will confirm the reality. The flexibility of being able to reprogram devices from switch on to taking advantage of new compiling tools has allowed the SD range functionality to expand beyond expectation.Using SD9 as our reference example, those investing at the time of launch of this ground breaking product have seen their console evolve into something more comprehensive and powerful, ie: Channels – at launch 40 Flexi channels, today 48 flexi channels (20 % more). Busses – at launch 16 flexi busses, today 24 flexi busses (50 % more). Output Matrix – at launch 8 In / 8 Out, today 12 In / 8 Out. On board FX – at launch 4 FX, today 8 FX. Dynamic EQ – at launch 4 DYN EQ, today 8 DYN EQ
- 48 Flexi Input Channels
- 16 Flexi Aux / Sub-Group Busses
- LR Master Buss
- 10 x 8 Full Processing Matrix
- 21 Dynamic Equalizers
- 96kHz Sample Rate
Under the Hood
Familiar to the touch and built for the road, the S21 offers mixing without limits. The integration of a high power QuadCore SoC with high bandwidth memory, a low power 484-ball array FPGA and a fourth-generation control SHARC DSP offers unprecedented power today as well as the potential for a future processing upgrade path. The compact footprint of the S21 has no relationship to the scale of processing power going on under the polycarbonate worksurface.
The two touchscreens each provide 10 channel strips, giving not only clear visual feedback and control of 20 simultaneous channels for a single user, but also the possibility when mixing large shows for more than one operator to take advantage of the newly designed drag, swipe and drop feature that simplifies custom fader layouts.
Visual feedback is further reinforced by the HTL (Hidden Till Lit) functionality of the encoder rings, while parameters currently not in use are automatically greyed out, always drawing your attention to the right controls.
The dual screen concept aims to aid the new user learning curve and remove distractions by not only giving you more channels to view at any one time, but also allowing one screen to be used as a setup or master whilst the other is utilised for operation. Both touchscreens are responsive to EQ shaping, with fine-tuning available via the tactile and intuitive rotary encoders.
Altering the Channel Bank layout, and mixing and matching any channel, aux, group, control group, or matrix within a bank, is easily accomplished by drag and drop at the touch of a screen.