On 4/7/2014 7:30 PM, Les Cargill wrote:
Maybe analog consoles go boutique, but digital
consoles are just weird. I would not want to try to do a live band with
one unless I knew - and had tested - that power failures didn't scramble
it's brain.
Analog consoles have been "boutique" for several years now, it's just
that there are some that are quite inexpensive. I was just talking to
the Allen & Heath folks at the NAB show today about the ZED-R16 and
GS-R24 studio consoles. Sales are pretty slow. Since they now have USB
multichannel I/O for the QU series of digital consoles, they might use
that to update the analog recording consoles, but there's no projected
date even as to when it will be put on the calendar.
As far a power failures affecting a digital console, I did some testing
with the PreSonus StudioLive. The darn thing will keep running during a
brownout down to about 45 volts, but it quits after that. It
periodically stores the current setup in a "scene" memory that it
recalls from when it's powered up again, so unless you've very recently
made a change to something, it will come back like it was when the plug
was pulled. However, it does take what seems like a lifetime (actually
less than 15 seconds) to boot up from a shutdown, and it can send some
rude noises to the outputs in the process. They were going to change the
firmware so that all outputs were muted as soon as it came up far enuogh
to do that, and keep them muted until the boot sequence was completed.
If you have the slightest doubt about the power in a venue (or that no
clumsy patron will triip over your power cord, it's probably a good idea
to power the digital console from a small UPS. That will allow you to do
an orderly shutdown and startup.
--
"Today's production equipment is IT based and cannot be operated without
a passing knowledge of computing, although it seems that it can be
operated without a passing knowledge of audio" - John Watkinson
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