THE COMPANY THAT HELPED TO REVOLUTIONISE THE RECORDING INDUSTRY IN THE 1980s AND '90s IS POISED TO MAKE A SIMILAR IMPACT IN THE WORLD OF LIVE ENTERTAINMENT WITH THE LAUNCH OF THE VENUE 'LIVE SOUND ENVIRONMENT'. MARK CUNNINGHAM MET THE TEAM...

We all love anniversaries. They're a great excuse to break out the bonhomie and bubbly, stroke each other's ego, and reminisce about the old days.

In its 20th anniversary year, Digidesign has every excuse to throw a party and pat itself on the back. Launched by Peter Gotcher and Evan Brooks as DigiDrums, the Californian firm has been responsible for some of the biggest leaps in sampling, recording and virtual synthesis technology over the past two decades. Arguably, its most successful contribution in this field was, and continues to be, the omnipresent Pro Tools digital audio workstation.

Digidesign, however, isn't the kind of company to rest easy on its laurels. With a dedicated staff heavily populated by musicians sharing equal measures of touring and studio experience, it was only a matter of time before its immense commercial and technological experience was applied to the live market.

Sure enough, the buzz started early this year when the company issued a statement, informing the industry that it would be showcasing a new digital mixing console solution at September's PLASA show. It's a testament to Digidesign's previous successes that the statement was universally greeted with genuine respect, not to mention burning anticipation. Possibly just as significant has been its ability to lure an industry veteran out of retirement, and another away from a long-term role with a competitor, to form a solid representation team.

BUT FIRST... THE SYSTEM
Available sometime during January-February 2005, Venue is about as far removed from a 'me too' digital mixer product as you'd ever find. Digidesign describes Venue as a 'Live Sound Environment', of which the D-Show console is just part of an all-embracing control system that also consists of a front-of-house mix engine, a stage rack I/O unit with recallable, remote-controlled pre-amps, a Personal Q artist-controlled monitoring option... and more.

Though Venue offers many of the same benefits that Pro Tools digital audio workstations provide, don't be mistaken into thinking that it's simply Pro Tools in a new shell. Four years of intense research went into the development of the Venue system - its components were purpose-built from the ground up to specifically address the rigorous requirements and challenges of the live sound reinforcement.

Highly expandable, Venue allows up to 96 mic inputs to be mixed to 27 busses. The powerful mix engine provides EQ and dynamics processing on every input channel, along with 24 assignable graphic EQs and full support for Pro Tools plug-ins. Venue also features an integrated recording and playback option for industry-standard Digidesign Pro Tools systems.

Venue provides one of the largest and most scalable mixing architectures available for live sound. D-Show's mix engine cards power the internal mixer structure, providing 48-bit pathways throughout the system for maximum signal quality.

The 19" format Stage Rack accommodates up to 48 remote-controlled mic pre-amps and converters, and up to 48 outputs, and connects to the mix engine over the digital snake system. The FOH Rack houses the D-Show digital mix engine and embedded control computer, and provides connectivity at the mix position for inserts or auxiliary devices that need to reside near the operator.

The FOH Rack is equipped with eight analogue inputs and outputs, analogue and digital two-track connections, and talkback and intercom facilities, as well as outputs for near-field speaker and headphone monitoring. MIDI connectors on the FOH Rack permit remote control of outboard devices or MIDI Time Code synchronisation of D-Show's snapshot automation during a performance. An optional expansion card provides additional analogue and digital I/O at the mix position.

Sound reinforcement applications ranging from live music mixes to theatre and places of worship are easily accommodated by the configurable output routing. Main outputs are configurable as a left/right pair plus mono, or left/centre/right (LCR) with a fully adjustable centre channel divergence for determining the spread of centre-panned signals across the LCR image.

An optional add-on to Venue is the Personal Q (PQ) monitoring system which, through use of wired remote controllers, allow musicians to fine-tune a monitor engineer's mix and control their own instrument and 11 sub-mixes. Up to eight simultaneous stereo mixes are possible, each with its individual PQ Controller.

TEAM TACTICS
It's a development that caused a tidal wave of interest at PLASA and four weeks later in London, I met up with three of the five principal players in the new-look Digidesign team to discuss the project.

While Venue's instigator, David Gibbons, Director of Product Marketing, and Product Manager Sheldon Radford were back at Digidesign's world HQ in Daly City, California, VP of Sales & Marketing Christopher Bock was in London during October as part of a worldwide distributor-gathering trek.

Accompanying Bock was Ken DeLoria, the founder of Apogee Sound, Inc., who came out of retirement to take on the role of Worldwide Live Sound Sales Director, and Mike Case, who as Sales & Marketing Manager for Yamaha Commercial Audio, helped to steer products such as the PM1D digital console to massive success. He has joined as European Live Sound Sales Manager.

I asked Bock about the qualities, resources and experiences that made Digidesign equipped to enter the live sound business.

Bock: "Live sound was already embedded in the Digidesign culture, because we have so many performing musicians amongst our staff. We'd firmly established ourselves in the recording market, especially with Pro Tools, so we were ready to look at new challenges.

"We learned a lot during that heavy transitional period from analogue to digital in the recording business, and realized it could be applied to the live sound market, which is itself going through a major transition. So we've always had an eye on the live world - it just that the timing has never been better for us to make an entry.

"Of course, we have a lot to learn about live sound. Fortunately, we are great listeners and we realize the value of importing specialist expertise in the shape of Ken and Mike... and we're not done yet!"

TPi: Ken, you came on board literally on the eve of the PLASA show, after quite some time away from the industry...
DeLoria: "I sold Apogee in 1999 and stayed on with the new owners for a couple of years, and then decided to move to the green pastures of early retirement! It was a much-needed rest after operating a company for 18 years that started from scratch. I moved out to Lake Tahoe and spent a lot of time sailing and skiing. It was fabulous, and I thought I'd stay retired until a friend of mine who has a Pro Tools studio mentioned what Digidesign was developing, and I became very interested... enough to get involved. "I think the Venue system is an amazing product, and the company itself is very unusual in its ethos and attitude. They were looking for someone who had an extensive live sound background to help set up worldwide distribution for Venue and other products that may come out in the future. It was a very exciting opportunity, so here I am!"

TPi: What was it exactly about the culture of Digidesign that made it such an easy decision to come out of what seems to have been an idyllic retirement?
DeLoria: "That's not so easy to define. With Apogee, I'd been around the world many times, met hundreds, thousands of people, visited rental companies, installation companies, consultancies, you name it. But I've never experienced a culture like this. "I joined Digidesign two days before PLASA and flew into London for the show. There were about 28 people representing the company and I've never seen such a kind, welcoming, friendly, enthusiastic and helpful group of people, all of whom are passionately interested in what they do, like it's in their blood. That is so different to the business model of what I'd known before for a corporation of this size. "It's so common when you get to Digidesign's size, that there will ultimately be in-fighting and political gamesmanship behind closed doors. I don't see that and it's so refreshing. Everything smacks of warmth, creativity and commitment. I don't know where this all comes from but it's a very pleasant thing to be associated with."

TPi: Mike, you were at Yamaha for five years as a major player in the Commercial Audio division. What made you jump ship?
Case: "It's simply a fantastic opportunity to represent a great company, and it's not just about the console and the accompanying system - it's the technology, too. We have the capability of taking that next step from where the PM1D and other products have been, and being at the forefront of evolving this new area of live sound. "It's a dynamic company that's relatively smaller than Yamaha, and that in itself brings a number of advantages. It's also a chance for me to have more of a Pan-European role, and that's inspiring because there's more interaction between market places these days than ever before."

TPi: You're keen to point out that Venue is not a console, but rather it is a 'live sound environment', of which the console is just a part.
Bock: "Yes, there are a lot of different elements. I don't think the world necessarily needs another console, and neither is it our place to enter that market; it's what interacts with the console that's key to what we're doing. Ken and Mike naturally bring a lot of expertise into our strategy. What Digidesign brings is the knowledge and vision of what our technology will do for live sound over the next five to 10 years, based on our own experiences."

TPi: Those experiences would include being a division of Avid Technology, Inc. - a major force in the broadcast and post-production business.
Bock: "Indeed. Around the time we brought out Pro Tools, Avid were bringing out their own equivalent of a sound tools package for video - a non-linear editor that worked on hard drives. They started using our audio engine in each one of their systems, and the relationship that developed resulted in us merging in 1995. "Since then, we've had certain parts of our businesses overlapping - something we call interoperability, where Avid use our components on their video networks for broadcast and post-production systems, and we integrate digital video using their components."

TPi: That's a formidable background upon which to build a presence in the live market!
Bock: "Basing Venue on our own in-house technologies, and not being reliant on third party involvement, means that we can price the system very competitively. Pro Tools itself is an affordable recording package, and it quickly became an industry standard, which proves that the best isn't always the most expensive. "By leveraging our own intellectual property and technologies in the fields of video, 3D and digital signal processing, as well as all aspects of manufacturing, I think we can realistically help take a look at the live entertainment industry and see what the next model will be in terms of generating revenue, no matter which discipline you are working in. "The music business has already gone through a lot of change in the last few years - not all of it good, but that's mostly the result of a resistance to change. The thing is, change is not only inevitable, it's already happening and it won't stop. "The live artist is now able to use plug-ins and bring in playback and record Pro Tools functions with the Venue system, enabling him to publish CDs and DVDs more efficiently. We can potentially involve Avid at some point and send audio feeds to a recording studio which could be mixing down the three best songs from a live performance for immediate Internet release."

TPi: One of the big buzzes at PLASA was that Venue isn't necessarily just about sound, and that it could end up as a control system for video and lighting - a complete show control system, if you like.
Bock: "This is very possible. Avid's marketing tag line is 'Make, Manage and Move Media' and we'd like to extend the capabilities of our system to control and work with video. With all-digital media, we can process and control it, and it doesn't have to be purely audio. We'd like to create a bridge to digital integrated control that helps anyone working in live media and content creation."

TPi: Are you planning any special strategies to encourage interest from sound engineers and rental companies?
Case: "We're not going to give away our secrets, other than to say there's no overall solution. There are many end users out there who would have any number of different reasons for wanting to use Venue, and so we have to tailor our approach specifically to their needs. What they all need to know is that it's so much more than a mixer."
DeLoria: "We've already got Joe Satriani's engineer, Doug Nightwine, saying wonderful things about Venue, such as how intuitive the whole system is, how the sound quality blew him away, and he fortunately has the vision to recognise how this product is going to radically change the way engineers work... and for the better. "We received the same feedback from the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco where we had a system in residence for several months, plus Venue has been touring with John Mayer, again with very positive results."

TPi: I guess we'll have to wait a little longer before we have the chance to see a production model of Venue on a tour.
Bock: "Not too long. We're looking at January or February for the release of the first production models. Like all our products, it's not Digidesign that's going to make Venue successful. The market will do that. Pro Tools was 50% designed by our company, and 50% designed by the users. That's the way I hope we'll always work."

Portrait photography by Mark Cunningham