On 21 and 23 January, 2014 DiGiCo’s VP of sales, Ian Staddon, gave two seminars at the Tadco offices in Laser Park attended by industry fellows and outlining the history of DiGiCo, their current products and technology and their vision for the future.
Previously with the Harman International group as VP of sales at Studer, Staddon has vast knowledge of the digital console industry and a driving passion which made him perfect for his position at DiGiCo.
The seminar opened with an historical timeline of DiGiCo starting in 2002 with the purchase of famed British console manufacturer Soundtracs which was founded in the early 1980s by a group of recording engineers who sought a better analogue studio console than was available at the time.
An overview of the emerging DiGiCo’s digital consoles followed and moved into a dissemination on DiGiCo’s move to proprietary FPGA-driven Stealth technology combined with Tiger SHARC DSP chips for effects processing and control. This allows the audio engine to occupy a single PCB instead of a huge rack of DSP cards. A thorough walkthrough of current DiGiCo consoles and software was then given, including their flagship SD7 down to the small format SD11.
A further look into DiGiCo’s technologies such as Optocore technology was then given along with the various stage boxes and modules on offer, the UB MADI recording and virtual sound check interface and the Waves SoundGrid plugin host for the DiGiCo range of consoles.
The seminar ended with a demonstration of case studies where DiGiCo consoles have been used; of particular interest the London Olympics in 2012 where a massive system of DiGiCo consoles and interconnects was deployed.
For more information on DiGiCo training dates and times, please email kyle@tadco.co.za.
