Explaining the five-year development process of the SD7, DiGiCo's MD James Gordon said that John Stadius, the SD7's designer, was inspired by technological and user interface developments in the automotive, aerospace and marine industries. The SD7's Stealth engine uses the latest high-power Super FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array) and Tiger SHARC processing technology and is, impressively, eight times as powerful as the D5 Live. The SD7 also offers innovations such as HTL (Hidden Till Lit) display on the desk interface; new larger TFT screens which allow 12 faders per screen; SMS text messaging between desks on a network; visual communication between desks (FoH and monitors, for example); and built-in Stealth engine redundancy.
With 256 processing paths at 96kHz, or 128 at 192kHz, connected via 448 simultaneous optical and 224 MADI connections, plus 48 integrated I/Os with 128 busses plus 32 matrix busses and 32 x 32 band Graphic Equalisers, the SD7 offers virtually limitless flexibility, explained Gordon.
Remarkably, it packs all this power into just four chips, giving dramatically increased efficiency, while the freed space has allowed two complete engines to be accommodated in the worksurface itself. In addition, the open platform design permits third party licensees to develop plug-in effects to complement the built in library of studio quality effects.
To keep its customers up to date with information about developments to the SD7, DiGiCo has come up with the 'Especs' mailing list to offer up-to-the-minute, the latest addition to its product range. "The SD7's Stealth engine is such a new and powerful technology, that its true power and flexibility have not yet been fully realised," said DiGiCo's marketing director, David Webster. "The potential is there to create feature sets and specifications that haven't even been dreamt of yet."
"So that we can make sure everyone that needs to know is kept completely up-to-date with our latest developments, we've devised a registration database," Webster continues. "It only takes two minutes to add your details and means you will always be bang up to date with the SD7's latest advances and additions."
Further underlining that the SD7 is now a new force in the digital mixing marketplace, DiGiCo has announced a number of sales of the consoles - including to Sound Hire in the UK, Eighth Day Sound in the US, EML in Belgium and Sirius Showequipment in Germany.
The first to invest, Richard Liénard of Sound Hire, said: "Knowing the pedigree of the company and the people they are, I had no doubt that the quality and innovation of the SD7 would be superb. They've built on the success of the D5 and provided many more facilities but, at the same time, not gone totally away from it. It will be really straightforward for existing DiGiCo users to learn the SD7. It's more user-friendly than any other digital console and is also more straightforward for two engineers to use, if required."
Liénard continues: "We now have complete redundancy with two onboard engines, which is a big leap forward, and with the extra power under the bonnet there is huge potential for future upgrades. That's very important when you're buying a really top class product like the SD7, because it's a major investment and the upgrade path ensures its 'earning life' will be as long as possible."
"After 30 years in the industry, it's rare to get excited about equipment," he says. "But I will be excited about the SD7 for quite a while yet. Not only is it incredibly powerful, flexible and sounds superb, but it looks great," says Liénard.
(Lee Baldock)
