Secondly, significant sound reinforcement product announcements are now as much a part of this show as they are of Frankfurt's ProLight+Sound beano - which itself grew out of the MusikMesse's MI roots. Perhaps NAMM - busier this year than for several - could begin to steal a march on the German show's pro audio pretensions, as a packed product release schedule searches for ever more outlets.
The Verona was designed by Alex Cooper (no relation), director of console development and a 20-year Midas veteran. Having worked on the XL3 and either designing or overseeing every console from the XL4 through to the Heritage range and the Venice, he agrees that console design is getting ever more refined for niche markets: "Our core market has always been mid to high-end touring," he said, "where XL3 fitted perfectly. XL4 took us above that even, and other XL products slotted in below; then Heritage updated everything and stamped its mark everywhere XL had been. We command that market so much that to expand we have to look elsewhere.
"Venice was a toe in the lower-end market, to see if we'd suffer any image crisis: there was none whatsoever. In fact, it's quite common to see Venice in a supporting role at top events. We've been trying to provide at a lower cost, but still retaining all the performance. That may mean the cost is still higher than a console with similar features, but the performance is far better.
"With the Verona, we're applying that same philosophy to a slightly bigger console. People have loved the Venice, but have wished for a little more of this or that - in a more expandable format. Venice is constructed in a single panel of 32 channels; Verona is in 8-channel modules, giving plenty of options up to the limit of 64."
Verona comes in below the Heritage 1000, appealing to smaller rental companies and theatres. Without VCAs or automation, it's also simpler to operate - most users in places such as houses of worship look after the sound as a sideline to their main duties and are not experts. For them, simplicity is the key - and the key to all product strategy at this show.
It was an extraordinary show for small-format analogue mixers, for example, with arch rivals Mackie and Behringer slugging it out just like old times. The ultimate winner in this battle of the busses is surely the consumer, who has just been given a whole new generation of problem-solving mixers by the people who invented value for money the first time around. But Mackie stole it a bit further up-market with the TT24, and product manager John Boudreau appeared a rising star in the new Mackie firmament. "The continuing support for large-format digital consoles in the touring market has proven that digital is the future of live sound," he said, "and if you look down-market to the mid-sized consoles used for installation in theatres, houses of worship, casinos and by regional sound companies and high-end club systems, these are the next people who are going to experience the digital revolution in live sound."The TT24 is the mixer that's going to bring them digital functionality via a user interface that's suitable for the analogue engineer. Currently, what are available are essentially production consoles that get squeezed into live applications. The TT24 gives engineers new tools that weren't available to them with analogue, as well as providing all the needs specific to
