Mr. Zandstra configuring the software on his laptop.

When it was introduced a few months ago, the new Shure P4800 digital system processor immediately piqued my interest. On the surface, this four input by eight output unit, housed in a single-space box and configurable via its own dedicated software, looked like a viable solution in smaller, “simple but slick” installed system applications.

A quick overview of the feature set:

- Any input can be routed to any output, along with mixing of multiple inputs, at each output. The user can also place “common” signal processing blocks in the signal path ;
- Choice of equalization, including 10- and 30-band graphic as well as 3-, 5-, 7-, and 10-band parametric;
- Hard- and soft-knee limiting, with stereo limiters available for protection against unexpected increases in signal level;
- Up to 20 seconds of digital delay that can be divided and distributed;
- “Dynamics” processors, including automatic gain control, compression, limiting, gating, and downward expansion of gain;
- Loudspeaker crossover with independent slopes;
- Automatic feedback reduction, with a choice of 5- or 10-band DFR processing blocks using Shure’s adaptive algorithm.

P4800 front view

Quite a bit of capability in this compact package, and the list price - $2,665 (U.S.) – is appealing. Larger systems can be served by up to 16 P4800’s networked for control via a ShureLink connector. (Click here for P4800 Specifications.)

Further, I noted that several respected professionals, Pat Brown of Syn-Aud-Con and Jim Brown among them, had been part of the P4800 beta test team. Both Jim and Pat were complimentary, particularly regarding the ease of use of the software interface.