With the DiGiCo SD8, the compact footprint of this entry-level console, coupled with the power of its Super FPGA processor, made it an instant hit, with record numbers sold since its launch.
Now, as the world of corporate events begins its renaissance, DiGiCo has once again produced a product to suit the industry’s changing needs – a console with an even smaller footprint but with no reduction in functionality or number of inputs and outputs. At under a meter (3 feet) in width, this diminutive powerhouse is known as the SD8-24.
Take a video tour of the new SD8-24 console here.
“A lot of our customers in the corporate world were hard hit at the start of the credit crunch,” says James Gordon, DiGiCo’s managing director. “Recently, they’ve been telling us that work is starting to come back. This is great news and we wanted to do something to address the needs of the rejuvenating market.
“Designing a smaller footprint SD8, but without reducing any of its features, seemed the perfect way to do that.”
The SD8-24 has the fixed architecture of the SD8, employing the same smaller Super FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Array), a technology that has been around for almost as long as DSP.
FPGAs comprise a series of logic blocks, plus a system for connecting them, which can be programmed to perform complex operations or more routine tasks normally associated with basic gates, and in many high performance FPGAs, these logic blocks also have access to on-chip memory or even embedded microprocessors.
Applications for FPGAs are very wide reaching and this brings with it certain economies of scale. They are particularly well-suited to audio mixing applications, not least because a single FPGA can carry out the same functions as a whole board full of conventional DSP chips.
Evolution has seen the development of much larger FPGA’s and these can perform far greater numbers of calculations than the most advanced DSP. These Super FPGAs are utilized in the SD-8 and SD8-24. (Go to next page for more information about the new DiGiCo SD8-24.)
