The new DiGiCo Little Red Box and Little Blue Box are two compact add on units that quickly and simply expand the connectivity of DiGiCo consoles.
The Little Red Box is specifically designed to work with DiGiCo’s SD9 digital mixing console and allows you to connect a D-Rack or a MADI Rack (DiGi-Rack or MiNi-Rack) to two SD9s.
Currently, a single D-Rack only allows you to connect to one SD9, with no way of sharing the rack. The Little Red Box, however, will allow you to plug in your D-Rack, main console and a secondary console.
The main console controls all gains, as well as outputs on the rack, while the secondary console acts as a ‘receive only’ module for the inputs, allowing you to share a rack and operate either front of house or monitors. DiGiCo’s gain tracking system can be activated when required.
The handy SPLIT MADI switch allows you to decide if you want to split a D-Rack or one of DiGiCo’s other racks. On an SD9, this connector is usually limited to 32 inputs and 16 outputs. By connecting a DiGi-Rack it allows all 56 I/O to run and is therefore a way of expanding the I/O capabilities of an SD9.
The Little Red Box is powered via USB, with a second USB port acting as a ‘thru’, meaning there is no loss of available connections.
The Little Blue Box, meanwhile, allows you to connect an SD9, D-Rack and MADI console (SD8, SD7 or even a D-Series), thus allowing you to share a D-Rack between two or three consoles. The SD9/MADI switch allows you to select between the SD9, or whatever console is plugged in to the MADI connector to control the D-Rack.
The Console RX auxiliary output is designed to be the redundant run on an SD8 or SD7. Alternatively, it could be split off to another console with one SD9 using a CAT5 connection and one MADI pair for the SD8, which could then feed off to a recorder or another console.
Once again, the Little Blue Box is powered via USB, with a second USB port acting as a thru.
Both boxes can be easily connected to the mixing console with a Velcro strip, or by use of a specially designed 19-inch rack plate.
