Digidesign has announced plans to enter the sound reinforcement market with a new digital mixing console system aimed at professionals in a wide range of live performance venues, including tours, theatrical productions, corporate installations, and houses of worship. The system will feature uncompromising audio fidelity and a recording and playback pathway to Digidesign’s award-winning Pro Tools® digital audio workstation.

“In the past decade, Pro Tools has revolutionized the way professionals record, edit, mix, and master audio in music studios and postproduction facilities,” said David Krall, president and chief executive officer of Avid. “We believe that the live sound market is primed for a similar transformation, as engineers shift from traditional, analog mixing boards to digital consoles that offer greater creative control and flexibility. No other company is in a better position than Digidesign to integrate a live sound console with a nonlinear recording environment and the vast plug-in processing capabilities that have made Pro Tools the leading digital audio workstation in the industry.”

Digidesign general manager Dave Lebolt added, “For the past three years, we’ve engaged in a huge development effort to create a live mixing system that combines our DSP and control surface expertise with the special requirements of performance sound. The result of this effort is a new product line that, like the Pro Tools family of systems, is engineered to be flexible, expandable, and scalable to meet many different needs and price points. With these revolutionary products, we hope to achieve the same level of success in the live sound market as we have in the recording and postproduction industries.”

Digidesign plans to unveil its sound reinforcement product line in September 2004 at the PLASA event in London, the annual trade show of the Professional Lighting and Sound Association. The system is expected to ship by the end of 2004.

More information is available at the Digidesign site.