ONLINE LAUNCH FOR DiGiCo S31
DiGiCo was to launch the S31 later this year, but courtesy social media the news about the launch
is out much before the launch date.
DiGiCo Managing Director James Gordon says, “The intention was for the S31, which is currently in
its final stages of development, to perform on some shows in the real world before we announced
its arrival to market. But it seems to have really captured people’s imagination and once some
pictures arrived online, it didn’t take long for news of the console to go global, with
prospective owners requesting more information from Europe, the U.S., Asia and Latin America.
We even saw a picture of a very cleverly Photoshopped S11, which was exciting news for our R&D
team who were not aware of its existence. To set the record straight, the S11 is purely wishful
thinking, but it may be a good product idea for us to evaluate for the future.”
For those who have not already seen the latest addition to the DiGiCo S range, the new S31 is the
bigger version of the S21. The S31’s expanded work surface offers 10 additional faders for more
control and an additional 10” multi touch screen for faster access and more visual feedback. It
is ideally suited to applications where more instant control and feedback are critical to the
operator.
The S31 still offers the same flexibility as the S21, with 24 Mic inputs and 12 Line outputs on
the rear of the console for straightforward audio connection. There are also two DMI ports as
standard, as well as a UB MADI interface for DAW recording.
The S31 started shipping in late September, combined with the newly release V1.3 Version software
recently released on the S21. This is the biggest upgrade for the S21 since its launch 12 months
ago and there is still more to come, with future updates and upgrades already planned.
“This really has proved the power of social media in our touring business,” confesses James.
“We were in the final stages of testing, having only had the console out for a month, but we got
busted almost at the end of the development process. It’s getting much harder to keep secrets,
but we still have a few”.