Soundcraft Vi Series Senior Product Manager Andy Brown considers the new Vi3000 as a massive leap forward in digital console design and functionality, while also retaining the best elements of the Vi4 and Vi6 consoles.
Featuring an all-new appearance with a more efficiently designed control surface, the new Soundcraft Vi3000 digital audio consoles incorporate 96 input channels, 36 faders, 24 mono/stereo busses and a sweeping black screen panel with four Vistonics II touchscreen interfaces and sleek, updated 3D graphics.
The surface operation and layout is similar to previous Vi Series consoles, providing a familiar feel to the user along with expanded functionality. Thanks to the four touchscreens, the Vi3000 is the only console in its class that can be efficiently used by two engineers at the same time.
Soundcraft Vi3000 digital consoles offer extensive rear panel connectivity with a newly upgraded microphone preamp and 40-bit Floating Point DSP processing for superlative sound quality. In addition to analogue and digital inputs and outputs, the console provides MIDI, USB, Ethernet, DVI out, Dante/MADI record feed outputs, redundant power supply and other connections.
Key features of the Vi3000 also include two expansion bays that can be fitted with MADI Stagebox cards to connect multiple Soundcraft Stageboxes to the Vi3000; new Soundcraft Real-time Rack, a hardware/software unit that can be accommodated to provide access to 74 industry-standard UAD plug-ins; and Dante interface as standard, for seamless digital audio networking with Dante-enabled devices.
Along with its greatly expanded functionality, the Vi3000 retains all the features that have made the Soundcraft Vi Series the consoles of choice for live sound engineers worldwide, such as FaderGlow illuminated faders that display different colours according to function, the ability to store and recall snapshots and cues, compatibility with Soundcraft’s ViSi app that allows remote control from an iPad, built-in Lexicon reverb/delays, dbx compression, effects and more.
Soundcraft SpiderCore is a new DSP engine designed for compact consoles and pioneered on the STUDER Vista 1 compact live broadcast console. Eliminating the need for a rack-based DSP and I/O engine, SpiderCore combines FPGA and SHARC DSP technology to provide an unprecedented amount of routing and processing power in a low-profile space envelope that easily fits within the Vi3000 control surface.
The processing power of SpiderCore allows for 96 inputs to mix, with 24 mono or stereo busses, plus Solo, LR and C master busses with spare capacity for future expansion. SpiderCore also provides massive I/O capability, with up to 246 inputs and 214 outputs, which are split between up to 48 local mic/line inputs, 16 line outs, 2x 64ch D21m expansion slots, a 64ch Dante interface with associated optical MADI interface, and 4 channels of AES/EBU I/O. Remote Stageboxes can be attached to one or both of the expansion slots via MADI Cat 5 or Optical cards.
Jands is a leading Australian distributor of professional sound systems as well as lighting and staging equipment.
