Compact craftsmanship
Published: PRODUCTS
Combining a Vistonics-based control surface with SpiderCore integrated DSP and I/O engine, Soundcraft has extended its Vi-range of digital live consoles with the Vi2000. The Vistonics interface is central to the Vi2000 design, providing direct access to all functions and offering visible information at all times. Multiple switches and rotary encoders are built into each Vistonics screen, whilst functions are colour-coded according to the selected mode. The Vi2000’s sound quality is assured by Soundcraft SpiderCore, which is a 40-bit, floating-point DSP engine mixing FPGA and DSP technology in a combination that reportedly maximises I/O routing and DSP mixing capability.
In addition to a full assortment of on-board mic and line I/O, the console is configurable up to 48 mic line inputs and 16 line outputs, using combinations of 16-channel XLR modules in four rear-mounted slots. The Vi2000 also includes two 64-channel expansion slots, allowing up to two Madi-based stageboxes to be connected. The slots can also provide access to the range of D21m I/O option cards, for which the total count of the console is 246 I/Os. A built-in 64x64 Dante interface provides direct recording and playback connection to any PC- or Mac-based recording software via Ethernet. The Dante interface is complemented by an additional optical Madi interface, designed for either record feeds or to connect the Soundcraft Realtime Rack plugin engine or by adding Universal Audio UAD-powered plugins.
Measuring 1,150mm-wide with 16 input faders and eight output faders, the Vi2000 was created for both fixed installations and for portable live use. In addition to Vistonics, the console also incorporates FaderGlow, VM2 microphone monitoring and a 40-bit floating-point DSP environment running, BSS, dbx, Lexicon and Studer audio processing algorithms together with the BSS DPR901ii Dynamic EQ.