Yamaha and Steinberg target postproduction with Nuage
Published: PRODUCTS
New console combines Yamaha hardware, Dante networking and Steinberg’s Nuendo 6 DAW
In what is being seeing as a landmark product release, Yamaha has launched Nuage, a large-format console aimed at the postproduction sector which blends the Japanese manufacturer’s hardware and integration expertise with Steinberg’s Nuendo 6 DAW as an operating platform.
First seen late in 2012 at the InterBEE exhibition in Tokyo, the Dante-equipped console has already garnered attention within the global postproduction community. It is described by Yamaha as targeted at ‘professionals in the television, advertising, film, and media industries’, offering ‘unprecedented mixing, editing, or dialogue replacement efficiency in audio postproduction applications’.
In terms of its hardware, the Nuage control surface has been designed around a modular concept to encourage versatility, with all units communicating with each other and the central computer via Dante.
Available hardware components include the Nuage Fader channel-strip control surface, which works with standard LCD monitors to offer a view directly into the Nuendo mixing window; the Nuage Master controller unit, which, according to the manufacturer, delivers ‘everything needed for Nuendo editing in a remarkably efficient arrangement’; and the Nuage Workspace units which have been designed to aid the creation of a unified system layout. Three I/O units are also offered with up to 128 simultaneous channels, plus a Dante Accelerator card that gives the computer running the Nuendo DAW extra low latency multi-channel audio data transfer capability.
At the heart of the system, meanwhile, is the newly-launched Nuendo 6 itself, defined by Yamaha as ‘a milestone release that comes with an enviable selection of features’.
The collaboration between the two brands has of course been long in the making – Yamaha purchased Steinberg in early 2005 and the potential of combining its own expertise in hardware design with the potential of its software division is not lost on Kazunori Kobayashi, general manager of the Yamaha Corporation Pro Audio Division. ‘Yamaha has been manufacturing digital mixers for 25 years,’ he reasoned following the system’s debut, ‘and it is 12 years since Steinberg introduced the first version of Nuendo. We are confident that current Nuendo users as well as users who will experience a Nuendo-based system for the first time will be more than satisfied with the performance and efficiency that Nuage offers.’
Steinberg managing director Andreas Stelling added that he believes Nuage ‘sets new milestones in terms of operational speed, integration, configurability and design’.
While it remains to be seen whether Nuage represents a strong enough proposition to mount a serious challenge to the current brand hierarchy in the postproduction community, the system’s introduction at InterBEE saw it constantly surrounded by crowds. Its reception at exhibitions throughout 2013 is likely to be just as impressive.