New Gear

Furman announced that it is shipping its first two Contractor Series products: the CN-1800S (15 amp capacity) and CN-2400S (20 amp capacity) SmartSequencers. Designed for commercial A/V installers, the units combine AC power distribution, protection, filtration, sequential system power on/off, and optional compatibility with Panamax/Furman’s BlueBOLT hosted remote power and energy management platform.

Users of Harman’s Studer Vista consoles can now opt to add up to 24 channels of Lexicon Effects to their console with the release of the VISTA FX engine. The VISTA FX unit contains 8 channels of FX, and three units may be cascaded to allow up to 24 different mono channels per console.

EAW’s Powercube amplifier racks are designed to maximize the capabilities of EAW’s line arrays. Each Powercube amplifier rack includes electrical power distribution, 12 channels of amplifier power with integrated digital signal processing and 12-channel input and output.

XTA Electronics’ DS8000, a redesign of their DS800 mic/line distribution system by Lewis Evans, and overseen by Alex Cooper, has two new key features: an outside-broadcast split function tailored to the demands of the broadcast industry, featuring two rear switches making stereo 16 way splits easy; and a dual redundant power supply system that is a breeze to enable when two DS8000 units are paired together. Like all XTA products, they are distributed throughout the U.S. by Group One, Ltd.

PreSonus is now shipping Studio One 2.0.5, a free update to all versions of the company’s DAW software for Mac and Windows that adds several new features and fixes a variety of issues. Now, any Studio One command can be assigned to any MIDI CC message. That means users  can also use any MIDI control surface with Studio One, even if it isn’t natively supported. In addition, Ampire XT amp models have been reworked to sound better, and markers can now have a Stop flag that stops playback at the marker.

Audio-Technica’s new System 8 VHF Wireless Systems are designed for reliable performance, easy setup and clear, natural sound quality at a competitive price. Available in handheld, headworn, guitar, lavalier and body-pack configurations, these single-channel, fixed-frequency systems are available in three traveling VHF frequencies (169.505, 170.245 and 171.905).

Waves Audio is now shipping its NLS Non-Linear Summer, which promises to deliver the sound of three classic consoles in one powerful plugin. To create NLS, Waves joined forces with three leading producer / engineers – Mark “Spike” Stent, Mike Hedges and Yoad Nevo – modeling their mixing desks.

Stagetec’s new XDIP board, which connects NEXUS to networks running Audinate’s Dante, lets users create audio and media networks on existing standard Ethernet infrastructure using TCP/IP. Dante provides a migration path with the emerging AVB standard IEEE 802.1BA..

EAW introduced the first two products in the new Avalon by EAW line of dance club loudspeaker systems: CLUB.two and CLUB.three, designed in partnership with club designer/owner John Lyons, who previously worked with EAW in the late 1990s (hence the “two” and “three” in the model names.)