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Allen & Heath to Introduce GLD Live Digital Mixing System

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PENRYN, Cornwall, U.K. — Allen & Heath unveiled some details about its GLD live digital mixing system, which is based on its digital iLive series and is set to debut later this month. Designed to be user-friendly, cost effective and scalable, a standard GLD 32 input system offers 28 XLR mic inputs with plug and play I/O expanders, allowing for expansion to up to 48 inputs (44 XLR mic inputs).

At the heart of the system is the GLD-80 mixer, providing 48 input processing channels, 8 stereo FX returns fed by iLive’s acclaimed FX emulations, 30 configurable buses, 20 mix processing channels, and DSP power.

GLD-80 has an analog-style channel processing control section complemented by a graphical 8.4 inch touch screen. A customizable drag and drop layout can be used to assign inputs and mixes to fader strips. There are 20 fader strips in four layers, each with motorized fader, a channel LCD display which can be named and color-coded, plus a rotary control for direct access to gain, pan and aux/FX sends. The mixer’s local I/O includes four XLR mic/line inputs, four XLR line outs, four RCA inputs, two RCA outputs and digital outputs in SPDIF and AES3 formats.

The GLD-80 connects to a range of plug and play I/O racks to “build” 28, 36 or 44 mic input systems. A primary AR2412 rack (24 XLR inputs, 12 XLR outs) and up to two AR84 expander racks (8 XLR inputs, 4 XLR outs each) can be connected over 120m Cat5 runs using A&H’s dSNAKE protocol. dSNAKE provides control to the remote preamp, and all mic preamps are scene recallable. AR2412 also includes a connection for personal monitoring systems.

GLD has the ability to record and playback a stereo signal on a USB memory stick. Standard iLive audio I/O option cards for Dante, MADI, EtherSound and Allen & Heath’s ACE protocols can be fitted, allowing multi-channel record/playback, FOH/monitor splits and connection to A&H iLive systems, which can be configured using GLD’s soft-patching.

“Designing a system which is suitable for both the professional engineer and occasional user has been a priority. With GLD, our aim was to take much of the complexity out of digital mixing, opening up the tremendous benefits of digital technology to a wider group of customers, such as the rental companies, houses of worship and live venues where our GL series analog mixers have been working so successfully for years,” said A&H MD Glenn Rogers. “GLD offers high quality processing and stunning sonic performance. Key to the system is GLD’s remote plug and play I/O audio racks for flexible, easy set-up system building.”

GLD will be launching at NAMM 2012. Suggested retail pricing follows.

GLD-80 + GLD-AR2412: £5,652.91 ex VAT; GLD-80 + GLD-AR2412 + GLD-AR84: £6,267.35 ex VAT.

For more information, please visit www.allen-heath.com.