Avid VENUE 7 Enhancements Provide the Power and Flexibility Needed for Sound Engineers to Deliver High-Quality Performances
BURLINGTON, Mass., 2/18/2021
Company delivers biggest Avid VENUE update since the introduction of the Avid VENUE | S6L live sound system; Three system I/O sharing and pioneering Milan network connectivity highlight key new features
Avid® (Nasdaq: AVID) today announced the immediate availability of the next generation of its VENUE live sound software – Avid VENUE 7. Introducing a host of new features and enhancements that empower engineers and sound designers to deliver large-scale concert performances, broadcast events and house of worship and theater productions with unparalleled quality and efficiency, the Avid VENUE 7 update represents the Avid VENUE | S6L system’s most significant software release to date.
Avid VENUE software now supports I/O sharing across three Avid VENUE | S6L systems, providing more workflow flexibility while reducing costs and complexity without any negative impact on sound quality. Support for I/O sharing makes it easy for users to add a broadcast console or second monitor console to their setup or enable fast switchover at festivals and concerts. With I/O sharing, microphone feeds can be split digitally over the network so engineers only have to build one set of I/O racks, providing significant cost savings for touring productions and reducing setup times. Plus, all I/O configurations fully support Avid’s True Gain technology, which automatically manages gain compensation to ensure proper signal levels are maintained for each engineer.
In an industry first, Avid also announced that users can now send and receive up to 128 channels of audio between Avid VENUE | S6L systems and Milan™ (media-integrated local area network) certified devices – including loudspeakers, amplifiers and other pro audio devices – with the new MLN-192 Milan Option Card and latest Avid VENUE software. Seamless plug-and-play connectivity lets users distribute audio with ease to Milan-enabled devices over an Ethernet AVB network, with no switch configuration or IT expertise required. Engineers and sound designers can benefit from the speed, interoperability and reliability that the industry-standard Milan protocol brings to live sound without any fear of audio dropouts or signal degradation.
“As the world’s first live sound console to be certified by the rapidly growing Milan protocol and the only one to offer gain-compensated I/O sharing between three systems, this is more than just a software update – VENUE 7 truly takes a giant leap forward,” said Dana Ruzicka, SVP & GM of Audio & Music Solutions at Avid. “Although live performances have been hit hard by the ongoing pandemic, Avid remains fully committed to innovating for the live sound industry. We’re doubling down with the biggest software release since shipping the S6L system, giving engineers and sound designers the power and performance they need to deliver the best possible live sound productions.”
“In live sound you need reliability, rapid deployment, and high fidelity,” said Richard Bugg, Avnu Alliance® Pro AV Segment Chair. “The Avid VENUE | S6L is the industry's first live sound console to be Milan-certified, guaranteeing it will work with other Milan-certified devices, giving users a fast and dependable solution with expanded functionality.”
The Avnu Alliance is a community creating an interoperable ecosystem of low-latency, time-synchronized, highly reliable networked devices using open standards through certification.
VENUE 7 also provides superior control of delay compensation to help users tackle plugin-heavy mixes with complex routing requirements. Aligning busses and matrixes is simplified through Automatic Delay Compensation (ADC) settings, while the new Input Delay Alignment command makes it easy to align selected input channels to compensate for any plugins inserted on those inputs. Using Avid’s True Time technology, this provides the most comprehensive alignment of audio signals of any solution on the market, ensuring more granular control and visibility over how delay gets managed across the system.
Additional new Avid VENUE software features include:
The new Avid VENUE 7 features and functionality are now available for all customers on an active support contract. For more information, visit Avid.com/S6L.
Avid VENUE software now supports I/O sharing across three Avid VENUE | S6L systems, providing more workflow flexibility while reducing costs and complexity without any negative impact on sound quality. Support for I/O sharing makes it easy for users to add a broadcast console or second monitor console to their setup or enable fast switchover at festivals and concerts. With I/O sharing, microphone feeds can be split digitally over the network so engineers only have to build one set of I/O racks, providing significant cost savings for touring productions and reducing setup times. Plus, all I/O configurations fully support Avid’s True Gain technology, which automatically manages gain compensation to ensure proper signal levels are maintained for each engineer.
In an industry first, Avid also announced that users can now send and receive up to 128 channels of audio between Avid VENUE | S6L systems and Milan™ (media-integrated local area network) certified devices – including loudspeakers, amplifiers and other pro audio devices – with the new MLN-192 Milan Option Card and latest Avid VENUE software. Seamless plug-and-play connectivity lets users distribute audio with ease to Milan-enabled devices over an Ethernet AVB network, with no switch configuration or IT expertise required. Engineers and sound designers can benefit from the speed, interoperability and reliability that the industry-standard Milan protocol brings to live sound without any fear of audio dropouts or signal degradation.
“As the world’s first live sound console to be certified by the rapidly growing Milan protocol and the only one to offer gain-compensated I/O sharing between three systems, this is more than just a software update – VENUE 7 truly takes a giant leap forward,” said Dana Ruzicka, SVP & GM of Audio & Music Solutions at Avid. “Although live performances have been hit hard by the ongoing pandemic, Avid remains fully committed to innovating for the live sound industry. We’re doubling down with the biggest software release since shipping the S6L system, giving engineers and sound designers the power and performance they need to deliver the best possible live sound productions.”
“In live sound you need reliability, rapid deployment, and high fidelity,” said Richard Bugg, Avnu Alliance® Pro AV Segment Chair. “The Avid VENUE | S6L is the industry's first live sound console to be Milan-certified, guaranteeing it will work with other Milan-certified devices, giving users a fast and dependable solution with expanded functionality.”
The Avnu Alliance is a community creating an interoperable ecosystem of low-latency, time-synchronized, highly reliable networked devices using open standards through certification.
VENUE 7 also provides superior control of delay compensation to help users tackle plugin-heavy mixes with complex routing requirements. Aligning busses and matrixes is simplified through Automatic Delay Compensation (ADC) settings, while the new Input Delay Alignment command makes it easy to align selected input channels to compensate for any plugins inserted on those inputs. Using Avid’s True Time technology, this provides the most comprehensive alignment of audio signals of any solution on the market, ensuring more granular control and visibility over how delay gets managed across the system.
Additional new Avid VENUE software features include:
- Effortless USB recording and playback – easy 2-track recording and playback using a USB flash drive connected to the S6L control surface provides ultimate flexibility. Users can perform basic live stereo recordings, play back stereo tracks for pre-show entertainment or walk-up music, play music between acts, and even trigger sound effects or cues for theater performances.
- Mix more creatively and easily – new mixing features let users expand their creative possibilities. They can add analog warmth and color to mixes with HEAT available on every input channel, shape sounds freely with unlimited graphic EQs on all output busses, enable parallel mix control, or filter out frequencies with HPF and LPF on every output channel.
- Enhanced processing and routing possibilities – four new post-fader plugin inserts and one post-fader hardware insert on every input channel make VENUE 7 ideal for automixing workflows. 400 plugin slots available across all S6L systems and engines allow for better VENUE show file compatibility, while bus-to-bus routing offers the freedom and flexibility to route any Aux or Group to any other.
The new Avid VENUE 7 features and functionality are now available for all customers on an active support contract. For more information, visit Avid.com/S6L.