Avid Live Sound - VENUE 8.0 New Features Walkthrough

INTRODUCING THE E6LX-256 ENGINE

We’re excited to announce VENUE 8.0 and a new engine: The VENUE | E6LX-256. This engine raises the bar, expanding what you can do with VENUE and expanding channel count. With 256 Inputs and 192 Output busses this new engine will allow you to handle the most demanding shows with all the power, flexibility and customization you come to expect from VENUE.

NEW FEATURES IN VENUE 8.0

Alongside support for the E6LX-256 we have added a ton of new features, expanding capabilities for all VENUE users, starting with Virtual Soundcheck. Now you can allocate up to all four MADI-192 expansion cards in your system for VSC allowing 256chx256ch at 96kHz to cover all your physical inputs and more. With the VENUE 8.0 firmware update to your MLN-192 expansion card you will have the ability to set the card into AVBHD mode, giving you up to 216chx216ch at 96kHz of AVB recording via a single ethernet cable to a support computer from your updated MLN-192 expansion card.

With every major release we expand our event system. We’ve added a host of new Triggers and Actions, most of them stemming from the Options tab. Nearly everything from the Options tab is available as a Trigger or Action, most notably “VCAs Trim Aux Sends in SOF”, which allows you to quickly toggle this setting allowing you use VCAs to trim your mixes in Sends on Faders exactly when you want to. Outside of just expanding the capabilities of the event system we wanted to simplify some of the event making process with the Smart Duplicate feature. Now you can Smart Duplicate any Trigger, Action or even a full event and it will intuitively iterate the variables, which should save operators a lot of time building. For example, if I Smart Duplicate a trigger that is the color switch of group 1, it will add the trigger of color switch group 2.

Another feature that we’ve added in 8.0 is the ability to set and output to be your designated Mix to Monitors for both monitor A and B buses. This allows a greater flexibility in VENUE to allow you to keep that all important monitor mix, matrix or sub group just a solo clear away. We also made this setting an event action so you can easily automate which mix is set as that default.

That brings us to one of the most asked for software features since the beginning of VENUE 20 years ago, AutoMix. The new AutoMix feature is available for every group and leverages other VENUE software features like bus-to-bus routing to achieve complex weighted auto mixes. It’s as simple as clicking the dedicated AutoMix button on the group you wish to activate, with the entire feel of the feature being controlled with a global Attack and Release in the System>Auto page. We designed AutoMix to handle the complexities needed for normal auto mixer corporate show use while also leaving it open for creative uses.

There are loads of other new features like metering for monitor buses and VCAs, setting all Members of an Aux Pre/Post, Coloring output members to match, expanded group view and a rework to quickly navigating mixes and members on CKMs, just to name a few. I recommend checking out the newly refreshed What’s New guide for VENUE 8.0 to see all the new features.

If you are an existing VENUE customer, download your update in your My Avid account.