DiGiCo Really Takes Flight

For more than five years, DiGiCo’s Quantum Range of digital audio mixing consoles have been the first choice for many of the world’s top live sound engineers, touring companies, and high-profile installs. And while the Quantum8 firmly sits atop of the line as the brand’s flagship large-format desk, DiGiCo now introduces its smallest and newest addition to the family – the Quantum1-12, a single-screen, 12-fader desk that is DiGiCo’s first true flypack mixer.

Designed to fit within a rugged and robust Peli Air 1637 case, the console, when packed, weighs only 23 kilograms – a perfect 50 pounds – qualifying it as a standard checked bag option on most flights. But despite its ultra-compact form factor, the Quantum1 is still a giant on features and functionality, every bit a Quantum in terms of its pedigree.

Based on the latest seventh-generation FPGAs, DiGiCo’s latest product offers 80 input channels with 24 aux/subgroup busses, LR/LCR master busses, and a 12×8 matrix, all with full channel processing. Twelve control groups plus two solos are also available.

Sporting a 17-inch, 1000-nit, high-brightness multitouch screen with both a meterbridge and soft quick select buttons for speedy and intuitive operation, the Quantum1-12 is additionally equipped with 18 individual TFT channel displays to provide clear user feedback and interaction. Beneath the main display are a dozen newly sourced 100mm touch-sensitive faders, selected for their smooth movement and precision control.

The DiGiCo Quantum1 naturally incorporates now-familiar Quantum Range features like Mustard Processing channel strips (20), Spice Rack plugin style native FPGA processing options (6), and Nodal Processing (24). Twelve graphic EQs are available, as are eight FX Rack slots.

Other highlights include Stadius 32-bit ADC and DAC conversion, dual DMI slots, and a host of versatile I/O options, including Dante (64 channels in and 64 channels out at both 48kHz and 96kHz), MADI (redundant or single), optional optics, AES, local connections (16 analog inputs and eight outputs), and more.

“Our new Quantum1-12 is a brilliant illustration of the idiom, ‘Good things come in small packages,’” says DiGiCo Managing Director Austin Freshwater. “We originally tasked our R&D team to create a rack-mountable Quantum console to replace the SD11, which is now 14 years old, and they absolutely outdid themselves. Not only is the Quantum1-12 rackable, but it’s also small and light enough when cased to be under the magic size and weight numbers when traveling by air.”

“The initial brief really challenged our team, driving us to research new materials, optimise design techniques, and inversely shrink topologies while increasing performance,” confirms DiGiCo Head of Research and Development Michael Aitchison. “Our previously smallest console, the SD11, weighs 24 kilograms [53 pounds] without packaging, and 73 kilograms [161 pounds] when flight-cased, so it wasn’t a proper flypack product. The new Quantum1-12 is nearly 70 percent lighter, but still incredibly solid, and far more powerful. We’re extremely proud of how it has turned out and suspect that our customers will be quite pleased with it too.”

DiGiCo’s Quantum1-12 is expected to ship in late October of this year. For more details on the new product, visit https://digico.biz/consoles/quantum112/.