Cadac Consoles is returning to ISE, after a four-year hiatus, with a radical realignment of its product offering in the form of the brand-new CM system, centred around the CM-J50 mixer. The result of an extensive re-engineering programme, the CM system is designed to offer enhanced connectivity, control and flexibility, all packaged in a lighter but familiar form factor showcasing a new design language.
The interface has undergone an evolution on the CM-J50, including the addition of a number of new features, allowing faster creative control of Cadac’s audio quality, while maintaining a 0.4ms through-system latency.
Though smaller and lighter than its forebears, the CM-J50 mixer has a higher I/O density with 96 inputs and 56 outputs, of which 48 are user assignable. Brighter 23.5in and 6.5in touchscreens are at the heart of the user interface.
While the form factor is familiar – including the wooden armrest – the CM-J50 is massively internally re-engineered, mechanically and electronically, for both road-worthiness and increased performance. Local I/O has expanded to include 16 analogue mic inputs, eight analogue outputs and eight AES3 ports, plus an integrated Waves interface, and there are dual internal PSUs. Two MegaCOMMS ports, mirrored on optical LC ports as well as BNCs, provide system extension through a new series of ‘intelligent’ CM-SR remote stage racks.
These follow Cadac Consoles’ new design language with the series comprising the 4U CM-SR24 and CM-SR40, with 24 ins and 32 outs and 40 ins and 16 outs respectively, and extending up to the 7U 64 input and 40 output CM-SR64. Designed to meet the ever-increasing demands of live audio production, they feature local control via a 2.4in colour screen, OSC implementation, headphone monitoring and dual internal PSUs, with the units encased in a 100%-recyclable aluminium chassis.
“The stage racks have played a pivotal role in the development of the CM system, with their exceptional level of flexibility and front panel control,” said Emily Watson, head of R&D at Cadac Consoles. “With the implementation of OSC into the system it has increased functionality and opened up a host of interesting potential applications. As a whole, the new system provides a leap in both performance and design over the previous CDC generation. And it has been proven over an extensive beta test programme, including on both international live tours and events over the past 12 months.”
The all-new iPad CM-Remote and PC CM-Editor provide remote control and offline editing solutions, respectively.
“We are excited to embark on this next phase of Cadac Consoles with the launch of the CM-Series,” said James Godbehear, director of marketing and business operations. “The system represents a unique blend of our user-centric design, technology and exceptional audio performance, in a highly versatile, lightweight, truck-pack friendly audio mixing solution. Our system features ‘Console Mirroring’ for redundancy, and the ability to extend the control surface over three consoles with ‘Sidecar Mode’, and we are already well into the process to further expand the capability and scope of the CM system over the next 12 months.”
