Mackie Snacks Take Center Stage at NSCA
Following is another dispatch from esteemed Mackoid and Product Specialist, Matt Redmon.
This year’s NSCA (National Systems Contractors Association) Expo, held in Orlando, Fl, was host to over 400 manufacturers launching over 1000 new products, and of course we had to make a splash. …If not to kick off our shoes and enjoy the warm Florida weather, certainly to stylize the showroom floor with our ever-popular blue jeans and black shirts.
Mackie is never shy to the plate with new products, and we showed off such pieces as the famously “snack size” SRM150 and the awesome System32 console-linking and Digital Snake additions to the TT24 Digital Live Console series.
We spoke to people from all walks, from installation gurus fashioning A/V magic using today’s hottest production desks, to folks interested in some of our smaller audio interfaces out of pure, personal indulgence. “I’m an install guy, but I also need a 2-channel interface like the Onyx Satellite for my personal studio,” was not an uncommon refrain on the show floor.
Likewise, just about everyone swung by to tinker around with the SRM150. With a total of four inputs, and nearly limitless applications in which to use it, the SRM family’s newest addition made itself even better known to the audio world’s install market. When people first hear about the SRM150, I’ve found they are concerned about how it’s going to sound. But after playing with one up close, with a combination of guitars, vocal mics, and incoming program material, everyone’s eyebrows consistently give away their astonishment at how good the 150 actually does sound. Well, it ought to. We passed on the first eighteen 5.25” drivers we tried out in order to make absolutely certain we would get the best frequency response possible out of an active speaker this size and shape.
As for System32, we’d hooked up two DS3232 Digital Snakes to two TT24s via one U100 Networking Card each console, then used the second card slot for another U100 Networking Card in each console so we could link the consoles together into their entirely-too-useful master/slave mode. Impressive!
Ray Rivard of Audio Events Inc.-–amongst many others--swung by to check out the upcoming Build 73, now featuring channel-naming and mono and stereo tap-delay. He was even further impressed, even though he’s been a faithful TT user for well over a year. It’s just nice for folks like Ray--as well as those of us who work here--to see the TT now truly coming into its own, and all of the expansion possibilities discussed in previous months coming to fruition. It’s absolutely fantastic to be able to show our commitment to progress with this board at a show like NSCA.
Well, that’s about it from the showroom floor. Thanks for taking the time to stop in and check us out!
Ah… Last but not least, hats--or rather, sombreros--off to Bob Potter, Sound and Lighting Supervisor from the Indiana Convention Center and RCA Dome, for his diligence in taking up the self-appointed, part-time, evening-shift role of Margarita Mix Quality Assurance Engineer. Not sure if there was any tequila in there, but Bob was always happy to see us.
-Matt Redmon, Product Specialist
