DiGiCo Announces V3.1 Update for S-Series Ten years ago, DiGiCo introduced its first S-Series mixing console, the S21, designed to capture the manufacturer's sound quality in a compact design. Since then, the dual-screen S21 and its larger three-screen sibling, the S31, have been used in nightclubs, theatres, churches, schools, and performing arts centers. Now comes the launch of the new S-Series version 3.1 software update, which is immediately available and free of charge from the DiGiCo website. "Many of our Quantum and SD-Range customers are well-familiar with the incredible longevity that they can get out of their consoles thanks to our R&D team's downloadable updates," says DiGiCo managing director Austin Freshwater. "But that same level of ROI is just as accessible to our S-Series user base, some of whom are now crossing a decade with their desks, and still getting new features and functionalities with our very latest software enhancements." Chief among V3.1's new amenities is that it allows the S21 and S31 to each fully support DiGiCo's latest MADI-based stage rack, the MQ-Rack. This unit features 48 high-quality microphone inputs and 24 line outputs, with four of these outputs switchable to AES/EBU digital outputs, at 48KHz or 96kHz sampling rates via MADI over BNC connection. With version 3.1, DiGiCo now offers User Layouts, allowing multiple operators to have their own favorite way of laying out the console easily accessible, or the ability to change layouts for different bands as a show progresses, containing only the channels needed for that band. Users can easily change between layouts with a single press of the touchscreen, and the user menu can also be opened from a macro. Loading a new user will not interrupt audio, unlike loading a session, and can be done mid-show. Alongside User Layouts, DiGiCo has added another option, Separate Layer Control, which allows for the left screen of an S21 -- or the left and center screens of an S31 -- to view and control a different layer than the one displayed on the right-hand screen. The layer up and down buttons are added to the top menu bar, meaning they are always accessible. Separate Layer Control is well-suited for leaving a set of output controls on the right-hand side while scrolling up and down the inputs on the left-hand side. Additional new features can be found on the auxiliary section of the S-Series desks. First, DiGiCo has implemented Link and Reverse Link pans for stereo auxiliaries. Link pans are helpful for keeping effects sends lined up with the master panning layout. And with Reverse Link pans, mixing monitors from front of house is greatly simplified, with no need to manually pan each send inverted to the main mix. With the latest software update, the auxes on the S-Series consoles can take a signal from three positions: pre-mute, pre-fade, or post-fade. The aux master can assign a global pick position to all of its sends, and each pick point can be changed on the channel itself. With the latest software update, the number of sends in each position can be seen from the aux master, allowing the user to quickly see the position of all sends at once. Other performance improvements are included: The position of the aux sends is now always displayed on the channel strip; previously, it would display nothing if the aux send was in post-fade position. Mute CG and spill CG macros have been condensed down from 10 individual macros in the menu to just one, which lets users select which macro to spill or mute. User Layouts and Separate Layer Control get a new macro, and Fire Snapshot X is also a new macro. Individual snapshots can now be skipped from the list. The clock on the top menu bar can now be hidden. The shift key now has two modes -- shift and caps lock. Also, various bug fixes have been implemented. A video on the update's new features can be viewed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr7EBlykEyk. 
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