Allen & Heath has extended its Qu range with the launch of Qu-Pac, a compact digital mixer that features a built-in touchscreen and iPad control app.
Designed for live music and installed sound, Qu-Pac is a freestanding or rack-mount mixer, offering 16 mono inputs, 3 stereo inputs and 12 mix outputs on the rear panel. The model can also be expanded up to 38 in/28 out by connecting to Allen & Heath’s family of remote AudioRacks over Cat5.
The mixer offers total recall of settings and preamps, multi-track recording to USB via Qu-Drive, a choice of personal monitoring solutions, channel ducking, multi-channel USB streaming and iLive FX Library.
The Qu-Pad iPad app offers wireless control of the key parameters and settings, freeing the user to mix the show from anywhere in the venue. Qu-Pac’s high resolution, full colour 5in Touchscreen allows access to all functions, providing a simple interface and a backup in the event of Wi-Fi connection problems.
As well as stereo recording or playback from a USB key, the built-in, 18-channel Qu-Drive can record and playback multitrack and stereo audio .wav files to a USB key or drive. Qu-Pac’s 32×32, Windows and Mac compliant USB streaming interface also makes it “the perfect recording solution for tracking, monitoring and overdubbing” in the studio, the firm says.
Allen & Heath’s dSNAKE low latency audio connection enables the mixer to connect over a single Cat5 digital snake to AB168, AR84 and AR2412 remote audio racks. In addition, Qu-Pac offers two solutions for personal monitoring: via the Qu-You iPhone app or using ME-1 personal mixers, which connect to the mixer via the dSNAKE port.
The mixer’s mic/line inputs feature AnaLOGIQ recallable pad-less preamps, designed to optimise transparency and low harmonic distortion. Qu-Pac is equipped with a selection of FX emulations developed for the iLive pro touring series, in addition to RTA and metering and monitoring.
Allen & Heath’s managing director, Glenn Rogers commented on the new arrival: “Qu-Pac is a response to some of the major headaches in real world mixing. For bands working the bar and club scene, there are countless situations where there just is no space for a regular mixer.
“For venues, there are many, many scenarios from AV presentations and conferences to hotels, bars and restaurants where background music and simple events are handled by non-technical staff who would be intimidated by a regular mixer. Think of a bar or restaurant that has live music at the weekends. Qu-Pac is ideal in this sort of situation – password protection and simple custom screens allow general staff to run the system day-to-day, then a sound engineer can use the iPad to mix full shows, with the safety net of hands-on control if anything happens to the Wi-Fi. That’s just one scenario where this highly versatile and effective package provides the ideal solution.”