Digital Mixer Allen & Heath Avantis

Allen & Heath is an English company specializing in the production of audio equipment, in particular mixing consoles for professional audio applications. The company was founded in 1969 and has been known as a leading manufacturer of quality audio equipment for many decades.

Advanced mixer console

Avantis is a true embodiment of advanced technology and high sound quality in one digital mixing console. It's not just made for sound engineers - it's made for those who seek excellence in audio production.

With the utmost precision and care, Allen & Heath designed the Avantis for use in live concerts, recording studios, theater performances, and any situation where sound is important. Every detail of its design and functionality works in harmony, providing a flawless experience.

With Avantis, you get more than just a mixing console, but a sense of power and control over every aspect of sound art. It impresses with its capabilities, including advanced routing functions, dynamics, effects, and much more.

Connection

Allen & Heath Avantis is very flexible in terms of connectivity and integration with other equipment. It has built-in analog inputs and outputs via XLR, as well as digital AES inputs and outputs for quality audio.

Additional input and output ports allow the Avantis to use the full range of available dLive expansion cards such as Dante, Waves, gigaACE, MADI, and more. This expands the possibilities of system integration as well as multi-channel recording.

In terms of mixer specs, the Avantis can work independently, with 64 input channels, 42 busses, as well as 12 stereo rack effects, and 16 group channels for sound control. Thanks to FPGA technology, the mixer operates at a sampling frequency of 96 kHz and has a low system delay, which is no more than 0.7 ms from analog input to analog output.

Management

The mixer has 24 motorized touch faders, each with 6 layers accessible via the corresponding keys. Fader lighting is integrated into the mixer's armrest and is adjustable via the software's user interface. Each fader can be configured as an input channel, mix, parallel send channel, DCA master, or MIDI. Each fader strip has separate buttons for PAFL, Mix, and Mute with corresponding indicators, as well as a rotary controller. 6 buttons with indicators provide a general mode for rotary controllers such as Gain, Pan, Sends, and up to 3 custom functions. The send level can also be adjusted using the faders.

Dedicated keys are provided for quick copying, pasting, resetting mixes and processing parameters, pre and post-settings, saved scenes, freezing layers, and rotating the graphic equalizer (GEQ) fader. Additional physical controls can be configured by the user, including two sets of 3 rotary encoders and 24 keys.

Full HD touch displays

Two 15.6” Full-HD (1080p) touch screens are provided to access the block view with channel names, effects, I/O, scenario control, settings, utilities, and diagnostics. Channel name boxes display information about each visible channel, such as name, color, type, number, status, pan, delay, measurement, and other parameters. Clicking on a channel name will select that channel. You can select 2 channels at the same time, one on each touch screen.

Inputs and outputs

The device provides 12 balanced XLR connectors for local analog inputs that connect to high-quality controlled amplifiers. The amplifiers can deliver up to +60dB of gain, have standard 48V phantom power, and include a -20dB Pad switch to achieve a maximum input of +30 dBu. The mixer also has 12 local analog outputs via balanced XLR. Their nominal level is +4 dBu, and the maximum level is +22 dBu.

The device has one stereo AES3 input with SRC (with sampling frequency 32-192 kHz) and two stereo AES3 outputs with SRC (96 kHz, 48 kHz, 44.1 kHz). There is an option to bypass sample rate conversion on digital inputs and outputs via the software user interface.

The unit also has a local "SLink" Ethernet audio expansion port with an EtherCON connector. This port supports multiple protocols (gigaACE, DX, GX, dSnake, ME) and provides access to 128x128 digital channels connected using a single cable and allows remote control of Allen & Heath Remote Audio Units amplifiers, as well as connection to Allen & Heath personal mixing systems Heath ME.

In addition, two input/output ports are provided for digital interface modules (MADI, Dante, Waves SoundGrid, gigaACE, and AES/EBU).

Processing effects

Each input channel contains the following processing effects: Trim, Polarity, High Pass Filter, Low Pass Filter, Gate, Parametric EQ, Compressor, and Delay ( Delay). Each output channel contains the following effects: Polarity, Trim, Insert, Parametric EQ, and Graphic EQ with a Real-Time Spectrum Analyzer (RTA), Compressor, and Delay.

The mixer has two gigabit Ethernet ports (1,000 Mbps) for connecting with a Cat5 cable to a computer to control the mixer parameters via MIDI over TCP/IP using a wireless router (access point) for live mixing control. The mixing system includes software for tablet devices connected via a wireless router to a LAN port.

The mixer is powered by mains 100 – 240V, 50/60Hz, with a maximum power of 150W via an isolated 3-pin IEC connector located on the rear panel. A two-pole push-button switch is provided at the network entrance.

Features

• 96kHz 64-channel / 42-bus digital mixer
• XCVI FPGA core with extremely low latency (0.7ms)
• Reliable, all-metal body
• Continuity UI seamlessly blends physical and touch controls for the fastest and most intuitive workflow
• The dPack option adds dLive processing, including 16 Dyn8s, as well as DEEP Compressors and Dual-Stage Valve delay-free amplifiers for each channel
• 12 slots for RackExtra FX with dedicated stereo returns
• 16 group channels of DCAs
• Two 15.6-inch Full HD touch screens with gesture control
• AMM (automatic microphone mixer) up to 64 channels in 1, 2, or 4 zones
• 144 control bands (24 controls, 6 layers) with a separate main section
• SLink port for connection to remote I/O expanders and ME personal mixing system
• 12 analog XLR inputs / 12 analog XLR outputs
• 1 stereo AES input / 2 stereo AES output
• 2 I/O ports, both capable of 128x128 at 96kHz operations - for cards including Dante, MADI, and gigaACE
• Adjust the controls
• Internal memory for stereo playback and recording

User manual