As a key part of their re-equipment programme, major PA production company Britannia Row is switching exclusively to DSP by making a further heavy investment in the new BSS Minidrive. The initial 36 two-input/four-output FDS-334s will run the company’s new floor monitors, powered by C Audio Pulse switched-mode amplifiers. Brit Row’s equipment manager, Jerry Wing, confirmed that the first eight-unit system is already in use with Depeche Mode on their US arena tour and has been performing flawlessly. "I believe that we are the first rental company to make this level of commitment in digital stage monitoring equipment," stated Wing. "We aim to lead the way not only in audience but also in stage coverage. To that end we have developed new wedges, drumfills and amplification packages over the past year with advice from our client engineers - and the Minidrives are the final, vital, part of our update. Minidrive provides the functionality required by many applications, but by not including all the high-end functions of the Omndrive, is made more affordable to a wider section of the market.Available in two models - the FDS-334 and FDS-336 - the former’s two-input/four-output configuration is purpose-designed for the monitor rack. Crossover filters are completely user-adjustable, with selectable filter topologies of Bessel, Butterworth and Linkwitz-Riley. Minidrive has the usual DSP crossover additional facilities such as delay on inputs and outputs, assignable equalisers (up to 60 bands), and mid-filter limiters. Input and output level meters are an immediate comfort for the engineer, and individual output band mute keys are provided. The final word comes from Jerry Wing: "Digital is pretty much accepted now and the Minidrive is ideal, as it uses the same chipset as the Omnidrive with some of the features non-essential for concert touring left out. We have a long relationship with BSS digital processing so it was natural that we should choose to extend this."
