A regular stream of suitors kept Yamaha technicians Andy Cooper and Wayne Powell busy showing people over Rivage PM10 throughout the event. But, demonstrating how Yamaha has built a new range of consoles to suit every production type, size and budget, the new TF series was also the subject of much hands-on attention.
"The first thing that struck us about the PM10 was how clear, uncluttered and solid it felt. It's beautifully designed, more like the interior of a premium car than a mixing console." says Chris Headlam, managing director of Orbital Sound.
"It's going to be very powerful and very easy to use, which will allow the engineer to do extremely complex things quickly, keep track of them and not get lost. The PM10 represents real quality - I think it will set a new yardstick for console design."
"It looks awesome, but it's still manageable and not too big," adds Paul Galley of Event Sound & Light.
Joe Jackson, Technical Sales at LMC Audio, summed up the comments of the ABTT visitors that he spoke to about the console. "The consensus was that it's arguably the most capable desk ever made and fully affirms the modern Yamaha range," he says. "It has a flawless list of features and an outstanding capacity for effects/plug ins. Yamaha's new Hybrid Microphone Preamplifier could really make it a winner across the board."
The new TF series also received a lot of interest, as Karl Christmas, sales and marketing manager for Yamaha Commercial Audio (UK & ROI), explained. "We deliberately positioned the TF series consoles at the front of the stand, because the TouchFlow Operation is specifically designed to make them as accessible and easy to use as possible, while still delivering very high and features.
"By looking at show visitors for just a few seconds you can tell if they are making sense of a console or merely fiddling. It was pleasing to see how many people - especially younger ones, who are the future of our industry - walked up to the TF series mixers and obviously got to grips with the user interface and controls straight away."
(Jim Evans)
