When a manufacturer looks at creating the next generation of products, rarely does a company take the drastic decision to start from scratch and build something completely new. However, that is just how James Godbehear describes the past four years at Cadac Consoles.
“Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, internally, we had decided to re-engineer our desks,” began Godbehear. Despite the obvious downsides to the lockdown, including Cadac’s team having to shrink, Godbehear shared the one silver lining – time to tackle the re-engineering project, without the distraction of sales and support allowing the team, within a relatively short space of time, the opportunity to begin creating an entirely new product line.
The company effectively paused commercial activity at the outset of the COVID-19 emergency, retiring its previous CDC series, while creating its new product range – the CM-Series. The new digital console infrastructure comprises of the flagship CM-J50 console and CM-SR remote stage racks.
“We were really starting afresh with the CM-Series,” reflected Godbehear. “We designed it around our core values – phenomenal sound and ease of use.” Building on the legacy of the brand, Godbehear seems confident that when it comes to audio delivery, the CM-Series lives up to the company’s heritage.
Godbehear also considers the ‘ease-of-use’ to be a major selling point of the CM-Series, and this was thoroughly tested during its development phase.
“During testing, we put the desk in front of several engineers without any instructions or guidance and after a short time were able to get audio out of the desk. You don’t need extensive training to operate it. That’s not to say the desk is basic, far from it, but it allows you to navigate and delve into the system without getting tied into knots,” he said.
He continued by explaining that due to the audio quality, there was no need to overload the CM-Series workflow with parameters. “I’ve had people comment that that if you want an ‘audio’ console, this is the desk you need. If you want to ‘administrate audio’ then there are other choices out there.”
The new release has already had interest from numerous markets such as the House of Worship and multi-purpose venues. That said, due to its lightweight, compact form factor, Godbehear sees it as a good fit for the touring world. “The SR stage boxes range from 7.1kg to 10.2kg, and out of the flight case the desk is 39kg.” Although admittedly not currently on touring riders according to Godbehear, the new range has already received interest from engineers focused on none rider driven audio centric applications. “We’ve also been very popular with monitor engineers,” mused Godbehear. He put this down to several reasons, from the ultra-low latency of less the 0.4 milliseconds from stage rack input, through the console and back out again to the rack, to the console’s dedicated Monitor Mode.
“It has received praise on stage from both orchestras and bands for its exceptionally clean sound. Even when handling multiple complex mixes, engineers have been able to achieve the optimal mix for all performers extremely quickly”.
As well as big changes to its line-up, this year Cadac Consoles has announced that all manufacturing will now take place within the UK. This change marks a significant transition from its previous China production base under the Soundking Group. In fact, the entire Cadac brand has now been divided into two distinct, independent business units, reflecting the current evolution of its product development activities; namely Cadac Consoles and Cadac Immersive. Headquartered at its Beijing R&D facility, Cadac Immersive will focus on marketing its range of proprietary standalone immersive audio products for theatres, fixed installations and cinema applications.
Meanwhile, Cadac Consoles will operate separately out of the UK. “Our decision to move production to the UK was driven by our strategic plan to unlock the brand’s full potential. Manufacturing a low-volume, high-value product 6,000 miles away from our engineering and product management teams posed several logistical challenges. By relocating to the UK, it will allow us to provide a more agile response to market dynamics and demands,” he stated.
“We’ve found a third-party manufacturer based 45 minutes from our Luton base. They can also handle purchasing, stock management as well as shipping, meaning we’ve been able to keep our staff streamlined.” Although there are still some elements of the workflow that are still being established, Cadac Consoles predicts that it will be producing consoles out of the UK by the end of the year.
Although realistic about the busy road ahead, Godbehear expressed his optimism for the future which he predicts will see the internal team grow soon along with more software and hardware releases in the coming year.
Words: Stew Hume
Photos: Cadac Consoles
