The power of social media, combined with the fast picture taking ability of today’s smart phones, has overtaken DiGiCo’s plans to launch its latest product, the S31, later this year.

“The intention was for the S31, which is currently in its final stages of development, to perform on some shows in the real world before we announced its arrival to market,” says DiGiCo managing director James Gordon. “But it seems to have really captured people’s imagination and once some pictures arrived online, it didn’t take long for news of the console to go global, with prospective owners requesting more information from Europe, the U.S., Asia and Latin America. We even saw a picture of a very cleverly Photoshopped S11, which was exciting news for our R&D team who were not aware of its existence. To set the record straight, the S11 is purely wishful thinking, but it may be a good product idea for us to evaluate for the future.”

For those who have not already seen the latest addition to the DiGiCo S range, the new S31 is the bigger version of the S21. The S31’s expanded worksurface offers 10 additional faders for more control and an additional 10” multi touch screen for faster access and more visual feedback. It is ideally suited to applications where more instant control and feedback are critical to the operator.

The S31 still offers the same flexibility as the S21, with 24 Mic inputs and 12 Line outputs on the rear of the console for straightforward audio connection. There are also two DMI ports as standard, as well as a UB MADI interface for DAW recording.

The S31 will start shipping in late September, combined with the newly release V1.3 Version software recently released on the S21. This is the biggest upgrade for the S21 since its launch 12 months ago and there is still more to come, with future updates and upgrades already planned.

If you want to check out the S31 in the flesh, it will be displayed at on DiGiCo’s stand 8.C61t at IBC 2016 in Amsterdam from 9th to 13th September and at WFX in Louisville, KY on stand 627 on 21st and 22nd September.

“This really has proved the power of social media in our touring business,” confesses James. “We were in the final stages of testing, having only had the console out for a month, but we got busted almost at the end of the development process. It’s getting much harder to keep secrets, but we still have a few…”.

Final production consoles will start to leave the DiGiCo factory in late September, so expect to see even more online in the near future. Please feel free to post on our social media sites when you take delivery.