Back in 2013 Avid announced the end of the ICON control surfaces and the launch of the Avid S6. But that was over 8 years ago. The world has moved on, will there be a replacement for the Avid S6? Do we need a replacement for the Avid S6? Is it time for Avid to open up Eucon? In this article, we investigate all these questions and more.

The History Of Avid Control Surfaces

Before we get to these questions we are going to recap the history of the larger format Digidesign and Avid control surfaces to give this discussion some context…

1998 – Digidesign ProControl – It all started when Digidesign introduced the first in a series of control surfaces for Pro Tools after more than three years of announcements and a failed initial development.  ProControl provided motorised, touch-sensitive faders, knobs, and switches designed for maximum accessibility to Pro Tools recording, mixing, and editing functions. ProControl also included an analog Control Room section, for monitoring control and studio communication. Pro Control used Ethernet connectivity to the host computer. Later, ProControl could be expanded by adding Fader Packs, and by adding a Digidesign Edit Pack. Each Fader Pack provided 8 additional fader strips and controls. Up to five Fader Packs could be used in conjunction with one Main Unit. An Edit Pack provided a pair of touch-sensitive, motorised joysticks, built-in Pro Tools keyboard, high-resolution metering, and other features for surround mixing and professional production environments.

2001 – Digidesign Control 24 – This was Digidesign's second attempt at a control surface. The Control 24 included Focusrite preamps as well as being a control surface with 24 touch-sensitive motorised faders, 16 Focusrite Class A Mic Preamps, Control Room Section capable of up to 5.1 surround monitoring, Dedicated EQ and Dynamics switches on every channel. It is connected to Pro Tools TDM systems via high-speed Ethernet, with LED display for transport location, integrated sub mixer with 8 stereo inputs and Touch-Sensitive automation of plug-in parameters using faders in Plug-In Flip Mode.

2004 – Digidesign ICON D-Control – For the first time, the new D-Control allowed Pro Tools users to mix larger TV/film projects within the workstation without using a conventional mixing console. The basic configuration for D-Control was 16 faders and a centre section, with the option of having the fader ‘buckets’ positioned on either side of the master module. The D-Control channel strip had 6 rotary encoders and the centre section had dedicated rotary controllers for EQ and Dynamics. The keyboard and trackball trays were removable to cater for left-handed and right-handed use, or for the addition of a mouse as a replacement for the included trackball.

2005 - Digidesign ICON D-Command, the little brother of D-Control came on the market. The base model had 8 faders, the extension offers another 16. The D-Command was designed to provide similar functionality to the D-Control, but in a smaller unit at a lower cost. It retained the basic elements, such as dynamics and EQ sections, monitoring, channel strips, XMON and so on, but provided fewer physical controls. Unlike the D-Control, the D-Command Main Unit included eight faders. An optional D-Command-specific Fader Module provided a further 16 faders, to give 24 in total, but you could only use one Fader Module with each D-Command Main Unit.

2007 - Digidesign C24 - The new C24 replaced the Control 24. The large height, which was often criticised in the old Control 24, was significantly reduced and the new C24 was oriented more towards the hardware controllers on the market at the time.  The C24, offered 24 bankable channel strips, each with a touch-sensitive, motorised fader, motion sensitive encoder and LED ring, as well as dedicated Mute, Solo, Select, Input, Record, EQ, Dynamics, Insert, Send, Automation illuminated switches and dual-row LED scribble strip displays that let you easily keep tabs on each channel. The C24 came equipped with a 5.1 surround analog monitor section for post-production work, and a built-in talkback mic and inputs for remote talkback and listen-back. Next came four buttons for the four edit modes in Pro Tools: Shuffle, Spot, Slip and Grid as well as buttons for Trim, Select, Grabber, Pencil and the Smart tool.

2008 - Digidesign Icon D-Control ES - Digidesign changed the appearance of the D-Control and gave us the ICON D-Control ES, as a sleeker version of the ICON D-Control in black. The remodelled Icon offered the same workflows and HD integration as the original D-Control, the ES featured updated text graphics and switch colours, which provided better visibility in low-light environments.

2009 - Digidesign Icon D-Command ES - Like its larger brother the D-Control Digidesign changed the appearance of the D-Command and gave us the ICON D-Command ES, as a sleeker version of the ICON D-Command. The smaller sibling remodelled Icon offered the same workflows and HD integration as the original D-Command, the ES featured updated text graphics and switch colours, which provided better visibility in low-light environments.

2013 - S6 Control Surface - Avid announce that they have ‘leveraged the best of the ICON and System 5 product families in a revolutionary new modular design’. The new Avid S6 was built around 2 core frames, the S6 M40 allowing for up to 41 modules and the smaller S6 M10 allowing for up to 9 modules. The larger S6 M40 was aimed at high-end professionals and facilities that needed great scalability and customisation with the smaller S6 M10 aimed at smaller to mid-size facilities, such as producers.

Master modules were the central hubs of the S6 surface design. All surfaces must include a main engine, which provided touchscreen access and control; with a choice between two—S6 M40 or S6 M10. The S6 Automation Module complemented both, providing controls for transport, automation, and more. Both featured a tilting 12.1-inch multipoint touchscreen, eight adjacent rotary encoders, and dedicated knobs and keys for monitoring and global control, enabling users to view, access, and edit different aspects of your mix—such as tracks, processing, and metering—without mousing through menus.

2014 - Avid S3 Control Surface - Avid announced the baby brother to their S6 mixing console, the Avid Pro Tools S3 control surface. It packs enormous power and accelerated mixing efficiency for faster turnarounds, making it useful, from project studios to the largest, most demanding facilities. Its small form factor makes it ideal for smaller spaces for those working from home or freelancers working on the road. 

The Avid Pro Tools S3 was considered to be aimed at two markets. Firstly towards ex Pro Control, Control 24 users or similar, who enjoyed the tactile aspect of fader control, but didn’t have space or inclination to change their total mix room or perhaps could not justify the S6. Just like the S6 however, the S3 is also designed for other EUCON enabled DAWs such as Logic, Cubase and Nuendo. Secondly, it would appeal to anybody thinking of getting multiple Artist Series Controllers, as whilst the cost of the S3 was slightly more than say 2 Artist MC Mixes, the expanded 32 OLED displays and general feel of the S3 could be a better option, and if 16 faders was felt to be a good number.

2019 - Avid S4 Control Surface - Avid announced the Avid S4 control surface as a replacement to the Avid S6 M10 range. The Avid S4 comes pre built and configured in one of 3 standard frames with up to 24 faders, with the option to have some additional modules from the S6 range including the Joystick, Post and 32 knob modules.

The Avid S4 has been designed with smaller recording studios, independent music mixers, and smaller rooms in mind. When it comes to audio post-production workflows, the same concept of smaller rooms and smaller footprints applies whether it is for immersive audio mixing, sound design, ADR, Foley, or sound editing. The Avid S4 has been designed to provide the workflow versatility you need to take on any project, from film, TV, and OTT media, to commercials and games, with Dolby Atmos integration, when required, to help you complete diverse projects on time and on budget, in smaller rooms than before.

2021?? - And that is where the story stops. Although the S4 has replaced the lower speed M10 S6 range, essentially we have not seen a new large-format control surface from Avid since September 2013. Where should Avid go with control surfaces?

Will Avid Produce A Replacement For The Avid S6?

To try and answer this we need to look at how the industry has changed over the last 8 years and also the changes in Avid’s business model. Back in September 2018, at IBC in Amsterdam, Avid’s newly appointed CEO Jeff Rosica started to lay out his plans for Avid. Jeff acknowledged that there is a massive shift and disruption going on across the industry that is significantly impacting the business of Broadcast, Media & Entertainment…

“This shift or disruption is not just impacting the business aspects of media but also a profound impact on all operational functions, and how production teams and creatives get their best work done. The industry wants more efficient workflows to get work done faster, easier and with less resources with better tools with much more powerful collaborative capabilities.”

Jeff reiterated the demands from Avid’s customer base are for lower costs, simpler integration, faster deployment and easier to maintain systems and technical environments…

“As a result Avid has been taking some unique approaches in how we leverage technology, design our products, and think about our customers and users. We need to carefully consider these market dynamics and trends in our strategy; working in unique ways with our customer, user and partner communities to ensure we’re aligned and properly prioritize our efforts to best meet their needs.”

Spool forward to 2021 and Jeff Rosica was interviewed on an investor-focused podcast, which uncovered more about Jeff’s philosophy of running Avid including who they perceive their customers are, their changing business model towards software subscription and Software as a Service (SaaS). In the interview, Jeff was asked to talk about Avid’s transition from perpetual licenses and hardware to a business model that is much more focused on SaaS, which includes the thorny issue, for some, of software subscriptions…

“It's been a very successful part of our business. It has helped us transform the financial stability of the company and the trajectory of the company financially. It's something that in the end is a win-win for everybody. We found that it becomes a win for our customers because they get more flexibility in how they buy and how they deploy and what commercial models that they utilise. It's a win for the company, obviously because it's a recurring model and a more stable, recurring model because as the company gets more towards the recurring revenue and less on the perpetual or the one-time kind of purchase model, it's a real benefit to the company's financials.”

So what do Avid’s financials look like?

Here is a table based on Avid’s Q3 2021 Results presentation. It shows the revenue splits for each quarter for the last 21 months and shows the revenue split between Software and Hardware…

Notes

• A significant part of integrated solutions and hardware is large scale storage solutions. This is also where the revenue from control surfaces will be but Avid doesn’t provide a breakdown of each of these areas so we cannot see what Avd’s revenue is from control surface sales.

• You can see that Software and Services form at least two third’s of Avid’s revenue with control surfaces being a small part of that one third.

Coming back to this year’s investor podcast interview, Avid CEO Jeff Rosica was asked about balancing innovation with the costs of bringing a product to market as the perception was that “engineers called the shots”…

“First of all, engineering and innovators are important. You gotta be solving something right? One of the ways we've done that is I've implemented much more business planning, much more strict ways that you look at, where are we going to spend R & D dollar.”

In the light of Avid’s clear move to Software as a Service (SaaS) and their desire to spend R&D dollars carefully, is there a good enough business case for Avid to develop a replacement for the Avid S6? Looking at all the evidence we have access to, we don’t expect Avid to produce a replacement for the S6.

Should There Be A Replacement For The Avid S6?

Ok, so if we don’t think that Avid should produce a new large-format Eucon powered control surface then we have to ask whether there is a big enough market to justify the investment in research and development?

From our standpoint, it’s a tricky one. Especially following the pandemic and the obvious growth in working from home, especially in the TV and OTT sectors, a lot of content has been mixed in people’s homes and so any large scale facility should be asking if they need these expensive large scale dubbing suites, some of which have dual operator consoles or control surfaces like an Avid S6?

Is The Large-Format Control Surface Market Dead?

Which begs the question for any brand, including Avid, as to where there is a big enough market out there to provide an assurance that there will be a big enough return on investment to design and develop a replacement for the Avid S6.

Back to the investor podcast interview in which Jeff went to say that it isn’t just about the changing role of freelancers, what we have called the cottage-isation of the industry, it’s also about remote working…

“I think what people realized is it worked, we still made that song, we still got that content on Netflix, we got it on the air. So I think that it taught people, some lessons, to try new things quickly and a lot faster than if they would have done it, at their own pace.”

Add to that the changes in workflows and content markets, do we need a control surface like the Avid S6 or do we need something different that better reflects the changes in the way we work, which is more and more in-the-box with growth in both channel counts, with the takeup of immersive formats like Dolby Atmos, as well as the move towards a desire to have an almost infinite number of tracks, in case we need to change something at the last minute.

We believe there is a need for innovators to look at the next generation of control surfaces that are able to drive DAWs like Pro Tools, Nuendo and Resolve but maybe they need to be a different take on what we have so far, rather than reinventing the wheel.

Is It Time For Avid To Open Up Eucon To Hardware Developers?

If Avid is becoming less about hardware and more about Software as a Service (SaaS), then it would make sense for a 3rd party control surface manufacturer or two to be able to move into the large-format control surface market, but there is a major issue that will need to be resolved before this is even possible.

Although Avid has made Eucon open to 3rd party software developers including DAW competitors like Steinberg’s Nuendo or Apple’s Logic Pro, means that Avid’s control surfaces are not limited to controlling Pro Tools but any DAW that has integrated Eucon into their software product.

However, as yet, Avid has not made Eucon available to 3rd party hardware developers.

This has meant that any 3rd party control surface or console brands that want to be able to support controlling Pro Tools, have to use protocols like HUI.

As Avid is now clearly focused on SaaS as a business model, what would be best for their users is to allow selected hardware developers in on the Eucon protocols, which offer the deepest possible integration of control surfaces into Pro Tools and other Eucon enabled DAWs?

It could be good news for Avid, as it would allow them to pass on the R&D and manufacturing costs to 3rd party manufacturers for any future control surfaces, especially those that do not compete with Avid’s own successful products like the Avid S1.

There are control surface manufacturers like JL Cooper, but they don’t have the experience of a large-format control surface, but console manufacturers like AMS Neve, SSL and Yamaha, who work closely with Steinberg, could take advantage of having access to the Eucon framework to provide the very tight integration that Eucon gives users. How about being able to use the Fairlight control surfaces from Blackmagic Design to be able to control Pro Tools via Eucon? Or what if SSL made a larger version of the popular UF8, or a new version of their Nucleus 2 with Eucon integration?

Yes, Avid would lose the revenue from selling the large-format control surfaces like the S6, but is that such a problem? After all, they also would not have the burden of developing and supporting a product that won’t generate any ongoing revenue, unlike their SaaS related products.

From our perspective, it could be argued that as a business focusing on SaaS related products, the revenue from a below-par profitability product is not worth Avid doing. In fact, there would be some revenue from Eucon licensing fees that would be a better fit for Avid’s new style, business model.

What Do You Think?

Do you think it’s time for Avid to open up Eucon to 3rd party hardware manufacturers? Who would you like to see make a Eucon enabled control surface from 3rd party manufacturers? If so from whom and in what format? Please do share your thoughts in the comments below.