GEAR HEADS
ELATION PROFESSIONAL NX2 SERIES Elation Professional’s Matthias Hinrichs, Product Manager, talks to TPi’s Kel Murray about the company’s NX2 Series.
When did the development of the NX2 first begin? The NX2 is an evolution of the Martin by Harman M2GOHD [Elation acquired the Martin M-Series range nearly a year ago]. The platform really has been around since 2012 and the layout and feature set have proven very popular, so we kept evolving it from the M2GO to the M2GOHD and finally the NX2, now under the Obsidian Control Systems brand. Amazingly, all three consoles support the new ONYX operating system so it’s been a great value for users as we expand the software while allowing it to run on existing hardware for as long as possible.
and we wanted to include all connections one could wish for like DMX, SMPTE and MIDI so there is no need to carry any accessories. We really strived to build the perfect compact lighting console that is affordable with a rock solid construction and only industrial grade components. During design we learned about brand new Intel six-core CPUs designed for embedded media devices. They had a lower power rating than previous generations while being faster with more graphics power, which make them ideal to drive a lighting console due to the lower heat and the demand for lots of screen real estate. So we redid all the core PC components, picked a new motherboard, created a custom copper heat pipe cooler and tried to fit it all into the very small chassis. Our engineers really outdid themselves and it worked by a few millimeters! The result was an incredibly fast lighting console that processes 64 Universes, drives several HD displays and is just really fun to operate. So while the core concept of the NX2 is not a large departure, it’s pretty much completely retooled and redesigned from top to bottom.
Can you talk us through the initial concept? Did it change much along the way? The idea was to make a very compact but still powerful console where Playback and Programming interfaces would be fully supported with no compromises. We wanted a very bright HD multi-touch screen. It needed to be portable enough so it could work as a carry-on for commercial flights 100
