Mackie's new IOS console

[museav]

I was thinking for either a band or a church situation that so many people have their own iPads that they could literally bring their own control surface to control their own monitor mix. Just install the software on Jim's iPad and when he plays drums for the church band he can control his own mix.

Always looking for the potential "what ifs" but what if Jim forgets his iPad, it is broken or he gets a new one and has not downloaded the app? Or what if Jim is sick or got hit by a bus and someone else has to fill in? This is an example of where I see the aspect of personal devices versus integral components of a system potentially being at odds and generally feel that it may be acceptable to rely on personal devices for some functions related to specific individuals but not necessarily where required to have a functioning system.

As for the iPad getting lost, there is a bracket you can use to screw it into place on the console, although that kind of defeats the point of having an iPad. Unless you buy two and just plan to have one in place and one for mobile mixing (interesting thought).

I don't think it defeats the purpose at all as the DL1608 essentially uses the iPad as the user interface and it being able to be wireless while being advantageous for some uses is really a secondary aspect. In some ways it is a very downscaled version of the concept used for some large format digital mixers where you have a central processor 'rack' and a separate work surface but in this case the work surface is an iPad. Except for functions like ringing out monitors, I favor always having a work surface at the mixer otherwise you might face situations such as a less skilled operator overdriving a system, having feedback issues or just doing a poor job and not being able to do much about it until you can find them and get the iPad out of their hands.

In the end it's another one of those budget issues we talk about a lot here. Sure we would all love a Presonus Studiolive with it's iPad interface but we can't all afford that. For some this will give them a lot of power at a very reasonable price. However because of that price there are some big limitations that must be considered.

+1, there are situation where something like the DL1608 might be a great fit and others where it might be a rather poor option. I am not sure that much of the target market for such products will understand that and the manufacturers probably aren't going to suggest anything other than it being the best option for everyone (unless they could instead sell you to a more profitable alternative they offer).