Yamaha extends the Rivage ecosystem

Designed to deliver flexibility, performance and expandability, Yamaha has extended the Rivage PM mixing ecosystem with the launch of the Rivage PM5 and Rivage PM3 digital mixing systems. Following the launch of the flagship Rivage PM10 digital mixing system in late 2014, the Japanese brand followed up at ISE 2018 by adding the PM7 control surface. Extending sonic quality and flexible control, the additions come in a physically smaller compact footprint to add versatility and scalability to the Rivage PM line-up that now incorporates five control surfaces and two DSP engines with different mixing capacities.

Incorporating the same three bays with 12 faders configuration, the core components of the new PM5 and PM3 are the CS-R5 and CS-R3 control surfaces. The commonality of fader configuration ensures the same layout can be maintained when using different control surfaces, while the combination of touchscreens and selected channel controls provide intuitive operation.

The 42kg CS-R5 features three 15-inch ultra-sensitive, extra bright capacitive touchscreens, suitable for daylight viewing and a condensed selected channel section. The depth of the control surface has been reduced to bring the controls within easy reach for comfortable operation in addition to improving sightlines. Fine adjustments can be performed on dynamic meters located beside each fader. Measuring 1.145m in width, the CS-R3 incorporates a single touchpanel display and the same condensed selected channel section as the CS-R5.

Two new DSP engines come in the form of the DSP-RX (120 inputs, 48 mix busses, 24 matrices) and the DSP-RX-EX (288 inputs, 72 mix busses, 36 matrices). A DEK-DSP-RX expansion board can be added to upgrade the DSP-RX to full DSP-RX-EX specifications. Both engines allow DSP mirroring, while two DSP-RX engines or two DSP-RX-EX engines can be used in mirrored configuration for redundancy purposes.

Ensuring consistency, the Rivage PM systems use the same DSP engines, I/O racks and firmware. The Dual Console function makes it possible to use a second control surface as a sidecar. Like the PM10 and PM7, the PM5 and PM3 offer direct compatibility with Yamaha’s TWINLANe and Audinate’s Dante networks.

Simultaneously coinciding with the release, Yamaha has announced the availability of firmware v4.0 for the entire Rivage PM series. User interface and function updates include an increase in the I/O count of the Rivage PM7 to 144 inputs and 36 matrix outputs and the addition of the premium SP2016 reverb plug-in from Eventide. Along with a large selection of presets, the SP2016 provides detailed editing for engineers who prefer to customise their sound. Firmware v4.0 also allows control of L-Acoustics’ L-ISA systems. For every mono or stereo input channel, L-ISA Objects or Groups can be controlled direct from the Rivage PM control surface.