Two ways to step up: the Allen & Heath SQ+ and Avantis Ultra
Chuck's Greenroom, for NIVA members
There's a night every growing venue remembers: the one where the board ran out of road. The headliner brought a monitor engineer, the openers needed their own sends, the show was being recorded and streamed, and halfway through soundcheck you were simply out of channels. If your room keeps landing in that spot, Allen & Heath builds two consoles that are ready for it, at two very different price points.
The SQ+ is the one most clubs should look at first. It's built around a 96kHz XCVI core with genuinely low latency, and it punches well above its size: 48 input channels, 12 stereo mixes plus LR, and a deep bench of onboard processing and effects, including the RackUltra FX engines pulled down from Allen & Heath's flagship dLive. The SQ surfaces come in a few sizes, so you can match the fader count to your booth without giving up the engine underneath. It's a lot of console in a box a volunteer can learn on a Tuesday.
When the room is bigger, or the riders start naming touring desks, the Avantis Ultra is the answer. It's a 96 channel, 56 bus platform on the same 96kHz XCVI engine, with class leading 0.7 millisecond latency and two 15.6 inch Full HD touchscreens that put routing and processing right under your hands. The Ultra ships with the RackUltra FX card already installed, so you get eleven extra studio grade effects modules on top of the standard rack, each with its own sends and returns that don't eat into your channels or buses. That's main stage capability without a flagship price.
What ties them together is headroom. Both run at 96kHz, both borrow processing from a console that tours arenas, and both leave you somewhere to grow instead of cornering you the next time a bigger show says yes. Learn the workflow on an SQ+ in a club and it carries straight up to an Avantis when you get there.
So who's it for? The SQ+ suits clubs, theatres and worship rooms ready to retire an aging board. The Avantis Ultra is for performing arts centers, festivals and listening rooms hosting serious touring talent. We'll help you figure out which line your room is on.
As a proud NIVA partner, Chuck Levin's offers members special pricing across the Allen & Heath line. Contact our NIVA savings team at niva@chucklevins.com, walk us through your biggest night, and we'll spec the right desk for it. No upsell, just enough console to stop running out of road.