Allen & Heath Avantis Digital Mixer

The Avantis sits in an interesting middle ground: it's a full-format 64-channel digital console that happens to be rackmountable, which makes it a credible candidate for a monitor-world rack or a sophisticated playback rig that needs real mixing horsepower behind it. Built on Allen & Heath's SQ-series mix engine, it pairs that processing core with dual touchscreens and a proper physical control surface, so it operates like a desk rather than a headless engine. The two gigaACE ports are its main connectivity story — each carries 128 channels bidirectionally over EtherCon, letting you tie into A&H's DT and DX stage box ecosystem at serious scale.

At load-in, the 12 local XLR inputs and 12 local XLR outputs give you a working analog patch without any stage box at all — useful for smaller shows or emergency fallback scenarios. The dual gigaACE ports support a primary and secondary network path, so redundancy is built into the architecture rather than bolted on. At 22 kg and 580 mm deep, this is not a lightweight drawer; your rack case needs real depth and solid rail support. Power draw sits at 150 W typical with a 200 W maximum, which is well-behaved for what it is, but plan your power conditioning accordingly and don't share a conditioner circuit with anything else that spikes.

The Avantis makes most sense as a dedicated monitor console or a house desk in a fixed installation where the touchscreen workflow is an asset rather than a liability. If you're building a pure IEM rack around a headless engine for fly-date portability, something like an SQ-5 or SQ-6 in a shallower case will serve you better. If your rig already lives in A&H's gigaACE world — DT168s at stage, DX168s for expansion — the Avantis slots in without protocol translation headaches. Engineers who need deep show-file compatibility with an existing SQ rig will also find the transition familiar, since the processing architecture shares significant DNA.