Allen & Heath dLive S5000 Surface
Allen & Heath·Model dLive S5000·allen-heath-dlive-s5000
Photos
Manufacturer product photography — the drawn faceplate above stays true to panel layout; these show the hardware itself.
About the Allen & Heath dLive S5000
The Allen & Heath dLive S5000 is the S-class flagship surface — 28 faders across 4 banks plus twin 12" capacitive touchscreens, on a heavier-duty TouchSafe chassis built for the abuse of arena touring. Same gigaACE link to the same DM-series MixRacks (DM48, DM64, DM0) as the C-class — the surface is purely the front end. Slot in next to a DM64 MixRack and you have 128 input / 64 output capacity that competes head-to-head with DiGiCo SD12 + S-Rack pairings at a noticeably lower price point.
The dLive S5000 is Allen & Heath's flagship S-class control surface — the thing your hands actually touch while the real audio processing happens back in the MixRack. That distinction matters for rack planning: the S5000 itself is 0U and not rackmountable, it lives on a stageboxThe I/O endpoint on stage: mics plug in there and one digital line (AES50, Dante) carries everything to the console. The snake, digitized. or a custom road case shelf, and it connects to a DM-series MixRack (DM48, DM64, or DM0) over a single Cat5eStandard network cable grades. In an audio rig one cheap Cat5e run can replace a 48-channel copper snake; AES50 wants it shielded./6 run via gigaACE. The surface is purely the front end. Budget your rack space and weight for the MixRack separately — this surface at 26.4 kg is just the console.
Two gigaACE ports give you a primary and a fully redundantA second copy of anything critical — supply, computer, network path — already running so one failure can’t stop the show. audio link to the MixRack, each carrying 128 channels bidirectionally — if the primary cable gets kicked at a critical moment, the system rolls over without dropping audio. Dual IECThe standard three-prong appliance power inlet on rack gear — the kettle lead. C13/C14 in spec-sheet speak. power inputs mirror that redundancy on the AC side, so you can feed Power A and Power B from independent circuits or a UPSUninterruptible Power Supply — a battery that rides the rig through brownouts and generator hiccups so computers never reboot mid-song. and a raw feed. Draw sits at 110 W typical, spiking to 165 W max, which is light enough that a single 15 A circuit handles the surface comfortably alongside its MixRack. The twin 12-inch capacitive touchscreens and 28 faders across four banks mean you can keep most of a 64-input show visible without banking, which is the real workflow argument for the S5000 over the smaller S-class surfaces.
If you're carrying a full arena or large theater rig, running 48-plus inputs, and need a surface that can absorb tour abuse while giving an A1 or monitor engineer genuine screen real estate, the S5000 earns its place. Pair it with a DM64 and you have a 128-in/64-out system that competes seriously with DiGiCo SD-range pairings at a lower cost of entry. Where it doesn't make sense: theater installs or club residencies where the board rarely moves, festival one-offs where you're advancing a house console, or any situation where the MixRack-only workflow via a laptop or iPad is sufficient. The $18,999 surface price assumes the MixRack cost is separate — confirm your total system budget before committing.
In the rack
- Run gigaACE A and gigaACE B on physically separate cable paths — different trunksThe main multichannel run between stage and console — one fat multicore (or one Cat5e, these days) carrying everything at once., different stages of a multi-core if possible — so a single trench pull or cable failure can't take down both links simultaneously.
- Feed Power A and Power B from independent breakers or, better, one from a UPSUninterruptible Power Supply — a battery that rides the rig through brownouts and generator hiccups so computers never reboot mid-song. and one from a conditioned raw feed; the dual-IECThe standard three-prong appliance power inlet on rack gear — the kettle lead. C13/C14 in spec-sheet speak. redundancyA second copy of anything critical — supply, computer, network path — already running so one failure can’t stop the show. only pays off if the two feeds are actually independent.
- The AES I/O and Word ClockThe shared heartbeat keeping every digital box sampling in lockstep. One device leads, the rest follow — or you get clicks and pops. In on the rear panel make the S5000 straightforward to sync to an external master clock or feed a stereo digital record feed — use the AES Out directly rather than routing back through the MixRack when low-latencyThe delay between sound entering and leaving a digital system. IEM rigs fight to keep the whole chain down to a few milliseconds. confidence monitoring of the mix busA path where multiple channels sum into one signal — mixes, groups, and mains are all buses. A 25-bus console can build 25 blends at once. matters.
- Both XLRThe standard 3-pin locking connector for mics and balanced line signals — pin 1 is the shield, pins 2 and 3 carry the balanced pair.-4 lamp outputs are built into the surface, so spec your gooseneck console lamps with XLR-4 connectors at purchase — standard XLR-3 desk lamps won't terminate correctly and you don't want to be making adaptors at load-in.
S-class control surface — 28 faders, twin 12" touchscreens. Top-tier dLive surface for major touring.
I/O Ports (13)
| Port | Connector | Direction | Signal | Channels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| gigaACE A (RJ45) | RJ45 | bidirectional | digital audio | 128 |
| gigaACE B (RJ45) [redundant] | RJ45 | bidirectional | digital audio | 128 |
| Network (RJ45) | RJ45 | bidirectional | data | — |
| USB (MIDI / show data) | USB A | bidirectional | data | — |
| Headphones 1 (1/4") | TRS QUARTER | output | analog audio | — |
| Headphones 2 (1/4") | TRS QUARTER | output | analog audio | — |
| AES In (XLR) | AES3 XLR | input | digital audio | — |
| AES Out (XLR) | AES3 XLR | output | digital audio | — |
| Word Clock In (BNC) | BNC | input | digital audio | — |
- Console Lamp 1 (XLR-4) (XLR FEMALE)
- Console Lamp 2 (XLR-4) (XLR FEMALE)
- Power A (IEC) (IEC C14)
- Power B (IEC) [redundant] (IEC C14)
Related gear
Related articles
Guides from our library that cover planning around digital mixer gear.
A walking tour of the signal path from microphone to in-ear monitor, with what every box in the rack actually does to the audio along the way.
Why sealed IEMs make you feel disconnected from the room — and exactly how to put the audience back into your mix with one or two well-placed mics.
Step-by-step: linking aux buses into stereo pairs, pre-fader vs post-fader, routing buses to Ultranet vs physical XLRs vs AES50, and adding a bus-level limiter.
A practical comparison of the three audio-over-network protocols you’ll encounter in a rack rig, with guidance on when each one is the right pick.