Allen & Heath SQ5

The SQ-5 is the compact head of Allen & Heath's SQ family, built around the 96kHz XCVI FPGA core for class-leading low latency across live sound, AV and installation work. It carries 48 input channels to LR plus 12 stereo mixes and 3 stereo matrix, with 16 onboard mic preamps and 16+1 motorized faders laid out in six switchable layers. A high-resolution 7-inch capacitive touchscreen drives a drag-and-drop layout and at-a-glance metering so a mix comes together fast.

Every channel and mix carries parametric EQ, a 28-band graphic EQ and a compressor as standard, backed by eight RackExtra FX engines that emulate classic reverbs, gated reverbs, delays and modulators. The integrated SQ-Drive records multitrack to a USB key or drive, and a 32 x 32 USB audio interface handles DAW recording and virtual soundcheck. The SLink port expands the system to Allen & Heath's Everything I/O stageboxes and expanders for remote input and output.