DHD.audio has chosen IBC2026 as the launch venue for a major new addition to its broadcast sound production platform: the MX3 console range. MX3 is designed to retain the modularity, operational versatility and expandability of DHD’s Series 52 models while adding new capabilities to try to support the fast-changing production workflows in what the EBU has termed the Dynamic Media Facility, as the company has claimed in a statement.

The DHD approach to system design looks forward to allowing new features to be added through gradual investment in specific modules rather than total system replacement.

MX3 consoles are fully compatible with the external digital processing cores which have long been a feature of DHD systems. This pretends to give users the freedom to enhance their DHD production infrastructure to match new workflow demands or industry standards without having to re-invest in an entirely new system at frequent intervals.

Audio-over-IP has long been a central aspect of DHD’s Series 52 range, including compatibility with AES67, Dante, Ravenna and SMPTE 2110 protocols, if required, to handle very large channel capacities. MX3 retains that versatility, supplemented by secure standard IP networking between desktop control panels and local or remote signal processing cores; this replaces the DHD APC (audio/power/control) protocol used in current Series 52 systems.

Every MX3 module is a self-contained network device, linked via standard Ethernet with PoE+ along a single cable per console column. Consoles are assembled from these building blocks: typically a central module with six-fader expansion modules in a frame supplied with or without over-bridge modules, plus optional displays mounted above the over-bridge. Modules can be added, exchanged, or repaired in operation, and the assignment between console and processing core is no longer fixed.

“DHD this year celebrates the 30th anniversary of its foundation and has been building modular systems right from the start”, summarises Marc Herrmann, Managing Director. “Control surfaces, processing cores, analog and digital connectivity, software and APIs, all unite into a single system which can be upgraded or expanded to any desired extent at any time as new standards are adopted or studios are repurposed. What remains are the system and the existing investment”.