Established in 1968, Cadac was for decades one of the most prestigious brands of British mixing consoles and professional audio outboard electronics, particularly successful in musical and theatrical productions in London's West End or the Broadway. The market transition from analog to digital mixing consoles strongly affected the company's business and, in 2009, Cadac Electronics plc was sold to the Soundking Group Company of Ningbo, China. Under the ownership of Soundking Group, only R&D and sales activities continued to be based in the UK.
For the Soundking Group, the acquisition of a world-famous brand was a major strategic expansion, following its strong growth after becoming a major supplier for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008. Soundking invested in new product development, allowing Cadac to expand its efforts in new digital mixing console platforms. Renamed as Cadac Consoles, the company recently presented the new CM-System, a new generation of intuitive, low latency mixing systems that deliver industry leading audio performance to the professional live sound market.
Launched in 2024 at Integrated Systems Europe, the new Cadac CM-Series integrated mix system, which includes its own CM-J software and dedicated CM-SR remote audio stage racks, was brought to the market with the new CM-J50 digital mixer. The result of an extensive re-engineering program, with an all new design language, the Cadac CM-J50 is distinguished by its intuitive user interface and workflow, together with an industry-leading 0.4ms through-system latency.
Though smaller and lighter than its forebears, the CM-J50 mixer boasts a higher I/O density with 96 inputs and 56 outputs, of which 48 are user assignable. Brighter 23.5" and 6.5" touchscreens are at the heart of the user interface. Connectivity is expanded with new CM-Network Bridges, providing seamless integration of MADI and Dante signals into Cadac's ultra-low latency MegaCOMMS ecosystem.
"To fully realize Cadac Consoles' potential and ensure its long-term sustainability, both Soundking Group and Cadac Consoles' management team recognize the importance of partnering with a UK-based manufacturer specializing in low volume, high value products, in ensuring that the high expectations of its customer base are fully met," explains Xianggui Wang, President of the Soundking Group. "This decision additionally enables Soundking to reallocate resources to our broader product range, accelerating our ability to drive Soundking's global growth across the AV sector."
James Godbehear, Cadac Consoles’ Director of Marketing and Business Operations, highlighted the advantages of this milestone development for Cadac Consoles. "With the completion of our rebranding and recent introduction of the new CM-Series, relocation of the manufacturing to the UK marks the final step in phase one of our holistic strategy for Cadac Consoles. The move positions the brand to better support our partners and customers, specifically addressing the unique requirements of large-format consoles in the live sound market. By bringing manufacturing closer to our R&D and operational teams in the UK, we aim to improve communication, facilitate faster turnaround times and enable a more agile response to market dynamics and customer feedback."
Godbehear concluded, "Our commitment to consistently deliver products of 'Made in the UK' quality is paramount. We anticipate that customers will be able to experience and appreciate the benefits of this highly significant move by the fourth quarter of this year."
Soundking will continue to directly provide hardware support for legacy Cadac CDC five, CDC six, and CDC seven-s digital consoles.
www.cadac-consoles.com
