Harrison Audio is proud to announce that the SeriesTen, introduced in 1985 and the world’s first fully automated mixing audio console system, is being inducted into the NAMM TEC Awards TECnology Hall of Fame. The digitally controlled analog SeriesTen was the brainchild of Harrison Systems founder Dave Harrison, who is also recognized as the originator of the inline mixing console signal flow.
The TECnology Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be held at 5 p.m. on Saturday, January 27, 2024, in the NAMM Member Center inside the Anaheim Convention Center and is open to all NAMM attendees.
The Harrison Systems SeriesTen made its debut at the 79th AES Convention in New York City in late 1985. The console worksurface introduced the design concept of incorporating just a handful of DCAs (digitally controlled attenuators) on each channel strip that could address all adjustable parameters, including level, EQ, pan and dynamics processing. The design, which separated the knobs from the audio signal, enabled console settings to be instantly saved and recalled without physically turning the controls on the surface.
“Even from its debut in a cramped hotel suite at the 1985 New York AES show, I could see that the Harrison Series Ten — the first totally automated audio mixing system — would be a gamechanger, setting new standards for modern console design,” says noted journalist and NAMM TECnology Hall of Fame founder/director, George Petersen. "Within a single video frame (1/30th sec) its ability to reconfigure the entire console — levels, pans, equalization, dynamics processing and routing changes — was unparalleled while the excellence of its sonic performance is a tradition that continues with Harrison System consoles to this day.”
The SeriesTen introduced fully automated control of two signal paths through every channel module. Channel strip functionality included four-band EQ with high and low pass filters, compressors, gates, pans — one stereo, the other also supporting quad and LCRS — and eight auxiliary sends, as well as mute and assignment switching. The rotary controls, together with the console’s switch functions, such as routing, could be recalled and the signal flow reconfigured console-wide in less than one video frame, a revolutionary concept at the time. Mix data was written to eight-inch floppy disks or 20MB hard drives.
Dave Harrison, who founded Harrison Systems in 1975, was inducted as a Fellow of the Audio Engineering Society in recognition of his contribution to the inline console input design, which he conceived while working as an audio equipment reseller in Nashville. The inline concept, which offers both an input and a monitor path through each channel strip, was first implemented in MCI JH-400 series consoles beginning in 1972. The inline design was subsequently adopted by manufacturers of large format music production consoles worldwide.