Trident Audio Developments have been making high quality mixing consoles since the early Seventies and have established a formidable reputation on both sides of the Atlantic. The company began with two lines of 24-channel consoles and developed a wide range of desks geared primarily for the studio market.

With the introduction of the DI-AN console last year, Trident is now in step with the latest developments in digital technology.

It started in a rather unexpected way during the days of rock 'n' roll and revolution. Managing Director Malcolm Toft, who has guided Trident since its infancy, explains: 'We came into the business of making consoles by default. I started with Trident Studios as an engineer when they opened in 1968, and as the studio had the only eight-track machine in Europe in those days, we attracted a host of major recording artists.

'The Beatles recorded Hey Jude and part of the White Album at Trident, David Bowie was in to do Space Oddity: the clientele ranged from James Taylor to the Rolling Stones. By 1971 we really needed a new console, what with 24-track machines coming in.'

What Trident wanted was not just any board, but one with EQ on the monitoring section: unheard of at the time. To complicate matters, the desk had to be five feet long to fit in the control room. The search began, and before long Trident was being courted by Neve who were keen to place a console in the prestigious studio.

However, as Toft notes: 'The studio management felt Neve really didn't speak their language, that the console would end up being too big, which it did. The proposed design was 10-feet long. So, as much out of frustration as anything else, we looked into building our own. I was sent off with a design engineer charged with designing the desired desk.'

What they produced was an all-discrete transistor console with monitor EQ, 10 auxiliary sends, and four-band graphic EQ on every channel, all neatly fitted into a five-foot frame.

Meanwhile, back at the studio, rumours had been flying about the new console. Interest was growing. Mike and Richard Vernon were setting up Chipping Norton Studios and wanted a scaled-down version of the desk, as did artist Jim Kongos. On the strength of this, Toft approached management with the idea of setting up a company to design and manufacture consoles.

Thus Trident Audio Developments was born. Shop was set up in Islington, where they shared space with Trident's cartridge and cassette duplication branch. During the day Toft and crew hummed along building their Series A and B desks, the latter being the less sophisticated version of the original design. At night, Queen, at the time a little-known group being managed by yet another Trident offshoot, rehearsed.

Research and design efforts then moved into IC technology, and in a burst of activity in the mid-Seventies the company produced a range of IC consoles. First came the Trimix (later known as the Fleximix), a modular, portable eight or 16-channel desk. Soon after came the successors to the Series A and B, the TSM and Series 80 consoles.

While Trident Audio steamed along, so did Trident Studios and its other offshoots. With the purchase of British Lion Broadcasting, the console company moved to the Shepperton Film Studios. As the focus shifted sharply to video, Trident management decided to reform to allow for expansion. The studio and tape duplication plant were sold off, and Toft and his partner Jack Hartfield bought out Trident Audio in 1979.

With audio technology evolving at a frenzied pace, Trident have continued to update their consoles in the Eighties. The Series 65 replaced the Fleximix, with the 24-track module appearing in November 1986. The Series 75 came on line as a larger version of the Series 65. The Series 80 had become Trident's bread-and-butter line, evolving from the 80A to the 80B to the latest version, the 80C, which recently made its debut.

This latest edition features a unique monitoring section with two line inputs on each channel. It can monitor 48 tracks.

Then there is DI-AN, launched a year ago at the APRS in London, with the first orders being shipped this month.

Designed to be a competitor for consoles produced by companies such as SSL and Harrison, the DI-AN is a digitally controlled analogue desk ready to be converted entirely to digital.

Replete with two one-megabyte floppy disks, MIDI and video ports, automated faders, and the Trident EQ, this time with four presets per channel, the DI-AN is a formidable entry in the market.

'The DI-AN is a new concept in console design, and it has been well received. It's a very creative desk, not just technology for technology's sake. People who have tried it find it very easy to operate,' says Toft.

'We spent nearly a year talking with engineers and producers before getting into R&D. The hardware is just a platform for the software. It has a good ten years of development in it and updates can be sent out on floppies.'

With the central access panel controlling most of the main channel functions, the DI-AN is, oddly enough, in keeping with the original design ideas behind Trident's first console: the working area is still a neat five feet long.

Although Trident is still strongly committed to the studio market, with reasonably sized and priced desks for all operations, Toft sees the company branching out in new directions.

Trident has moved twice since leaving the film studios, though it remains in lush, upscale Shepperton, close to the town's charming pubs and restaurants, a stone's throw from the Thames. Yet another move is being considered as existing facilities become cramped.

'The DI-AN will push us into other markets,' says Toft. Tn the past we've tended to adapt our existing consoles to suit the needs of broadcast, film/video, live sound, etc. With the DI-AN, we can design specifically for the needs of those markets, and we already have all sorts of interesting projects in mind. The only limits are the hours in the day and what direction we decide to take.'