Around 2008, I came into contact with livestreaming for the first time, often at large conferences across Europe with several rooms running at once. Beyond the extremely limited bandwidth, which resulted in a dismal, postage-stamp-sized video image, what bothered me most was the poor audio quality. And that had nothing to do with a sluggish internet connection: audio barely used any bandwidth at all. The sound was simply either too quiet, full of noise, or blown out completely.
In my search for something better, I ran into the brand Sound Devices at the IBC trade show in Amsterdam. Not many good things come out of America these days, but back then I fell for it instantly. That kind of love comes at a price, of course — it’s not cheap — but the sound quality you get in return is something else.
It turned into an impressive stack, because I bought them all: from the MixPre all the way up to the 833. I’ve put them to work on countless projects since. As far as I’m concerned, you can rightfully call them ‘the real roadcaster’: ready for any audio recording, whether in the studio or on the road.