How Many Quantum638s Fit on a 53-Foot Trailer?

DiGiCo launched the Quantum638 on September 28, a 38-fader desk that sits between the Quantum852 and the Quantum338. The spec sheet says 1,555 x 957 x 535 mm and 93 kg, about 61 x 38 x 21 inches and 205 pounds bare. So I did the only reasonable thing with a brand new console and figured out how many of them fit in a 53-foot trailer. Then I did it for every other big desk, and then I tried to put them under a tour bus, because that's where a console ends up when somebody forgets to dummy check FOH and the trailer's already on the highway.

The 638 is on the case estimate

DiGiCo hasn't published a flight case size for the 638 yet. Mixonline calls it roughly the size of an SD7, and DiGiCo does publish the SD7 case: 1600 x 600 x 1240 mm, 540 lb packed, with the desk standing tilted on its back edge. I scaled that case up to the 638's footprint and landed on about 65.6 x 26.4 x 51.6 inches and 459 pounds. That's my number, not DiGiCo's, so swap in the real one when it shows up.

For the trailer I used Truck Packer's 53-foot dry van preset, 636 x 102 x 104 inches inside and 45,000 pounds of payload. Console cases don't tip, so every case stays upright and only turns flat on the floor.

33 of them, floor only

The best floor layout is one lane of cases turned across the trailer and a second lane running lengthwise down the other wall. That's 24 across and 9 lengthwise, 33 Quantum638s, and it uses 52.8 of the 53 feet. It's 15,147 pounds, which is about a third of the payload, so floor runs out long before weight does. Here's the pack if you want to open it.

Crew view: 24 cases across the trailer, 9 down the wall, floor to ceiling in the side view.

Could you stack them? Two-high is 103.2 inches against a 104-inch ceiling. That's less than an inch of clearance on an estimated case, so no. I also wouldn't stack consoles on consoles anyway.

Every other desk, same trailer

Same method for the rest, with manufacturer case numbers where they exist and real cases out of Truck Packer libraries where they don't. Floor only, no stacking, case weights packed:

• DiGiCo Quantum852 (a Spectrum Sound case at 77 x 32 x 58 in and 460 lb, the case that shows up in about 20 Truck Packer libraries for the 852): 24
• DiGiCo Quantum7 / SD7 (63 x 23.6 x 48.8 in, 540 lb): 40
• DiGiCo Quantum5 (63 x 23.6 x 47.2 in, 518 lb): 40
• DiGiCo Quantum338 (67.6 x 25.3 x 45 in, 437 lb): 36
• DiGiCo Quantum225 (49.6 x 23.7 x 44.9 in, 304 lb): 52
• DiGiCo SD12 (50 x 22.4 x 45.3 in, 287 lb): 56
• Avid S6L-32D (a dog-house case at 57 x 24 x 52 in and 346 lb, plus the 154.5 lb surface): 44
• Yamaha CS-R10 for PM10 (a flat three-part case at 1820 x 1285 x 525 mm, 103 kg, plus the 187 lb surface): 16

The Yamaha is the odd one. It rides flat, so it only gets 16 on the floor, but at 20.7 inches tall it's the only case here you could stack four high. If you went two-high on the DiGiCo cases that clear the ceiling with a couple inches to spare, 80 SD7s would come in at 43,200 pounds. That's the only version of this where weight almost becomes the limit.

The more useful number is one of each. All nine desks in a row, with the 225 and the SD12 side by side, take 19.1 feet of floor and 3,919 pounds. Here's that pack. No tour carries nine consoles, but a festival stage with a house desk, a couple of guest desks and a monitor world is closer to that than you'd think, and it's more than a third of a trailer before any PA shows up.

One of every desk: DiGiCo, Avid and Yamaha, 19.1 feet of a 53-foot trailer.

Now try the bus

So the truck left an hour ago and the desk is still sitting at FOH. It happens. The bays under an entertainer coach are the only place left to put it, and the first question is whether it even goes in. Prevost's own spec for the X3-45 VIP Entertainer gives 433 cubic feet of underfloor storage and 70.6-inch compartment doors. It doesn't list bay height, so I'm working from a pass-through bay around 94 inches across the bus, 70 inches long and 36 inches tall. That's about 137 cubic feet, or roughly three bays under one coach. Measure your own before you trust mine.

Every upright DiGiCo case is between 45 and 58 inches tall, and the Avid is 52, so none of them go in a 36-inch bay standing up. Tip them down on their backs and it changes. Lying down, every DiGiCo and Avid case is 22 to 32 inches tall, so they all clear the bay. The 638, 852, SD7, Quantum5 and S6L go one per bay. The 338, 225 and SD12 go two per bay side by side. The 338 is the tight one: two of them are 90 inches across a 94-inch bay and 67.6 inches deep in a 70-inch one. Here's that bay.

Two Quantum338s tipped down in one bay, with about 4 inches to spare across the bus.

The joke is the flat Yamaha. It's the one case built to ride on its back, and it still only goes one per bay, because at 71.7 x 50.6 inches its footprint eats the whole floor. Tipped up on edge it's 50.6 inches tall and doesn't fit at all. So with three bays under one coach, you're looking at three flagship desks or six of the smaller DiGiCos, and nothing else rides with them. Whether your desk is happy on its back for a drive is between you and whoever built the case. The merch and the bunk luggage are riding somewhere else either way.

What to take from it

The height of a console case matters as much as its footprint. It decides whether the case stacks and which way it has to lie to go under a bus. Pull the packed dims off the spec sheet, not the desk dims, before you promise anyone the desk rides in the bays. And just dummy check FOH before the doors close, because the bus is a terrible backup plan.

Want to see where your desk actually lands? Log in to Truck Packer and pack it.