Audio mixer with touch display

Having history of working with different audio and video systems, when I go to events I sometimes look at what kind of technology they use to run the shows. At the Solu Machines Launch last Friday I saw an interesting looking audio mixer: Instead of normal mixer sliders it had a touch screen in it. The mixer had type marking DL1608. So what is this device?

After quick Google search it turns out that this is Mackie DL1608 mixer. It is 16-Channel Digital Mixer​ that uses  iPad as it’s control panel. By combining the iPad and audio mixer, we get a device that can mix both wired to wireless audio source. The control interface can be customized because it is just an app running on iPad, and the control interface can be separated from the audio electronics (wireless remote control of audio mixer hardware). Sounds like a good idea for some applications. Call me old fashioned, but I still would like to have the feeling of high quality slider potentiometers on my fingertips…