Stage 48 for Mixrack system

Hi, Im new here and am looking for some information and clarification on the STAGE48 system for the mix rack, I hope someone out thee can give me some answers.



We're currently running a mix rack with the following cards



1x Iox card (standard FOH input card for mix rack

3 x Input cards - AI16

1 x Output card - AO16

1 x FWX card



We are interested in the stage 48 option for our mix rack system but would like to know if we can use it to ADD input to our system.



Can we purchase 2 stage 48 boxes and load it up with

80 inputs and 16outputs and keep 16 inputs locally in our mixrack.

Giving us a total of 96 IN and 16 OUT



Is the stage 48 designed to do this or is its purpose to simply distribute existing IO Via Cat 5





I look forward to any replies,

Thanks. Pete