Lawo’s Philipp Lawo, Omnia Audio’s Frank Foti and Michael Dosch of Axia Audio celebrate the success of Ravenna
Exhibitors at NAB 2012
primary synchronisation standard for the new Axia xNode interface, allowing fully synchronised stream operation.) “If we invented Livewire
today it would look a lot like Ravenna,” Axia Audio president Michael ‘Catfish’ Dosch conceded at a press gathering in Las Vegas. “[Livewire and Ravenna] both have pretty much the same philosophy – low latency, routability and reliability – and a desire to use a standards-based approach. “Ever since we launched
NAB 2012:
WITH ATTENDANCE reportedly close to 92,000 – a quarter of
whom came from outside North America – this year’s National Association of Broadcasters Convention, held in Las Vegas from 14-19 April, offered a unique opportunity to examine the latest audio offerings from 1,600+ companies. Primary themes at the annual confab were Connectivity – techniques and technologies for moving digital media files from one facility to
AT A GLANCE UNITED STATES
This year’s convention focused on audio connectivity and loudness solutions, as Mel Lambert reports
Making a connection
another – plus Loudness Measurement to ensure that consumer replay levels remain consistent for over-the-air, cable and satellite services. In terms of connectivity solutions, the trend that Ravenna started at Prolight + Sound continued in Las Vegas with the announcement by Telos Alliance that this powerful audio-over-IP protocol with low latency of 1 sample per stream is now being implemented in Axia Audio radio consoles and Omnia broadcast
processors that currently offer Livewire connectivity. By offering a newly defined Ravenna Interoperability Profile, Axia’s new xNode IP- Audio interface now enables direct interface with Ravenna-enabled systems; additionally, Ravenna nodes
Qualis Audio showcased new firmware for its Sentinel surround sound audio monitor
can interchange data streams with Livewire ports. (Specifically, IEEE 1588-2008 has been chosen as the
Lawo ‘s Ravenna- capable I/O card for the mc2series
Livewire in 2003,” Dosch revealed in a recent statement, “we’ve been dreaming of the day when every piece of broadcast equipment is connected to the network. With 34 Livewire partners and 14 Ravenna partners onboard, broadcasters will benefit from a dramatically expanded universe of nearly 70 networked pro-audio products. After nearly a year of Axia and Ravenna developers working together, the broadcast world is now one step closer to that networked vision becoming reality.” A number of other companies
showed interoperable Livewire and Ravenna products at the NAB Convention targeted to broadcast, live sound and post markets. Lawo introduced a new Ravenna-capable I/O card for its range of mc2 series broadcast and production consoles plus Nova73 HD routers, while Merging Technologies’ Horus Networked Audio Converter features a Ravenna Ethernet port that provides 176 input and 178 output channels. Studer also offers Livewire/Ravenna connectivity via its D21m interface card for Vista Series production consoles, plus a Compact Remote Bay. Developed by ALC NetworX, a Munich-based R&D firm. Ravenna has also been implemented by Genelec, Linear Acoustic, Arkona Technologies, Neumann, Omnia and Schoeps. Turning to other connectivity solutions, Salzbrenner Stagetec introduced a new interface card for its Nexus network system that provides compatibility with media networks running the Audinate Dante protocol over existing Ethernet-based topologies. The Nexus XDIP module supports up to 64 bidirectional audio channels at different sampling rates. Over 50 OEM partners have implemented Dante connectivity; the Yamaha CL Series of compact digital consoles also feature Dante