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September 2012 l 69
installationfeature MIDAS
What’s it called? The PRO1 digital console
When was it launched? June 2012
How much does it cost (RRP)? $11,331
Why is it helpful? Richard Ferriday, product support manager for Midas: “The PRO1 is Midas’s first standalone digital console. Previous digital console offerings from Midas have been networked, distributed hardware systems comprising control surfaces, remote DSP engines and multiple, AES50- networked I/O. “The PRO1 takes all of
Midas’s expertise, sample synchronous audio quality and
NEUMANN
What’s it called? The KMR 81 D digital microphone
When was it launched? Q2, 2012
How much does it cost (RRP)? £1,071 ex-VAT
DIGICO What’s it called? UB MADI
When was it launched? March 2012
How much does it cost (RRP)? £750 + VAT
Why is it helpful? Dan Page, sales application specialist for DiGiCo: “The virtual soundcheck is now an essential tool of live sound, allowing engineers to carry on tweaking the mix even when the band has finished its soundcheck. For years, DiGiCo consoles have provided the software tools needed to easily record the signals from stage, and then listen back to them with a one- click operation. All engineers had to add was the recording hardware. “The new DiGiCo UB MADI
makes the integration of the MADI recording even easier, turning any modern PC or Mac computer with a standard USB2
connection into a MADI recorder. The pocket-size interface provides 48 channels of simultaneous recording and playback fixed at the industry- standard 48kHz sample rate, and interfaces to any MADI device on a pair of BNC connectors. No additional power cabling is required as the UB MADI has been designed to be powered via the USB connection. “If you’re not recording MADI, the UB MADI can also record standard AES/EBU signals. By auto-detecting the input signal format, it automatically switches between AES/EBU and MADI. It can also auto-detect and clock to incoming word-clock.”
rock-solid reliability, and squeezes a fully-featured 48-channel digital mixer into a frame smaller than many 24-channel analogue consoles, considerably reducing the footprint of the console in space-sensitive environments. “Unlike the larger Midas
systems, PRO1 features comprehensive onboard I/O; however, like all Midas digital
Why is it helpful? Alan March – Neumann product manager – Sennheiser UK: “The KMR 81 D is Neumann Berlin’s professional digital shotgun microphone solution for sound engineers who are looking for the ultimate method of capturing and saving the highest quality recordings. The key features of the KMR 81 D shotgun are its acoustical design and its digital output.
“The digital design of the Solution-D microphones guarantees a higher dynamic range, less surrounding noise, more stable operation (its EMC safe) and the avoidance of clipping, achieved by the inclusion of an integrated peak limiter/compressor.
Steve Jones, founder of consulting engineering business Steve Jones Associates: “The innovation I have been waiting to see is an app for iPad like the Allen & Heath one which allows you to control DSP wirelessly. It has always been a pain to test routing and set relative levels and delays on large sites. In smaller installations the ability to control a DSP wirelessly would also be great, especially because the final location of the gear is usually tucked out of the way, or even in the cellar! The endless traipsing backwards and forwards to adjust this or that is a pain.
INTEGRATORS ON AUDIO INNOVATION #1 “My real bugbear is still the
price of DSP. There are units like Ateis UAP which are great and do most of what I need on a day-to-day basis, but it is still cheaper to put separate boxes together (auto-mixer, feedback controller and loudspeaker management) than buy one UAP. BSS and Peavey are out of my league price-wise because I do not need the bells and whistles which a large project needs. “I am probably waiting
for Uli Behringer to stop buying audio companies and start to address the next generation of DSPs so that we get the functionality at
a price-point which is right for the market. Also, this bottom end of the market still suffers from unintelligible instruction manuals!”
consoles, PRO1 is an AES50- networkable device, permitting multiple remote I/O units to be connected to the console via inexpensive Cat5/6 cabling. This means that the necessary inputs and outputs can be located anywhere in the room – indeed the building – facilitating simple, cost-effective digital audio networks to be deployed throughout a venue.”
“The result: no more bad
recordings where sound levels are changing constantly and no more trouble with interference generated by mobile phones on set. Instead the KMR 81 D provides crystal clear audio with increased dynamics and a higher signal to noise ratio than its analogue counterparts. “In addition, the output signal from all Solution D microphones is AES-42. Recording equipment, mixers and audio interfaces that support the AES-42 standard can process the output signals of Solution-D microphones directly. It’s also possible, with a simple interface, to convert an AES 42 signal into an AES 3 signal.”
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