26 l February 2013
www.psneurope.com
studiofeature DAW-to-DAW sales
Argosy’s Mirage For Nuage is designed specifically for Yamaha and Steinberg’s Nuage system
As audio post greets a new generation of protocol-laden and tactile products, Phil Ward asks the Fat Controller about platform alterations…
THE AGE-OLD chestnut of networking is very much back on the agenda. Facilities naturally wish to share high- quality parcels of audio between several locations, near and far, stored and immediate, and have used variable solutions in digital telephony gone by. Suddenly, it seems, the industry has a plethora of choices for Ethernet-based connectivity. So, as audio-over-IP attempts to succeed ISDN, [see PSNEurope, January 2013], how are the DAW manufacturers responding to its challenges? At the same time, the chimera of truly open- platform workflow continues to shimmer: but will it ever be more than that, or is it destined to remain a desirable mirage that can never quite fully materialise in a world of competitive branding? And the competition is heating
up. This spring, a raft of new solutions will bite into the post- production market from Merging Technologies, Steinberg and Focusrite, while mainstays Avid and Fairlight emerge from their latest bouts of corporate adjustment with, respectively, Pro Tools 10 and Pro Tools HDX on the way and new funding from KFT Investments. There’s a fresh breeze blowing, and real cross-
pollination may become possible as Avid’s firm grip on the scene faces major challenges.
STRICTLY CONTROL But first: take your partners for the Control Interface Waltz. Partnering Merging Technologies is Smart AV, in a very fetching silver number called Tango 2. “The Tango works very well with Pyramix and a lot was learned from our collaboration on the Ramses console control system,” points out Chris Hollebone, sales operations & marketing manager at Merging Technologies. “Tango 2 is an even better product, and with Pyramix presents as good a hardware-software solution as exists anywhere on the market.” There’s no formal business-to-
business arrangement between Merging and Smart, but the marketing messages are entirely in sync. It should be noted that Tango also supports Nuendo, Cubase, Pro Tools, FinalCut Pro and more, so at this dance it’s impossible to know who’ll she be going home with, if anyone. Next to take the floor is Steinberg, married to Yamaha Commercial Audio of course. This season Yamaha is wearing an adorable surface called Nuage, hewn from the corporation’s console hardware
expertise and clinched inexorably to Nuendo 6 software. As well as controlling all of the features of Nuendo, this integration is most clearly visible in the way the DAW screens are laid out above each of the hardware channel strips, making a direct link from the fader channel to the display. “Obviously Nuendo users have been crying out for something like Nuage, but there’s more to it than that,” comments Nick Cook, European marketing director at Yamaha Commercial Audio, speaking from Hamburg, where Steinberg’s digital audio workstation roots are very deep. “Both Yamaha and Steinberg have been asked by post facilities for a viable alternative to existing audio production systems, and with Nuage we’re able to offer the optimal post solution plus the commercial stability, longevity and consistency that professional post houses need.” Our next couple is Soundscape and SSL, together for over six years now. Again the control surfaces are considerably brand-agnostic, and span every market sector – project studio- friendly Nucleus is marketed under ‘Music’, but also figures in the full configuration of ScreenSound ADR, for example. But the union is
intimate, just as it is for couple number four: Avid and Euphonix. In this instance the bride has changed her name to the male line, but the legacy lives on in control surfaces like the System 5 that are being ingeniously absorbed into the Avid portfolio along with the highly flirtatious proprietary protocol EUCON. “Avid recognises that it’s important to have an open standard for hardware controllers communicating with media products,” says Dave Tyler, solutions development manager at Avid’s HQ in Europe, “whether DAWs or non-linear video editors. So we’ve continued to develop EUCON, and we’ve actually got even more EUCON partners on board since the acquisition.” What this ballroom blitz tells
you is that the issue of cross- platform control is well
in hand: the market is far less precious than it used to be about brand equity, at least when it comes to operation. That said, each of these combinations naturally quotes the special advantages of brand fidelity – of staying ‘in-house’ so that all the benefits of keeping the same technical DNA are also extended to the business-to- business issues of distribution and support.
WEB AND FLOW But networking is something else. The hot topic at the moment is audio over IP, and whether the apparent advantages of piggybacking onto existing Ethernet channels overcome the time-honoured misgivings over quality and reliability. All of the leading players have something to say about that. “Having looked at the options
Focusrite’s RedNet is a real-time audio transport protocol based on Dante
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