In Broadcast - March 2014 - 56
I N T E R N A T I O N A L WWW.INBROADCAST.COM | ISSUE 29 - MARCH 2014 N E W S InGEAR TSL Products Introduces Soundfield SurroundZone2 DAW Plug-In I N T E R N A T I O N A L N E W S By Staff Reporter T 56 SL Products, manufacturer of surround sound microphones and processing, audio monitoring, control systems and power management solutions for the broadcast industry, is introducing the new Surround Zone2 DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) plugin and ST450 MKII Surround Sound Microphone System at CABSAT 2014. The SurroundZone2 plug-in unlocks the information captured by any of the SoundField microphone systems, providing unprecedented control over a wide range of microphone parameters from a single intuitive user interface. The MKII version of the popular ST450 battery-powered surround microphone system delivers a new mic pre design with improved metering functions. "The new SurroundZone2 plug-in and the ST450 MKII microphone system were developed based on extensive industry feedback as to what the professional production community needs to better complete broadcasts and programming," says Pieter Schillebeeckx, Product Manager of SoundField for TSL Products. "The main focus throughout the development of these products was ease of use across the most popular Digital Audio Workstations, both from a usage and a set-up perspective." The new SurroundZone2 plug-in rolls all the functionality of the original "Surround Zone" and "SPS200 Surround Zone" plug-ins into one. At the same time the new software adds some exciting new controls such as "Snap Tilt" and "individual polar pattern control" for the surround modes SurroundZone2 supports Stereo (Mono) and surround sound formats including 5.0, 5.1, 6.0, 6.1, 7.0, 7.1 and SoundField's proprietary B-Format (for SPS200 A-Format input only) outputs. Available Controls include Input and Output trims, Hi-Pass Input filter, Mic Orientation: End-Fire and Invert, Solo and Mutes for the Individual outputs, Rotate, Snap Tilt (individual front and rear tilt) and Zoom, Individual Width Controls and Individual Polar Pattern Controls. Plug-In Formats The plug-in is available in the following formats: AAX Native and VST (both 32-bit and 64-bit, for PC and Mac) and AU (both 32-bit and 64-bit for Mac). The new ST450 MKII further refines the design of the electronics in the original ST450 preamp package. The new mic-pre design allows for 3dB gain steps, replacing the 6dB steps of the original, giving operators the opportunity to more accurately fine tune the gain structure during capture. In addition, the overall available gain has been increased from 30dB to 42dB, delivering more system headroom. This is especially important for location recordings of low level sources. Finally, the seven-segment bargraph meter now includes a peak hold function for at-a-glance tracking of signal overload. TSL Products ST450 MKII SoundField Portable Microphone System SDI-Embedded Audio Interfacing Made Easy: NTP Technology By Mikael Vest Sales Director of NTP Technology E mbedding audio in the SDI stream has been a practice since the mid-1990s when the Gigabit IP Ethernet plays a central role SMPTE standardised the first in what is now a family of serial digital interfaces. In the early days, much of the SDI content was interfaced via devices such as Sony Betacam video tape machines, the audio being embedded with the video in up to two groups of two AES/EBU channels. Each AES/EBU channel was allowed to be asynchronous to the video signal. The SMPTE standards for SDI were gradually developed to support high-definition and more recently 3 gigabits per second (3G) SDI. The audio embedding capacity was also increased to support 16 channels in HD and 32 channels in 3G. This meets various needs for audio interchange along the SDI line including peripheral content such as intercom channels. Channel routing has become a useful way to achieve operational flexibility. Also useful is the ability to support multiple digital audio interfaces for connecting the embedded audio signal to the outside world. Interfacing is typically via AES/ EBU, MADI, IP Ethernet Audio or plain analogue. Since the number of possible embedded audio channels in an SDI signal stream often is higher than the number actually used even in complex application, a router is often used to select the required channels for the particular audio interface used. This routing can be dynamic, depending on the required workflow. NTP Technology's Penta 720 SDI I/O and router unit allows routing directly between SDI embedded audio channels and AES/EBU, MADI, or Ethernet-based IP audio interfaces, either at box level or system level. Each Penta 720 provides a total of 16 SDI input and output interfaces with the option of interfacing IP audio powered by Dante via a standard gigabit Ethernet, a very flexible, efficient and cost-effective audio exchange system can be established.
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