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BLUE SKY AUDIO MANAGEMENT CONTROLLER Manual

Windows and os x version 10.3
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AUDIO MANAGEMENT CONTROLLER (AMC) MANUAL
WINDOWS AND OS X VERSION 10.3
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Summary of Contents for BLUE SKY AUDIO MANAGEMENT CONTROLLER

  • Page 1: Description

    AUDIO MANAGEMENT CONTROLLER (AMC) MANUAL WINDOWS AND OS X VERSION 10.3 Page 1...
  • Page 2 DESCRIPTION The Blue Sky Audio Management Controller (AMC) is an 8-channel audio DSP platform with both 24-bit digital and analog I/O. Each channel of the AMC has a sample rate converter (by stereo pair), a 31 band 1/3 octave equalizer, eight parametric / free assignable filters, individual channel delays, and lip-sync delay.

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    Table of Contents DESCRIPTION...........................2 AMC FEATURES..........................4 IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS...................5 AMC FRONT PANEL..........................7 AMC REAR PANEL..........................7 1. POWER............................7 2. CHANNEL ASSIGNMENTS.......................7 3. ANALOG I/0..........................8 4. DIGITAL I/0..........................8 THE AMC REMOTE.........................11 FRONT PANEL..........................11 REAR PANEL..........................12 MENU ITEMS..........................13 QUICK SETUP AND USE........................15 UPDATING THE FIRMWARE......................16 UPGRADING THE FIRMWARE IN THE AMC RACK.............16 UPGRADING THE FIRMWARE IN THE AMC REMOTE..............17 THE AMC CONTROL SOFTWARE....................18...

  • Page 4: Amc Features

    AMC FEATURES o 8 balanced analog inputs and outputs with switchable +12 / +24 dBu maximum levels o 8 AES 110 ohm digital inputs and outputs, each transformer Isolated o Burr Brown / TI PCM1792A digital to analog converter with 132 dB SNR o Burr Brown / TI PCM4222 analog to digital converter with 124 dB SNR.

  • Page 5: Important Safety Instructions

    IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS Page 5...
  • Page 6 11. Do not place flammable material above or beneath the AMC. 12. Before making connections to a Blue Sky AMC, ensure that the power is off and other components are in mute or stand-by mode. 13. Make sure all cable terminations are of the highest quality, free from frayed ends, short circuits, or cold solder joints.

  • Page 7: Amc Front Panel

    AMC FRONT PANEL POWER Switch – Turns AMC on and off. USB 2.0 Connector – used for updating firmware in the AMC rack and the AMC Control program. STATUS / POWER LED – Indicates the AMC is powered. When flashing indicates internal microcontroller is operating normally.
  • Page 8 4. LFE 5. Left Surround 6. Right Surround 7. Left Rear 8. Right Rear The channel assignments match the labels on the remote. However, these channels labels are for reference only. Any channel can be used for any purpose desired. The only exception is the LFE channel which includes the bass management filters. Since these filters can be disabled (using the AMC Control Software), the LFE channel can be reconfigured as a standard channel like the others.
  • Page 9 EXTERNAL MUTE INPUT The green barrier strip has an external mute input, which allows an external switch or 5 V trigger to mute the entire system. This is normally used for talk-back muting. The mute input is opto – isolated to prevent ground loops when using an external supply. To use a switch, connect the normally open switch across pins 1 and 4 and connect a jumper wire between pin 4 and pin 5 n 3.

  • Page 10: The Amc Remote

    THE AMC REMOTE FRONT PANEL GAIN – changes the system gain in 1.0 dB increments . Also used to scroll through the menus and change parameters. MUTE – mutes all channels, both digital and analog REF – sets the system gain to a user defined reference level. The default setting is -20 dB. The default setting can be changed utilizing the remote menu or the AMC Control Software.

  • Page 11: Rear Panel

    DIM/CANCEL – reduces the current system gain by the DIM value. The default setting is -10 dB. The default setting can be changed utilizing the menu or the AMC Control Software. The DIM/CANCEL switch is also used to exit the menu mode MUTE MODE –...

  • Page 12: Menu Items

    REMOTE AUX RS232 - Connects the remote to a 2 AMC rack for 16 channel operation THE MENU Menu Switch – enters the menu mode and switches between scroll and parameter modes. In the Scroll mode, the gain control “scrolls” through the menu items. In the Parameter mode, the gain control changes the selected parameter.
  • Page 13 AMC Control software and the optional recommended measurement microphone and USB audio interface. (See the section on additional equipment you will need, below.) 3. Lip Sync delay – Many video displays have video processing delays which can cause the audio to be out of sync with the picture. To compensate for video delay, an overall audio time delay can be added to re-synchronize the audio with the picture.

  • Page 14: Quick Setup And Use

    QUICK SETUP AND USE The AMC comes with six default which are a mix of digital and analog. Any preset can be reconfigured to analog or digital or a mix The display has a short description of the presets. These presets can be modified on a limited basis using the menu on the remote or completely reconfigured using the AMC Control Software.

  • Page 15: Updating The Firmware

    Note: The firmware can only be updated when the rack is powered down. 1. Install the Blue Sky AMC RACK Firmware X.XX update tool. The installation tool will create a Blue Sky in the Program Files (0x86) sub-directory and install the update program and the new hex file in that directory.

  • Page 16: Upgrading The Firmware In The Amc Remote

    1. Install the Blue Sky AMC Remote Firmware X.XX update tool. The installation tool will create a Blue Sky in the Program Files (0x86) sub-directory and install the update program and the new hex file in that directory.

  • Page 17: The Amc Control Software

    Yosemite, EL Captain, and High Sierra. This program and is intended for use only with the Blue Sky AMC and will not run without the AMC is connected to the computer by USB. Both versions of the AMC Control software are available for download. Contact Blue Sky for a download link.

  • Page 18: The Amc Control Main Screen

    THE AMC CONTROL MAIN SCREEN When using the USB interface, the AMC rack and the software are linked so preset changes and parameter changes made on the remote or by the AMC program show on both. The remote update may lag behind the software by a couple of seconds. NAVIGATING AROUND THE INTERFACE The blue boxes represent items that are activated when clicked with your mouse.
  • Page 19 DISPLAY dBSPL – turn the dBSPL display on and off. Reference Gain- displays the current reference gain setting. The reference gain for this preset can be modified directly by typing in the new value in the box. This value will also be updated if the reference gain setting is changed through the remote Dim Gain- displays the current dim gain setting.
  • Page 20 entered directly in the boxes or entered automatically using the SRO procedure. See the Speaker Room Optimization (SRO) section below for more information. Channel delay in milliseconds - sets the individual time delay for each channel output and is used to time align the speakers. Lip sync delay in milliseconds- set some master time delay for all channels both digital and analog and is used mainly match audio to picture .

  • Page 21: Cross Mixer

    CROSS MIXER The cross mixer screen – when you click on the cross mixer box on the main screen it will open up a new screen as follows.The cross mixer screen shows how each inputs (analog and digital) are routed to each output. The gain can be entered directly in the box or to mute an input type in “off”...

  • Page 22: Bass Management

    BASS MANAGEMENT The blue bass management button will bring up the following screen. The bass management screen shows the bass management settings for each individual channel and the graphs show the resulting frequency response of the electrical crossovers without the effects of EQ.
  • Page 23 HP2 or HPBW4 are used depending on the actual speaker attached to the channel. If the speaker is made for bass management, (IE Blue Sky SAT6D) then you use a HP2 set to 80 Hz. If however, if the attached speaker is a full range monitor that may go down to 50 or 40 Hz, you'd use a HPBW4 to get a better blend with the subwoofer.

  • Page 24: 1/3 Octave Eq

    1/3 OCTAVE EQ 31 band EQ- the cut and boost of any band on EQ can be changed by moving the slider with the mouse. The frequency response will automatically reflect an EQ changes EQ optimize button sets whether the 1/3 octave EQ is used for optimization in the SRO process UNASSIGNED CHANNEL FILTERS There are 8 uncommitted filters per channel that can be used for additional EQ beyond the 1/3 octave equalizer.
  • Page 25 Frequency - sets the cutoff frequency of the filter. This value can be changed by typing a new frequency in the box or by double clicking the box and clicking any point on the graph Q- sets the q of the filter , which can be changed by typing a new value in the box. The value can also be changed by double clicking the q edit box.

  • Page 26: Target Curves

    Blue Sky speakers using bass management. If the target curves are not appropriate for your application, you can construct a custom target curve using any or all filters.
  • Page 27 Target Scale Low and High Freq – the software uses the frequencies between these to calculate the avg. microphone level and this is used to adjust the target curve so it “floats' with the drive level. These frequencies are usually selected to be in a flat portion of the measured curve. Low and High Target Freq –...

  • Page 28: Speaker Room Optimization (Sro)

    SPEAKER ROOM OPTIMIZATION (SRO) OVERVIEW SRO is a system for measuring the acoustic response of a speaker system and correcting the speaker system to a target frequency response. Note: if a valid USB audio interface is not found the measurement function will be disabled. The measurement portion of SRO uses a special noise signal called a maximum length sequence (MLS).

  • Page 29: Additional Equipment You Will Need

    ADDITIONAL EQUIPMENT YOU WILL NEED The Blue Sky SRO program uses an inexpensive USB audio interface and measurement microphone to generate test tones and measure the frequency response of the speakers attached to the AMC. You will need the following: 1.

  • Page 30: Setting Up The Art Usb Dual Pre In Os X

    time the device is connected to the USB port you'll get a driver installation message. 10. Setup the ART as the default playback device and set its Playback properties. Windows Control Panel-> Sound-> Playback ->USB Audio CODEC -> Set Default Properties- >Advanced->...

  • Page 31: Guidelines On Microphone Setup

    Ch->Volume-> Both 0 dB USB Audio Codec ->Input-> Format 48000 2ch-16 bit Integer Note: If you disconnect the ART Dual Pre from your computer, you may have to go through this process again. GUIDELINES ON MICROPHONE SETUP Typical small diaphragm measurement microphones have an omni-directional response pattern over most of the audio band with a slight narrowing of the pattern as frequency of approach 20 kHz Most speakers on the other hand, have an omni-directional pattern only at frequencies below 1kHz.

  • Page 32: Using The Sro Program (Simple Set Up)

    USING THE SRO PROGRAM (SIMPLE SET UP) 1. Connect the ART USB Dual Pre output to Analog 8 In on the AMC 2. Connect the ART USB cable to the a USB 2.0 port. 3. Using a microphone stand set the measurement microphone at your listening position and at ear height.

  • Page 33: Starting The Sro Program

    STARTING THE SRO PROGRAM Once the AMC Control program is running, click the SRO button in the right hand corner of the main screen. The following screen will pop up. This screen shows the current state of the EQ, target filters, measured frequency response and corrected frequency response of all the channels.

  • Page 34: Frequency Response Curve

    If the level is low, increase the gain on the remote control. If the measured response is too low, the noise floor of the room and or the microphone may prevent an accurate measurement. Normally when optimizing a Blue Sky SAT6D, the remote gain control is set for 0dB. Page 34...

  • Page 35: Optimizing Using 1/3 Octave Filters

    BEST ERROR - during optimization, the program calculates deviation from the target curve and displays an error number. The best error is the closest match so far. CURRENT ERROR - the current calculated error for this pass of optimization MEASURED TIME DELAY - measured time delay between the speaker and the microphone in milliseconds.
  • Page 36 1. Define your target curve 2. Measure the speakers. 3. Go to the EQ page, and find the peaks you want to reduce. 4. Uncheck the “OPTIMIZE USING 1/3 OCT EQ” checkbox 5. Select the filters you want to use. IE one peak one filter etc. 6.
  • Page 37 To illustrate the process, here is a measurement of a left speaker There is a broad peak at approximately 450 Hz, that we want to reduce using one parametric filter. 1. We have selected one parameter filter, double clicked on the frequency box and the graph to the approximate center of the peak.
  • Page 38 2. Go to the target curve screen and you can see the frequency range is the default 80 to 4 khz kHz. 3. Double click on the LOW TARGET FREQ and the graph to set the low target to the low end of the peak.
  • Page 39 5. Go to The SRO screen and hit Optimize. Here is the result Page 39...
  • Page 40 Page 40...

  • Page 41: Calibrating The Amc To Display Dbspl

    2. Complete EQ'ing and optimizing your speaker system including channel calibration. 3. Follow the Blue Sky Calibration instructions and measure the SPL of the center channel at the listening position. 4. Without changing the Remote Master Gain setting go into the menu and adjust the dBSPL setting to match the reading of your SPL meter.

  • Page 42: Amc Specifications

    AMC SPECIFICATIONS Analog Noise Floor -106 dBu / -96dBu (20 Hz - 20 kHz flat) +12/+24 Analog Dynamic Range 118 dB Maximum Analog Input +12 dBu / +24 dBu Maximum Analog Output +12 / +24 dBu Analog THD + N, .002% +4 dBu In (20 Hz -20 kHz) Digital THD + N .00002% -20 dBFS (20 Hz - 20 kHz) Digital In Lock Range 44.1 kHz -192 kHz Frequency Response 10 Hz –...

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