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the authoring of custom .DLLs for inte-
gration into the IRIS shell of these
third party products.
NETMAX – A FLEXIBLE
HARDWARE PLATFORM
The latest addition to the IRIS-Net
platform is the NetMax N8000 audio
processing and matrix system. The
name
NetMax
is
taken
"Networkable Matrix" and, as the
name implies, provides a completely
network enabled solution for audio
distribution, control, processing and
supervision.
The N8000 is a modular system that
allows for a variety of different hard-
ware configurations. The chassis has
four card slots that can be populated
with any combination of eight-channel
input or output modules in analog or
digital format. Cards can be added or
removed without removing the cover
of the unit, thus allowing the addition,
or exchange of cards, without remov-
ing the chassis from a rack.
The AI-1 analog input card and
AO-1 analog output card feature bal-
anced Euroblock connections with a
dynamic range of 117 dB and 118 dB
respectively. The DI-1 digital input
module features Euroblock and opti-
cal connectors, and supports both
AES/EBU and S/PDIF formats at 32
kHz-192 kHz sampling rates. All
NetMax Uncovered – The N8000 modular system loaded with I/O modules.
70 Live Sound International March 2006
inputs are equipped with high quality
sample rate converters and signals are
processed internally with a 48-bit
word length.
A separate slot is provided for the
optional CM-1 CobraNet card. The
CM-1 card supports up to 32 channels
of simultaneous digital input and out-
put and provides primary and second-
from
ary 100Base-TX network ports to sup-
port redundant network designs. The
CM-1 interface allows the transmission
and reception of multiple audio chan
nels at 48/96 kHz sample rate with a
16, 20 or 24-bit word length, as well as
clock and control data, on a single
cable using standard Ethernet media
and hardware.
When it comes to processing
horsepower, the N8000 chassis is pro-
vided with 300 MIPS (million instruc-
tions processed per second) of on
board processing power, with the
option to add a DSP-1 DSP expansion
card to add another 300 MIPS to the
processing engine. Additionally, each
input
and
output
equipped with 100 MIPS of on board
processing, making for a total of 1,000
MIPS of processing power available in
a fully expanded chassis.
Accompanying
engine is a library of DSP processing
objects available to the designer.
These include multiple EQs and filters,
incorporating notches, shelves, high-
pass and low-pass, band-pass and all-
pass. A variety of crossover blocks,
delays up to 2 seconds and multiple
compression and limiting algorithms
are also provided.
EV has also included a special
loudspeaker DSP block that includes
six
crossover, time alignment, digital trim
and mute, compression and limiting
in a single DSP object. All of these
elements are freely configurable, but
this DSP block also allows the design-
er to import EV speaker presets from
card
comes
a library included with IRIS directly
into a single block without needing to
add and then program the DSP ele-
ments individually.
Of course, no digital matrix would
the
processing
be complete without matrix and rout-
ing options, and there is a wide vari-
ety to choose from, including standard
crosspoint matrices, priority matrices,
mixers and routers. The priority matrix
provides the unique feature of being
able to interface with a Dynacord
ProAnnounce paging and background
music system, to allow the control and
activation of the matrix for routing of
paging, alarms, chimes and prerecord-
ed messages from a ProAnnounce
paging console, or DTI2000 telephone
paging interface.
The DSP configuration is per-
formed using an intuitive drag-and-
drop CAD-style interface within IRIS-
Net. DSP objects can be added or
removed, while a DSP resource meter
keeps the designer alerted to the true
amount of processing resources that
are being used. In addition, IRIS and
NetMax use an auto compiler for DSP
configuration, so each time a new
object is added, removed or modified,
the project is compiled and the
resource meter is updated. DSP con-
figurations can be uploaded to the PC
bands
of
parametric
EQ,
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