Architecture & Engineering Specifications
The audio system engine shall be designed for digital audio mixing applications and be optimised for use in live performance. It shall feature 168 simultaneous input channels and 99 time-aligned and phase-coherent output mix buses and operate at 96 kHz sampling rate.
The audio system engine shall include Gigabit and 100 Mbit/s Ethernet frame-based digital audio networking with a total network channel count capability of 288 inputs and 294 outputs at 96 kHz sampling rate. A Gigabit Ethernet frame-based digital audio network router shall be included with 192 bidirectional channels operating over optical fibre up to 500m and CAT5/5E cable up to 100m, and provide a dual redundant digital snake connection to the associated control centre.
The Gigabit digital audio network shall operate on a time-division multiplex basis, and shall provide accurate phase-aligned low-jitter clock distribution using embedded timing markers in the data streams to allow transmission over either Cat5/5E copper cable up to a distance of 100m as specified by the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard, or up to distances of 500m using 50/125 μm multimode optical fibre. It shall provide two levels of cyclic redundancy check (CRC) error detection - a checksum sent with the associated Ethernet frame and an additional checksum for audio data. A dedicated 200 Mbit/s auxiliary data channel shall be provided for control data.
The Gigabit digital audio network shall have an individual link latency of 62.5 μs at 96 kHz sampling rate and support dual redundant operation.
The 100 Megabit Ethernet frame-based digital audio network shall off er N+1 cable redundancy and be compliant with the Audio Engineering Society AES50-2011 standard.
In conjunction with the associated control centre, the audio system engine shall provide up to 36 assignable digital audio emulations of industry standard one-third octave proportional-Q response graphic equalisers and up to 24 simultaneous multi-channel digital audio effects. There shall be automatic latency management of all internal routing, external analogue insert and digital signal processing delays. This latency management system shall synchronise audio samples when summing to mix buses to ensure phase alignment of the summed signals.
The audio system engine shall be equipped with 4 digital signal processing cards as standard for N+1 redundant operation with only 3 cards required for full operation.
The audio system engine shall include an expansion card slot for support of additional connectivity options.
The audio system engine shall include three auto-ranging universal switch-mode power supplies with N+1 redundancy for use on a worldwide basis. The power supply modules shall be externally removable and interchangeable with those in the associated control centre.
The audio system engine shall be 483 mm wide x 375 mm deep x 309 mm high (19.0" x 14.8" x 12.2"), with nominal weight 24.0 kg (52.8 lbs). The audio system engine shall be installed on a flat horizontal surface capable of safely supporting its weight. Input, output, and power connections shall be made at the rear panel of the audio system engine. Installers shall allow adequate space at the rear for connection and disconnection of input, output, and power connections. The power requirements shall be 100 to 240 VAC, 50 to 60 Hz.
The audio system engine shall be the MIDAS NEUTRON and no other alternative shall be acceptable.