NAB 2017: Audio Products Slated To Debut Next Week

Signal transport, processing, and networking will be among the offerings

Several pro-audio manufacturers are using NAB 2017 as a major launch pad for a slew of products. Many of the offerings include multi-unit debuts.

Riedel’s Bolero wireless intercom solution

Riedel Communications (C4337) will unveil its latest real-time signal distribution, networking, and intercom solutions for broadcast and live performance. Making its North American debut, Bolero wireless intercom solution uses an expandable, full-roaming, DECT-based intercom system in the license-free 1.9 GHz frequency range and is fully integrated into Riedel’s Artist digital matrix intercom platform. Also debuting, Riedel’s MediorNet MultiViewer virtual-multiviewer app is based on the MediorNet MicroN high-density media-distribution hardware and designed to work within the MediorNet network. MediorNet MultiViewer delivers the benefits of a decentralized signal network by enabling multiviewer hardware to be placed anywhere it’s needed, and it leverages the network for sources and removes the extra layer of gear and complexity that would be required by a large monolithic router. Also being introduced is a new HandsFree app for Riedel’s SmartPanel, the first key panel designed as a powerful multifunctional user interface. With the HandsFree app running on SmartPanel, users can easily and securely pair iOS or Android handsets to SmartPanels via Bluetooth technology. The app enables phone audio to be routed directly through the Riedel Artist digital matrix intercom system.

Wheatstone’s FM-55e second-generation audio processor

Wheatstone (N6531) will showcase members of its newly extended family. The FM-55e second-generation audio processor retains all the features of the FM-55 FM processor but adds enhanced iAGC controls, as well as an entirely new bass-processing design. The multi-band audio processor is suitable for FM stations requiring sound consistency across a variety of source material. It includes the popular intelligent five-band AGC technology — or iAGC — coupled to a five-band limiter and stereo generator, plus five-band stereo enhancement and program-adaptive L-R control for multipath mitigation. Like the FM-55, the FM-55e fully supports the WheatNet-IP intelligent network and is equipped with two analog composite outputs, two SCA inputs, balanced analog left/right outputs, and an AES digital output that can be switched to deliver either discrete left/right or baseband192 digital multiplex signal.

Wheatstone will also showcase virtualized audio services across a wide-area network in a demonstration of at-home production taking place in its booth and the Artel booth (N4511). A simulated sports event in the Wheatstone booth will be captured on camera, and the feed will be picked up for final mixing and production via the Dimension Three (Touch) IP-audio networked console. Audio routing, control, mixing, and processing will be done via the WheatNet-IP network of virtual-audio services. Included in each I/O BLADE are two stereo 8×2 utility mixers and audio-processing tools to mix various sources from the network and process the resultant mixes. In addition to gain control, pan/balance, and direct audio monitoring and metering, BLADEs also provide crosspoint control for the entire signal matrix, so zero-latency IFB feeds can be created and controlled at any location.

WheatNet-IP audio networking will demonstrate AES67-compatibility in an overall system based on SMPTE ST 2110, a standard currently in advanced draft stage that defines AES67 as the audio element in the transition to IP. This widely used IP audio-networking system will be part of the NAB IP Showcase in the North Hall, Booth N4824, put on by the AES, Media Networking Alliance (MNA), Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS), Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA), European Broadcasting Union (EBU), IABM (the international trade association for suppliers of broadcast and media technology), Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE), and the Video Services Forum (VSF).