Quick Takes: Audio-Technica Subminiature Condenser Lav, Soundcraft V1 Mixer Cards, Euphonix EuCon Software 1.4.1

By Dan Daley

A look at some of the products making news at the NAB Show

Audio-Technica (Booth N2121) introduced its BP896 Subminiature Condenser Lavalier microphone. A-T’s smallest-ever, easy-to-hide lavalier has a capsule diameter of 2.5 mm yet still can handle high sound-pressure levels. The microphone is available in black or beige, wired or wireless, with terminations for Audio-Technica and other manufacturers’ wireless transmitters.

Meanwhile, new option interface cards for the Soundcraft Vi Series digital live sound consoles have been released, expanding its applications into broadcast. Using the new ADAT card, it is possible to connect two ports of eight I/O channels to an ADAT-equipped hard disk or software-based recorder, so two cards would enable 32 channels of audio to be recorded and played back almost instantaneously. SDI and Dolby E cards enable console-based de-embedding of audio channels from within SDI video streams and re-embedding for onward transmission, and the decoding of up to eight channels of audio from a Dolby Digital or Dolby E stream. All individual audio channels are then available within the Vi Series’ digital patchbay for mixing.

Also introduced for the show was Euphonix’s EuCon software version 1.4.1 for the company’s MC Pro and System 5-MC DAW controllers, which adds new and updated OS compatibility as well as support for MOTU’s Digital Performer 6, the most recent DAW software application to integrate the EuCon protocol. The software now also includes compatibility with Vista operating system and updated support for Digidesign’s Pro Tools 8 and Pyramix version 6.1.3 via EuCon.