Page 6 - ADVANCING AOIP FOR BROADCAST

When IP Isn’t Enough...
6
If you’ve already started transi oning your broadcast plant and work ows to IP, you’ve no doubt discovered one of life’s li le ironies. IP, it turns out, knows very li le about the successful delivery of media.
IP can bring unbelievable adaptability and extendability
to audio for live remote produc on. But you’ll s ll need a way to bring audio into the network, priori ze it to reduce packet dropouts and other quality issues, plus manage, process and do all those things you normally do with audio.
In short, you’ll need something that talks both IP and audio, and knows AES67. That’s where WheatNet-IP audio I/O BLADEs come in.
For example, the M4IP-USB BLADE is used at remote venues and in studios as an interface between the network and up to four microphones. It’s essen ally a four-channel mic processor with four XLR inputs and
an Ethernet output port, with parametric EQ, de-esser and compressors for each channel – all of which can be set and adjusted from a laptop. The M4IP-USB also has two 8-channel u lity mixers that you can assign to be
a very low latency IFB subsystem and/or premixer with remote control capability in a network of other BLADEs. It includes built-in silence detec on on all outputs with auto switchover and auto fall back for enhanced opera onal reliability, and USB ports for feeding audio directly from computers and other devices. And most importantly, as an I/O BLADE, it can route audio streams to anywhere in the network.
The M4IP-USB can be used as a standalone BLADE, or it can be part of a network of BLADEs to form a
WheatNet-IP audio network. It can also be interfaced to just about any analog or digital mixer that takes AES or analog audio, and as an AES67 compa ble unit, it can be interfaced into any IP audio network that has AES67 (such as Dante®).
But what if you needed to bring in audio from a camera
or other HD-SDI source? We have a BLADE for that, too. Our HD-SDI BLADE can feed audio from video produc on automa on systems, routers, and other professional video equipment that use HD-SDI. It de-embeds mul ple audio channels from HD-SDI streams so you can mix, process
or simply route audio to your console for nal broadcast.
It is capable of de-embedding up to four HD-SDI streams, and up to eight audio channels per stream, and this BLADE also has all the standard built-in features like u lity mixers and AES67 compa bility, so you can use it for IFB and interface it to all the same networks as our mic processor BLADE.
We also have a MADI BLADE for exchanging up to 64 bidirec onal channels (AES10) of audio between our WheatNet-IP audio network and any MADI-compa ble intercom system, TDM router, ProTools system or DAW. For TV folks, you can roll your produc on truck into a venue and plug the MADI BLADE into the house system for intercoms and mixing, and use its IP connec vity for backhauling to the main studio located elsewhere.
Wheatstone has 11 di erent avors of BLADEs, any of which can be connected together into a WheatNet-IP audio network to provide resources and u li es for speci c IP audio applica ons.