Yes, I had a lovely holiday – thanks for asking. Anyway – I came back to a several hundred emails offering me the usual courses in “Graphic Design” (which I take as a personal affront) and member enlargement (which I do not) . Amongst the detritus were several genuine mails from customers enquiring why some of their brand new DP448 units had firmware version 2.10 and there was no sign of it on the website. Things like this happen when you go away for a week.
The answer is easy – the units with version 2.10 have a new DSP platform in them. This was first used in the DP426 (hence it being at firmware version 1.83 whilst all other 4 Series are still 1.82) and then the DC1048. We are methodically moving over to this newer platform and so all new units apart from the DP424 and the DP444 will be version 2.10.
This new firmware will be released when it is finalised for the entire 4 Series.
There is no need to worry about upgrading current units – the firmware is operationally identical to 1.82 (or 1.83 for the DP426).
Here, actually. Well, not exactly here, as I’m not going to explain them all again, but there is an updated guide to help you choose the best one for your application. It covers all the interfaces we stock, with part numbers and shows what you get with each kit. You can download a copy from the Tech Support section of the site, under the “Remote and Interfaces” section or directly from here: https://audiocore.wpengine.com/tech-support-docs/Remote_Interfaces.pdf
Now, onto more important things like our sea-faring activities of late… 🙂
Just a quick post after a phone call from a certain tee-pee related company (all names hidden to protect the innocent etc. – cheers A:). I’ve been informed that L-Acoustics have very kindly put all the preset libraries back on-line here, so we grabbed a copy while we could:
Yes indeed. Although, before I continue it should be said that this TechBlog isn’t intended to be a platform for extra sales pitches of our gear – it’s hopefully going to turn into the place where we get to report back things that would benefit from discussion with you – our users – or possibly things that we think are interesting/cool. Click on the “Comments” link above here and discuss…
That said, this is sort of a sales pitch, but not for an XTA product, so I’m not contradicting myself. Not much anyway 😉
So, this year in Frankfurt, by far the biggest cool factor award has to go to Andreas Zeh and his iPhone app to control 4 Series units. I’m allowed to tell you all about this because he did this completely “off his own bat”, in his spare time just because he’s a fan of the gear. He got in touch about a year ago and asked would we mind if he looked into developing an app, and asked for the protocol for 4 Series. Once we’d tied up the legal side he got stuck in and had things up and running late last year. He got it approved by Apple in February and now it’s available to download.
It works like this: you buy a “Walkabout Kit” from us – this contains the WiFi – RS485 converter and a WiFi adapter for your laptop. This kit enables full wireless control of a network of units via AudioCore and we’ve just updated it with a new WiFi end for the laptop to make it easier to set up and improve performance. And so ends the sales pitch – well almost – here’s a link if you want to know more:
So anyway, once you’ve downloaded the app on your iPhone/Pod, you set up the IP address of the Walkabout kit and that’s it. You’ve now got access to 4 Series on your shiny iDevice. There are a couple of provisos – it only currently accesses one device at a time (the ID number can be adjusted to address different ones though), and it only works with DP448/6/4s (so not 424 or 426). I’m sure that’ll change though as Andi has already done one update. He likes a tweak.
Just a few screenshots, to show you how cool it actually is, and a link to his page and we’re done. Remember – we’re not selling this, nor are we getting a cut, so we don’t offer tech support for it. If you wreck your system due to particularly fat fingers, at least you can pretend you were on the phone at the time and had nothing to do with it.
One last thing worth noting – this doesn’t mean that anyone with an iPhone can suddenly hack into your system if you’re using a wireless kit – there is the not inconsequential WEP security on the WiFi network which should stop that. Only one device can connect to the WiFi-RS485 adapter at a time anyway so if you’re online, no-one else gets a look-in.
So, some pics…
Routing and muting - tap an input or output to jump to it for editing...Parametric EQ adjustment - whilst not as cool as curve dragging, be honest - would you safely be able to on a screen this size? The screw-up possibilities would be high.Memories contents can be quickly seen and different bits switched off prior to recall and saving.Metering is returned in real time...
Flip your iPhone/Pad on its side and if you're editing an input, the Graphic EQ slides into view. Very cool and guaranteed to get an "ooo..." from your assembled tech geek friends 😉
