Information

A common application for the use of networked audio in the commercial A/V industry today is the use of multi-microphone systems in corporate meetings spaces for voice and teleconferencing. It is typical, for executive boardrooms to include a number of table mounted microphones for adequate coverage of the meeting participants.  

Additionally, there are likely ceiling speakers or speakers mounted near a display monitor or projector screen. The “Board Room” example above depicts this very common scenario with five  microphones (all of which have “push-to-talk” and LED functionality) sitting on top of a large conference table. A major pain-point for both end users and integrators can be found when working with analog wiring in smaller office spaces. Running analog cable from these microphones to an audio system cabinet/closet can prove difficult to work with for system installers and expensive for the end customer or owner of the facility.

Modern networked A/V systems can make managing the audio in these smaller rooms simpler and yet even more flexible. Older DSP-based solutions for multi-mic conferencing systems required a dedicated DSP, usually in close proximity to the microphone sources. Using fully networked audio solutions, like the unD4I-L.  A simpler, more cost effective interface can be placed in the room to transmit both the microphone audio content as well as the user driven push to talk switches.  In response to the user’s button presses and the requirements of the room, the remotely located DSP can receive the audio and logic events over the network audio connection and in turn remotely drive the microphone LEDs and logic output interfaces on the unD4I-L.  Depending upon the number of microphones, this solution can be scaled to address the needs of multiple meeting room systems with centralized DSP processing, lowering the system cost and maintenance and administration of independent audio systems.

The Attero Tech unD4I-L provides a solution to all of these aforementioned problems by offering an extremely versatile Dante interface for microphone sources. In addition to including four analog microphone inputs, the unD4I-L also has four Logic I/O connectors for microphones with LED/”push-to-talk” functionality. In the diagram above, we can see that two unD4I-L’s have been mounted underneath the conference table and six analog microphone cables are being run from the six desk microphones into the two unD4I-L’s. The two unD4I-L’s are connected via Dante daisy-chaining, which allows for a single CAT-5 cable to run back to the network cabinet.

In summary, the unD4I-L offers valuable flexibility and scalability for the seamless integration of conferencing microphone into Dante-based conferencing DSP solutions. 

Q-SYS Integration

Attero Tech has collaborated with QSC to provide plugin integration for the unD4I-L into Q-SYS Designer v7.1 and newer. This plugin integration allows AV system designer to interface with a wide variety of conferencing microphones that feature integrated mic switches and status LEDs. The diagram below depicts the integration of the popular Shure MX396 dual or tri-element conferencing mic, an unD4I-L, and a Q-SYS Core 510i DSP equipped with the CDN64 Dante audio network interface card.

The unD4I-L QSYS plugin allows for configuration, control and monitoring of your unD4I-L devices inside of Q-SYS Designer without ever needing additional software.

Natively control the following unD4I-L device functions:

• Pre-amp Gain
• Phantom Power
• Logic I/O Configuration

Symetrix Integration

The unD4I-L also has native integration within Symetrix Radius DSPs. With the release of version 5.6 of Symertrix Composer, seven Attero Tech products (including the unD4I-L)  are now supported with control plugins within the Symetrix DSP architecture.  Symetrix DSPs natively control the following Attero Tech product functions:

• Preamp gain
• Phantom power
• I/O configuration
• Dante Transmit & Receive Flows configuration