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Cadac launches ‘studio performance’ programmable audio network for music and event locations

With the growth of multi-purpose and mixed-use venues, music and performance applications demand quality critical production networks, to cost effectively stage events of any scale. Cadac MegaCOMMS enables mixing, control and networking of multi-channel studio quality audio, across networks of up to 3072 channels of time-aligned, phase-coherent audio, at distances of up to two kilometres.

MegaCOMMS’ industry leading ‘total through-system propagation delay’, from on-stage inputs to outputs (including all console processing, A-D / D-A conversions and three stage internal latency management) is less than 400 microseconds. Additionally, the MegaCOMMS protocol synchronises all audio samples before summing, for absolute phase coherency at every output.

At the heart of the MegaCOMMS network is the software programmable CDC MC Router. The 2U 12 port MegaCOMMS router is a powerful tool for creating large, resilient networked audio systems, comprising up to 12 separate MegaCOMMS devices – including CDC mixing consoles and I/O stage boxes and 1,536 bi-directional channels of 96kHz / 24-bit audio. Devices connect to the CDC MC Router on the MegaCOMMS network via low cost, robust co-axial cables. More extensive networks, to distances of up to two kilometres, are achievable via fibre optic cable, with the MegaCOMMS CDC MC optical bridge.

In keeping with MegaCOMMS’s ultra-low latency, the CDC MC router adds only a single sample of latency, regardless of the number of channels in a network. As well as the ability to move around huge channel counts, the CDC MC router can also perform ‘gain compensation’ in real time, allowing multiple consoles to share stage racks with a single console being the ‘gain master’, and then once setup the router will automatically adjust the outputs to the other corresponding consoles seamlessly in real time, even when the mic amp gain is adjusted by the master console.

Programmable control of the CDC MC router is provided by the dedicated NetCOMMS PC software. This allows the user to create, save and edit custom maps with its clear and simple GUI, including diagnostics data for all connected units when online. Its simple grid based patch system, utilising a ‘tabbed’ system for each unit, is instantly familiar with audio engineers, and allows the user to patch either individually, or in blocks or 4, 8, 16 or 32; or even to patch all connections from unit to unit with a single click.

Cadac’s range of industry leading CDC digital mixers and multi-format I/O stageboxes provide production control in a MegaCOMMS network, with a choice of control configurations and channel counts. Aside from their astounding sound quality, an unparalleled ease and speed of operation sets the Cadac CDC consoles apart from competing digital mixing systems. CDC consoles combine 23.5 inch high contrast HD touch screen based control surfaces with a highly evolved, high agility OS, to provide Cadac’s swipeable graphical operator experience; akin to the glass cockpit paradigm in aviation, presenting a less challenging learning curve.

“Cadac’s MegaCOMMS platform offers the system installation and event sectors an industry leading networking and mixing solution, dedicated to higher standards of quality and performance, and system reliability, for live production than other audio network solutions,” says marketing manager, James Godbehear. “NetCOMMS software provides a highly intuitive means of control, enabling even the most complex and demanding networks to benefit from Cadac’s MegaCOMMS superlative audio quality.”

The MegaCOMMS system features a range of I/O, interface and bridging components, to enable direct connectivity with other networks and the wider AV world, including CDC I/O 6448, CDC I/O 3216 analogue and CDC MC AES3 digital stageboxes, and the CDC MC Optical Bridge, CDC MC MADI bridge and CDC MC Dante bridge.

The 2017 BRICS Xiamen Summit of the five major emerging national economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – saw the premier large scale deployment of a Cadac’s MegaCOMMS audio network, with a single CDC MC Router at the heart of a network, incorporating six CDC six console and CDC I/O stagebox mix systems and extending throughout the Xiamen International Convention Center.

The site-wide MegaCOMMS network provided mixed audio feeds from and to multiple locations via an AV control room, including the State Banquet Hall (site of the welcoming evening banquet and the final day press conference of the summit hosted by President Xi Jinping), and the Strait Hall (hosting the international media). Management of the summit required complex AV network configurations of different venues across the site, depending on the specific requirements of the numerous meetings and events. The MegaCOMMS network handled all audio transmission, with audio feeds networked to Kling & Freitag speaker systems at the various locations across the site, as well to international media organisations.

26th January 2018

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