LAS VEGAS – On Stage Audio (OSA) deployed the IEEE 802.1 AVB Bridging protocol at the annual Kawasaki meeting last fall, which drew some 2,500 Kawasaki dealers to the Las Vegas Hilton's convention center.
The AVB-compliant system from Harman Professional, part of the AVB initiative, was deployed by the OSA team, led by Jim Risgin, OSA vice president, to ensure speech intelligibility and provide audio support for music performances as well.
The OSA system consisted of a pair of dbx SC 32 Digital Matrix Processors and 24 AVB-capable Crown CTs 3000 amplifiers, plus network bridge switches from BSS Audio/Netgear, all under the control of Harman HiQnet System Architect.
"The network ran AVB transport and distribution from the SC 32 to the amplifiers, flawlessly," said Risgin. "The project was done entirely within a pure AVB signal chain and that's becoming the case for many of our projects now."
Risgin noted that despite the short amount of preparation time before the event, very little was actually needed, since HiQnet System Architect lets systems designers map out the AVB sound system in a graphical software environment.
"After the components are in their racks, all we need to do is apply the design by dragging and dropping the icons for each component," said Risgin. "With the virtual design, we can select every piece of equipment with accuracy and we have the ability to do all of the patching off-site."
Risgin, an early and active contributor to the AVB industry-wide initiative, was working with the latest iteration of HiQnet System Architect, the soon-to-be-announced version 2.3, which he says adds even more streamlined features to HiQnet System Architect and behind-the-scenes further enhances the implementation of the AVB protocol.
"We were able to set up and run 15 audio streams to the amplifiers for this event. They not only performed perfectly in terms of control, but also sounded just as good as analog," he said. "The best thing you can ever say about a piece of technology is that it just works, and that's what we can say about AVB. It just works, all the time, every time."
For more information, please visit www.harman.com.
