ORLANDO —Harman Professional said it would introduce its HiQnet System Architect version 2.0 at InfoComm and will also demo its use with streaming Ethernet AVB at the show.
HiQnet was developed by engineers from across Harman’s Professional Division and is coordinated by the company’s System Development and Integration Group (SDIG).
Version 2.0 arranges devices by both their physical and logical placement, allowing the designer to “educate” System Architect about how they are to be used. The software can then automate some of the system design tasks.
Once the user has defined the layout of the venue and informed the software about which areas of it the amplifier outputs logically serve, for example, System Architect provides embedded control panels which are tied to the appropriate devices and make source-selection, level, mute and metering accessible for each user-defined space from the main Venue View.
The factory-supplied panels can also be edited or replaced with customized user control panels. User-defined spaces can also alert users to device errors or warnings, graphically turning them yellow or red. Harman cited this functionality as the beginning of a long-term plan to merge the boundaries of system design with system control and monitoring.
“System Architect Version 2.0 is powerful because it seeks to combine the intelligence, experience and objectives of its users, and it’s been designed in close cooperation with the world’s leading practitioners in AV integration,” said Rick Kreifeldt, Harman Professional SDIG vice president. “The workflow oriented interface readdresses the interaction between designers and system design by framing his or her input not simply in terms of technology components but also on how the system is used. Couple this with a new informed approach that provides each participant with a tool suited to their needs and permissions, and you’ll quickly appreciate how System Architect makes the design process more efficient.”
System Architect 2.0 also promises tour sound professionals and fixed installation system designers additional organizational benefits including the ability to go beyond the use of grouping devices by creating racks and arrays directly in the workspace. By understanding more about the responsibilities of a certain device and its physical location within a rack, an array or a room, finding a specific device could be made easier with new comprehensive list filtering techniques, the company adds.
“System Architect Version 2 improves the system design experience for all users of the application, enabling significantly more efficient workflows,” Kreifeldt said. “Designers can start with their end-goal — more often than not the loudspeaker configuration — and very quickly and intuitively work backwards because System Architect essentially connects the dots in an intelligent, logical way to evolve the speaker configuration into an AV system.”
In interviews with industry professionals, several complicated or time-consuming system design elements became common threads of conversation. Harman said the philosophy behind System Architect 2.0 is to speed up system design by tackling the organization of devices, the grouping of devices for control, system-wide routing of networked audio and creation of custom control panels. Harman added that the advances in version 2.0 also set the stage for future improvements.
At InfoComm this year, for example, SDIG will demonstrate Harman HiQnet products streaming Ethernet AVB in a technology preview. The company will showcase several new Ethernet AVB products including a dbx SC 32 Digital Matrix Processor, an Ethernet AVB architectural wall-plate from BSS Audio and a Crown CTs amplifier.
The demonstration system will be connected together with an Ethernet AVB switch, reflecting the culmination of three years of R&D, and also the role the company has taken in the IEEE AVB 802.1 Audio/Video Bridging (AVB) Task Group initiative.
Harman also planned to show how System Architect will use new venue design concepts to provide Ethernet AVB routing, not just on a device-by-device level, but also to physical and logical spaces within a system with one drag of the relevant signal. The company also noted that HiQnet aims to integrate all product categories in the signal chain for professional audio systems of all types, size, and applications, freeing users of the need to multiple operating systems or program individual signal processors, speaker controllers, wireless microphone systems, and mixing consoles.
For more information, please visit www.harman.com.
