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Cost-Effective Dante Mic Preamps: Shure ANI4IN Insights
The Dante enabled mic preamps arrived! As the title says, I am trying out the Shure ANI4IN-XLR. The concept was to find a device that was budget friendly as we are really in a test stage as we mentioned in the last post. Here we take the proof of concept to a fully operational installation. I have two Symetrix Radius NX units with Dante, I purchased two Shure ANI4IN units. I designated four production rooms to use one Radius, and three production rooms for the other unit. Let the fun begin!
As all the proof of concepts worked, don’t tell anyone, but I purchased two Dante enabled mic preamps. Of course cost was a consideration for such a feat, so after research, the unit I decided on is the Shure ANI4IN, as mentioned. This is the point were the full concept is deployed with two production studios with the future laid out for the other rooms as the old mic preamps die. Since all the legwork was discussed earlier, this is one short little article.
The Shure device is an input device only, so it is quite interesting to see it only in the Transmitter side of life, especially after training ones mind for Receive. Yet, since we only really concern ourselves with receive, it makes sense. How was that for a circuitous thought? I may need more coffee. The devices require power over ethernet (PoE) which concerns me a bit, but made it easy to install, especially since our switch used has PoE enabled. The preamp give me the ability to assign names for each transmit channel, allows for phantom power (required for me), mic gain range with trim, and even processing if one needs it. All is configured through the web GUI.
On the Symetrix side I could have the Radius NX manage the subscriptions, but to be consistent with our plant, I have Dante Controller managing all subscriptions at this time. I have tested the Radius managing and it works well, so in the future as devices become more intelligent I may start doing this sort of thing. Once the subscriptions were made, I had audio passing and it was time to fine tune gain structure and processing. Working in the DSP world, the gain structure has been a bit of a challenge. I spent some time adjusting the initial input gain. I ran into this with the proof of concept installs, and the original Radius NX installation. Once the input gain was dialed in, and the processing DSP was set, I as curious about the latency. On average the receive latency on the Radius NX from the Shure ANI4IN is only 375 usec. You see that? Microseconds. The receive latency, on average, on the SAS Bravo from the Radius NX is only 354 usec. Needless to say, latency is not an issue. What I really should do is do a test setup to measure the latency from input to output with all the DSP in use, but since I do not notice it, and no users have mentioned it, the need is not necessary. I consider this a success.
Needless to say, not everything was as smooth sailing as it appears. This was due to me overlooking the obvious when installing the Shure. The big “DOH” moment came after spending a bit of time, and emails, wondering why the subscriptions did not stick, and random anomalies with Dante Controller even noticing the devices were online. What made it more baffling, and a good thing, was audio was passing with out an issue. So after a swift kick to my head by a second set of eyes, I overlooked the fact that the Shure ANI has two configurations under network settings; one for control, and one for Dante. I stupidly assigned the same IP address to each! Don’t do that! We all have our moments, right? Once resolved all fell into place accordingly. Lesson learned, once again, to always check your work.
As I move forward I am going to keep my eyes open for various, cost effective mic preamps. Four production rooms will need a solution, so I may have reason to test others, but I am very satisfied with the Shure ANI4IN. There you go, a short end to the mic preamp conundrum which some of us face in this modern era.
Till some other odd topic, or if you have a suggestion, drop a line. Cheers!
Our New Remote Broadcast Case
Having worked many live broadcasts for radio I have seen many setups. Our setups have ranged from the complex to the most simple. A wide range for sure. We have broadcasts which require four or more mics down to simple “call-in” type hits using the Tieline Report-IT application. Now we put together something for the simple end such that any air talent can set it up.
What does this remote broadcast case contain? Here’s the list:
Apple iPad running Tieline Report-IT Enterprise equipped with Verizon 4G LTE wireless
Alesis I/O Dock
Fostex amplified speaker
Presonus headphone amplifier
2 Shure SM58 mics
2 headphones
associated cables and 25′ extension cord.
Report-IT application running on iPad install in Alesis I/O Dock
The speaker and headphone amp are items we had in house that were either spare or used in other applications that are no longer necessary. Mr. Bill was along to assist in the setup and make sure everything ran smoothly. The headphone amp is used just in case of a two person setup, and noted later as an interface to mono the audio feed. We have found in many cases if the environment is not too noisy a guest does not use, or need, headphones. It adds additional gain for the deaf air talent, too. If the air talent does not need the amp, just plug into the headphone output of the I/O Dock.
We did find in another broadcast test that the iPad will smoothly transition between 4G LTE wireless and WiFi connections. This was discovered when checking out a new site. A little added bonus.
After doing an initial broadcast and testing, we discovered that the Alesis I/O Dock is designed around two independent channels. Input 1 is the left channel and Input 2 is the right channel. These channels are independent throughout the system with no mixing or mono-button capability. The Tieline Report-IT application, being a mono or one channel application, only “saw” Channel 1, so a mic plugged into Channel 2 did not feed audio to it. I voided the warranty. Since the device only cost us $177, I decided to open it up and modified the I/O Dock. This first modification, and I have others planned, was to make sure two mics fed the application. No schematic was available, but I was able to research the chip-sets used and found the AD-DA (Analog to Digital/Digital to Analog) converter chip. Armed with the pin-outs I used my oscilloscope to trace the signal at that point with the goal of making sure the summing occurred after the pre-amplifiers for the inputs. I located a convenient locations, soldered in a jumper, and all was good. An instant mono, or summed, source for the iPad. This modification does not affect the headphone or main out feed of the I/O Dock, just the feed to the iPad, so each channel is in separate ears of the headphones if plugged directly into the headphone outputs. The Presonus headphone amp has a mono button on it, so the device acts as a nice interface for the picky talent. Return audio from the Report-IT application is not affected and feeds both output channels. I do plan on modifying the modification to included a switch so at a push of a button a mono signal is produced and feeds all outputs. Where and how to implement this switch is the tricky part as there is not a lot of space to add it to the I/O Dock, but I will find a way.
Another added benefit of this setup is to allow recording on the iPad using either a third party application like WavePad or even the Tieline application for feeds later. Using WavePad the talent can record and do basic editing, and once complete, email the audio clip back to the studio. If using Report-IT the talent can record a report and either feed it down the connection or, if FTP is setup, upload to the studio. We are currently researching ways to incorporate the FTP feature in Report-IT such that we can upload clips with specific file/cart numbers and have them automatically import them into a RCS NexGen log.
Why not just use a mic adapter and Report-IT on a phone or iPad directly? We do that, too. In this setup the ease of incorporating two microphones was ideal. In addition the comfort level of the air talent increases as they have that physical something in front of them. Some of our staff has embraced this new technology, but others seem to be less forgiving. As we easy them into it, we make it simple and functional for them. Soon they will be able to run out with a setup on their own and not think twice of it. Getting things done. That ‘s what it is all about.
Alesis makes a product called the I/O Mix which is a 4 channel mixer. We are looking into that, but this is taking things backwards. There may be a use for such a setup in the near future. For a more complex setup, Mackie makes the the DL608 and the DL1608, 8 and 16 channel, mixers for iPad. These are sweet as they incorporate the features of the Mackie VLZ series of mixers. I know of a station that uses this setup for their NFL broadcasts.
As the technology and connectivity continues to improve, applications like Tieline’s Report-IT simplifies the ability to provide for quick, live broadcasts, and news gathering. We are always looking to simplify and utilize emerging tech to our advantage. The package seen here does not cost that much and the flexibility makes it more desirable. The elimination of bulky and confusing mixers appeals to air talent and promotions alike. Improved audio quality for “call-ins” over a standard cell phone call makes us stand out over the competition.
Tech Notes from the Field 