3 ms·

DSP's have a way of making analog devices obsolete. E.g. DSLR vs Smartphone wars. If you can't tell the difference, consumers will aim for cheap and microphone

by 1-6 4y ago

DSP's have a way of making analog devices obsolete. E.g. DSLR vs Smartphone wars. If you can't tell the difference, consumers will aim for cheap and microphones are no different. I'm still surprised that we run XLR cables and snakes all over stages. There should be CAT6 runs and cheap and open source Ultra Low-Latency tx/rx units by now.

ofalkaed 4y ago
CAT6 would not last on stage for very long, even the robust heavy cable and connectors used on stage need to be regularly repaired and replaced. The expense for most of the stuff used on stage is in making it durable enough to have a decent lifespan. Stage life is very hard on gear.
- dsr_ 4y ago
  Agreed: CAT6 ruggedized to the required degree would cost the same. Then you would need POE to power the ADC and DSP at the stage end, which would also need to deal with microphone interfaces which have remained compatible since 1950 -- so there's 73 and counting years of working equipment that people already have. You can get nearly all the benefit at the cabinet end of the cable runs.
- datpiff 4y ago
  > CAT6 would not last on stage for very long, even the robust heavy cable and connectors used on stage need to be regularly repaired and replaced. The complexity of digital solutions doesn't help either. A huge amount of maintenance in current systems can be done with just a can of contact cleaner, an ohmmeter and a soldering iron. I can't imagine anyone wants to add problems with configuration, addressing, EMI etc.
kimburgess 4y ago
As sibling comments have noted, there's durability issues with this for stage use, but this is absolutely the path that a lot of installed audio has gone: Dante/AES67/AVB mics, DSP's with minimal local IO and even direct PoE+ speakers. As an example collection: https://www.shure.com/en-ASIA/products/microphones/mxa920 https://www.shure.com/en-ASIA/products/microphones/mxa920 https://www.biamp.com/products/tesira-compact-audio-dsp https://www.biamp.com/products/tesira-compact-audio-dsp https://www.qsys.com/products-solutions/q-sys/audio-network-loudspeakers/nl-series/nl-c4/ https://www.qsys.com/products-solutions/q-sys/audio-network-...

by 1-6 4y ago

ofalkaed 4y ago

CAT6 would not last on stage for very long, even the robust heavy cable and connectors used on stage need to be regularly repaired and replaced. The expense for most of the stuff used on stage is in making it durable enough to have a decent lifespan. Stage life is very hard on gear.

dsr_ 4y ago
Agreed: CAT6 ruggedized to the required degree would cost the same. Then you would need POE to power the ADC and DSP at the stage end, which would also need to deal with microphone interfaces which have remained compatible since 1950 -- so there's 73 and counting years of working equipment that people already have. You can get nearly all the benefit at the cabinet end of the cable runs.
datpiff 4y ago
> CAT6 would not last on stage for very long, even the robust heavy cable and connectors used on stage need to be regularly repaired and replaced. The complexity of digital solutions doesn't help either. A huge amount of maintenance in current systems can be done with just a can of contact cleaner, an ohmmeter and a soldering iron. I can't imagine anyone wants to add problems with configuration, addressing, EMI etc.

kimburgess 4y ago

As sibling comments have noted, there's durability issues with this for stage use, but this is absolutely the path that a lot of installed audio has gone: Dante/AES67/AVB mics, DSP's with minimal local IO and even direct PoE+ speakers. As an example collection: https://www.shure.com/en-ASIA/products/microphones/mxa920 https://www.shure.com/en-ASIA/products/microphones/mxa920 https://www.biamp.com/products/tesira-compact-audio-dsp https://www.biamp.com/products/tesira-compact-audio-dsp https://www.qsys.com/products-solutions/q-sys/audio-network-loudspeakers/nl-series/nl-c4/ https://www.qsys.com/products-solutions/q-sys/audio-network-...