How to resolve AdBlock issue? Merging is at NAB 2022 With a New Offering
Merging Technologies arrives at NAB 2022 in good health despite the last two years and the many challenges along the way. Demand for products remains exceptionally strong and the engineering team have been continuously developing products. NAB will see several new innovations being shown in a public forum for the first time on both C4418. The MERGING+ANUBIS Commentary Unit Mission is the most recent and highly relevant to the NAB attendees. Developed in partnership with a major client, NEP, this Mission utilizes the same hardware as other Anubis Missions providing the standard single port unit and the SPS version with dual RJ-45 connections for ST2022-7 redundancy. The new Mission is a simple firmware update for existing Anubis customers. This development follows the introduction of the Music Mission in May 2021 which converted Anubis into a powerful mixing device for musicians and studios.
NAB marks the first time that Hapi MKII is on show. Even though this unit was introduced just over one year ago, there has been no opportunity to show it off. Like the Anubis SPS, this version of Hapi features the second Ethernet connection for ST2022-7 and it also shares the ST2110 and NMOS compliance. It also benefits from the internal inclusion of the ZMAN ARM based audio network module that was introduced with Anubis. This additional processing power allows many significant performance upgrades compared with the extremely popular original Hapi The combination of Anubis and Hapi MKII has already proven to be a very cost-effective solution for Dolby Atmos mixing and mastering.
The Dolby Atmos for Music theme also influences the Merging software offering. Also not seen before at a public event, Pyramix 14 and Ovation 10 build upon the immersive audio capabilities of previous versions. Pyramix provides a complete workflow solution for Dolby Atmos production and Ovation lends itself nicely to the emerging Atmos for Live situation. Neither Pyramix nor Ovation are restrained by having to stick to any defined speaker layout. In both, the ability to feed speakers in any configuration for creative sound design and event based experiential experiences such as dome shows, interactive museum displays, theme parks and live events.
Glue products have not been forgotten either with the introduction of the Merging Audio Device (MAD) and an upgraded Virtual Audio Device (VAD). The former replaces the previous Windows ASIO driver with a multi ASIO driver and the increasingly important Windows Driver Model (WDM) from Microsoft in one package and includes a device discovery view. With this new device driver multiple applications running ASIO can be launched in parallel on the same system, sharing the same sampling rate and simultaneously, multiple applications running WDM can be launched in parallel and have their own sampling rate automatically converted to the ASIO sampling rate. This allows the monitoring of the Windows system sound and any application (such as Spotify, YouTube, PC Sounds files) along with any ASIO applications, provided there is a Merging AoIP interface on the network. The addition of the low-cost Infrastructure option offers broadcasters extremely cost-effective, controllable solutions to both the start and end points of any centralised IP network. The opening to data centers and server-based installations with VM support, the enhanced security provided by ST2022-7 and the additional discovery and control possibilities created by the inclusion of NMOS, reinforce Merging Technologies’ position as a key solution provider for the broadcast and installation industries. The Infrastructure Pack (optional) includes ST2022-7 Support, NMOS Support, Virtual Machine Support.
The Merging Technologies RAVENNA/AES67 STANDARD Virtual Audio Device edition is currently free of charge and intended for owners of any RAVENNA and/or AES67 multi-cast device. This has been exceptionally popular over the last few years with thousands of downloads and has been updated and improved to cater for later versions of OS X. Apple's Core Audio is a standardized audio system for all Macintosh computers running on Mac OS X allowing access to all Core Audio compatible Audio Devices. Owners of any Merging Networked Converter can get access to the additional features of the PREMIUM version.
A fruitful cooperation between fellow RAVENNA partner Lawo, has resulted in Merging joining the Lawo HOME family and will see Merging hardware products being HOME compatible as this year progresses. Anubis and Hapi MKII will be the first to be available, with Horus and Hapi following during the summer. Lawo has also adopted Merging’s OASIS control protocol that allows control of Pyramix and Ovation functions from Lawo control surfaces. These two developments are of particular benefit to the broadcast community. More information from the Lawo booth C6932.
The AIMS Alliance will once again present the IP Showcase to reinforce the need for open standards and as always, Merging Technologies will participate with a presentation from our Senior Technologist, Nicolas Sturmel. Entitled AES67 Beyond the LAN, this explores the need to provide two-way interaction between multiple sites, extending AES67 solutions into Wide Area Networks (WAN) and datacenters. Use cases and compatible hardware will also be on display on W5222.