The company's versatile interfaces, supporting multiple protocols for media and building services, are shown at ISE now with added support for Open Control Architecture (OCA). OCA is a media networking system control standard for professional applications. The standard has seen implementation by several professional audio and AV companies, and has now been published as public open standard AES70, by the Audio Engineering Society Standards Committee.
Beckhoff's PC-based control technology enables optimum integration of media technology, lighting control, building automation and control logic. The consistent, highly scalable automation platform offers all relevant interfaces for integrating AV multimedia and lighting systems. With support for OCA (AES70), DMX, SMPTE TimeCode, Crestron, Bang & Olufsen, Art-Net and Streaming ACN (sACN), all devices and systems that are important in stage and media technology now can be integrated into the Beckhoff automation platform.
Michel Matuschke, vertical market manager stage and show technology at Beckhoff, states: "The OCA implementation went very smoothly. We like the high technical quality of the standard and the ease of implementation. Our modular system is now even more flexible as a result and also allows remote control and operation of professional audio systems, as well as the integration of our over 400 types of signals into the OCA world."
Speaking for the OCA Alliance, chair of the Marketing Workgroup, Marc Weber adds, "As a market leader in the automation and building sector, Beckhoff has created a global control protocol standard in that market with its EtherCAT Ethernet-based fieldbus system. The OCA implementation now opens up this vast interoperability within the media and entertainment sector, with the ease of integration and reliability of Beckhoff control technology. This represents a further major milestone towards making the vision of OCA (AES70) reality."
The OCA Alliance - the association of leading professional audio and AV industry manufacturers formed to secure the standardization of OCA as a media networking system control standard for professional applications - is exhibiting in Hall 7, Booth F221. The ISE Audio Solutions Theatre is also presenting The OCA MicroDemo: An AES70 Implementation for Small Processors, from 12:30 to 13:00 hrs on Friday 12 February.
(Jim Evans)
