Now, with over 500,000 HiQnet components in the field and a user community of over 35,000 AV professionals, Harman Professional's System Development & Integration Group (SDIG) is debuting HiQnet System Architect version 2.2 at PLASA 2010, representing a significant step forward in the new design paradigms introduced with version 2.0.
According to Adam Holladay, senior market manager, Harman Professional System Development & Integration Group, the newest iteration of System Architect is at once evolutionary and revolutionary: "System Architect version 2.2 is a strong, positive evolution of the design capabilities and user interface introduced in version 2.0 but also a great leap forward in its monitoring and control functionality," Holladay noted. "Now, with the momentum of AVB, the market readiness for advanced AV networking solutions and the highly developed state of HiQnet System Architect, I believe our Harman customers - tour sound professionals, contractors and consultants - have a distinct competitive advantage in providing their customers with innovation and value."
The user continues to draw the graphical layout of the venue in the main workspace, physically adds the devices to the rack rooms and associate amplifiers logically with the output zones they serve, but now they can also set up comprehensive venue monitoring. Each room in the layout is automatically overlaid with an output meter, which represents the maximum output level of the amplifier channels associated with it. Additionally, each room in the layout of the venue can be assigned alert colours to indicate the conditions of devices physically contained within rack rooms, or devices logically associated with output zones.
"PLASA represents an excellent launch platform for System Architect Version 2.2. The international community of audio video professionals is under increasing pressure to do much more with fewer resources," Holladay continued. "System Architect enables our international customers in system integration to build bigger, better systems in less time and with greater impact than ever before imaginable."
On the stand at PLASA, the Harman Professional Division is demonstrating a working AVB system comprising a dbx SC 32, a BSS / NETGEAR AVB switch and a Crown CTs amplifier with USP4/AVB card installed, all controlled from a touch screen PC running the new System Architect Kiosk Mode. Harman will be giving tutorials on how the very same System Architect workspace is used for system configuration and control. Also at PLASA, the company will show the range of AVB wall-plates from BSS.
Harman will cooperate with Avid to show AVB-enabled technologies from both firms operating on a single network. At the Avid stand a Crown CTs amplifier with USP4/AVB will be demonstrated receiving AVB audio from an Avid console over a Marvell switch in a technology preview. Commenting, Avid live systems GM, David Gibbons notes, "We're pleased to show our commitment to this exciting technology by sharing something from our live sound laboratories: an AVB interface card in a Venue stage rack transmitting audio to a Crown amplifier over AVB."
"AVB will be a tremendous boon to the live sound industry," Holladay continued. "In addition to the universal aspect that enables more technologies to perform seamlessly together, AVB makes integration and setup simpler, less expensive and more efficient. Harman recognizes the integration-level advantages of a singular (AVB-powered) AV network and we are deeply committed to cross-manufacturer cooperation to help integrators deliver on the promise."
(Jim Evans)
