Studer Press Release - HARMAN's Studer Adds Automatic Microphone Mixing to the Vista Series of Digital Audio Consoles

[Der, Tom]

This may be of interest to some on the list.. Not sure on timeline yet on official release date on 4.8 Software but would assume relatively soon…

 

 

HARMAN's Studer Adds Automatic Microphone Mixing to the Vista Series of Digital Audio Consoles AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands - Unscripted multi-microphone live events such as talk shows, game shows and discussion panels suffer from both microphone spill and background noise. With each active microphone added to the mix, the overall sound quality deteriorates. The result is decreased intelligibility and unpleasant comb filter effects (phase distortion). HARMAN's Studer has introduced the antidote to these problems through a software upgrade for its range of Vista digital mixing consoles. Studer® VistaMix automatic microphone mixing removes the need for an operator to manually adjust all the faders all the time, leaving the microphones of talking participants open, while closing the microphones of silent participants in order to reduce spill and background noise. Without this facility, the reaction time of a human operator will often result in audible fade-ins of people who start talking rather unexpectedly. Also, changes in fader positions can quickly lead to disturbing changes of the total ambience/noise level in the mix. VistaMix offers the solution by mimicking the action of a human operator: increasing gain for 'talking' mics and reducing gain for all others, but doing it very quickly and keeping the amount of total gain constant, so a clean live mix can be created. VistaMix also offers the ideal solution for news operations when multiple mics are installed in the studio but the desk operator is not sure which ones will be used. VistaMix switches on only those mics that are in use. VistaMix source channels may also be mix minus (N-X) owners. Each source channel has a weight control, which provides two possibilities: Firstly, it allows the desk operator to add weight, or priority, to the main presenter such that if required he can 'talk over' the guests or contestants. Secondly, it allows the desk operator to give more gain in the mix to any contributors who have weak voices or are too far from their microphones. The weight control may also be used during a show to adjust the relative balance dynamically. This function is set with the 'Knob Assign' control. This significant new feature is available to all existing Vista systems with SCore Live DSP engines. By simply upgrading to software version 4.8 and adding the special VistaMix channels to the DSP configuration, VistaMix is ready to go. No additional hardware is required to the Vista surface, the new controls are fully implemented within the standard Vistonics™ screens and controls.

 

[mackerr]

It's of interest to me! Do you know if it uses a gain sharing (Dugan) mixing algorithm? This will be a nice addition.

Mac

[Der, Tom]

Mac,

 

Need to dig more into the exact details. Quite frankly while we had been pushing for it I wasn’t aware that we were this close. Obviously the gold standard in this sort of thing is Dugan and the product manager in charge of the project was aware of the things people liked about  it and believed we could improve certain things as well… proof will be in puddin’…

 

I will research and probably provide additional details directly to you.

 

Thanks,

 

Tom

 

 

Tom Der

Soundcraft and Studer USA

 

 

8500 Balboa Blvd

Northridge, CA 91329

Phone: +1 603 964 2953

Fax: +1 603 964 2958

Mobile: +1 312 543 4113

Email: tom...@harman.com

Web: www.soundcraft.com

Web: www.studer.ch

 

 

 

 

Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by return e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.

[Augie Propersi]

This is good news, we have lots of panel talks. Award shows, etc....Would be a big help

What are the limits?
   How many channels?
   How much dsp will it eat up?

When this comes out let's have a meeting

Now if only the efx  unit many of us paid for comes out  along with a stable current realese