Sonifex AVN-PD8 – 8-Input 8-Output AES3 to Ravenna / AES67 Interface Sonifex

The AVN-Portal series is a group of three powerful audio mix engine interfaces (AVN-PA8, AVN-PD8 and AVN-PM8) capable of audio routing, metering and equalisation. They have both physical audio I/O and AES67 stream I/O and can mix and route freely from any input to any output, useful for a multitude of applications.

Communication between products is via RAVENNA/AES67 AoIP allowing simple CAT 5 cabling and expansion. They advertise streams using Avahi/Bonjour and SAP so can be used for Dante™ AES67 enabled streams too.

Features:

• 8 x stereo digital AES3 inputs and 8 x stereo digital AES3 outputs on D-type sockets with AES59 pinout, paralleled with 8 x RJ45 connectors using StudioHub® pinout.
• ‘T’ version has audio I/O on terminal blocks.
• ‘D’ version has input and output metering.
• Input and output gain adjustment.
• Responsive webserver software router/mixer.
• Up to 8 AoIP input streams with a maximum of 16 channels to be routed.
• Up to 8 AoIP output streams with a maximum of 8 channels each (i.e. 64 channels).
• Dual 1Gb Ethernet and 1Gb SFP port.
• Dual AC / DC power supply inputs.
• 10 user assignable GPIO ports.

Webserver Software
A built-in responsive web server provides complete remote configuration and control of the unit including matrix mixing and routing, and also allows for firmware updates and configuration backup. Complete product configurations can be saved and loaded for use in different situations and system logs can be saved for device information.

Mix Matrix
The key to the success of the AVN-PD8 is the mix matrix where physical inputs can be freely mixed and routed with AES67 streams, in a simple and intuitive way to both physical outputs and AES67 streams.

The unit can stream RAVENNA and AES67 AoIP streams or AES67-enabled Dante� flows (discovered using SAP). It can receive AoIP streams from 16 additional AES67 sources and can send to 64 additional AoIP destinations. Input and output AES67 streams can be individually added/modified and the SDP of each stream can be checked and edited. DSP functions, such as gain and filtering, can be added at inputs, outputs and cross-points.

The unit can act as a PTP masterclock or slave clock and supports IEEE1588-2008 PTPv2 media and default profiles.

Front Panel Displays, Metering and Controls
The AVN-PD8 can be supplied with different front and rear panels. As standard it has a front panel display to show product information and it uses XLRs and D-types for rear panel connectivity.

Using an OLED display, the front panel provides detailed status information on device name, network addresses, PTP clocking info, power status/voltages and version information. The display and navigation controls allow editing of certain functions, limited to networking (IP addresses, friendly name, etc) and display (brightness and contrast). The front panel controls also include user configurable buttons which can be set-up to perform actions such as activating a GPIO or as a shortcut button to jump to a specified menu on the OLED display.

Front panel LEDs show the AoIP network status, synchronisation status and the status of the AC and DC power supply inputs. The brightness of the OLED display and LED indicators can be continuously adjusted for low or high lighting conditions.

A front panel power button is available to turn the unit on and off. The power button is disabled by default but can be enabled through the ‘Display Settings’ web page.

Detailed Metering Option
The ‘D’ version of the portal (e.g. AVN-PD8D) has two bright TFT meter displays which provide a live display of the levels of the physical inputs and outputs respectively. A rotary navigation control can be used to select a single input or output and view its metering data in a more detailed horizontal view.

The metering scale used is user configurable to one of 9 different metering scales, with relevant ballistics. The metering scales available are: Dual PPM + Standard VU, EBU PPM, BBC PPM, Nordic PPM, AES Digital PPM, DIN PPM, German PPM, SMPTE RP.0155, Standard VU and Extended VU.

Metering can be set to be either ‘Discrete’ or ‘Continuous’, which changes the appearance of the meter bar. Phase metering can be displayed per stereo channel and channel idents can be shown either above or below the metering to identify each input/output. On devices without a meter display, a smaller set of monochrome meters are shown on the main OLED display.

Physical Inputs / Outputs
For the digital audio, the AVN-PD8 uses D-type sockets with AES59 digital pinout, paralleled with 8 x RJ45 connectors using StudioHub® pinout. There is individual sample rate conversion on each input.

The ‘T’ version (e.g. AVN-PD8T) uses rear panel terminal block connectors for all physical inputs and outputs. The rear panel contains IEC mains and secondary DC power inputs which provide power redundancy to the product. There are two Ethernet RJ45 connections (control and AoIP) and there is an Ethernet SFP module that, when used, replaces the AoIP RJ45 connection, e.g. for a 1Gbit/s copper or optical SFP transceiver. When an SFP is used, this replaces the AoIP RJ45 connection.

A rear panel GPIO connector provides 10 local ports which can be user configured as inputs or outputs and provide software-controlled functionality. A voltage free relay contact can be used to operate external equipment. There are virtual GPIO ports which can be used to trigger events over the network between devices. For remote operation and monitoring, SNMP V2 is supported and the units can be controlled using Ember+ commands.

8 Way AES3 Headphone Distribution System
The AVN-PD8 can be combined with multiple AVN-HD1 headphone amplifiers to provide a headphone distribution system – the portal output connections can supply analogue power to satellite headphone amplifiers.

The AVN-PD8 can be combined with multiple Sonifex AVN-HD1 headphone amplifiers to provide 8 separate headphone signals where each headphone amplifier can be sent a separate feed, mixed from any physical or stream inputs. On portal units with RJ45 outputs, an AVN-HD1 headphone amplifier can be used to listen to the outputs, with the portals providing power and audio signals. The switches on the front panel of the AVN-HD1 can be used as another GPI for muting the output.