NAB 2018 (Las Vegas, April 9-12) will once again set the stage in the latest advancements of IP technology and interoperability demonstrations as was the case at IBC and NAB 2017 trade-shows. Merging Technologies was one of the early adopters, incorporating AoIP into its hardware products in 2012. The choice of RAVENNA as the most flexible and broadcast-friendly of the protocols on offer, proved to be a wise choice as AES67 compliance was a simple task once the standard had been agreed. Merging was a keen supporter of the Media Network Alliance (MNA) during its period of relevance and has now migrated to the support The Alliance for IP Media Solutions (AIMS) which promoted AES67 and ST2110 from the beginning, as the industry moved to a wider effort on the migration of full systems over IP, including audio, video and complete orchestration solutions
Merging has participated in all the recent IP Showcase events at NAB and IBC and will have a similar presence at this year’s demonstration on Booth C12634 showcasing ST2110-30 compatibility. The company’s Hapi Networked Audio Interface has been a familiar feature in those interoperability demonstrations, also to be seen as part of several manufacturers’ installations. Console manufacturers, Calrec and Solid State Logic have found Hapi to be an ideal device to test compatibility or to provide a PTP master to an installation.
"At Calrec we have a number of very active developments involving IP audio transport and control, which includes audio connectivity for AES67 end points both from other manufacturers as well as Calrec. We have for some time used the Merging Technologies Hapi units as a bench mark AoIP end point and we have found the Merging AoIP implementation both reliable and easy to set up and establish streams. Interoperability is a key aspect of our AoIP strategy so working with like-minded companies like Merging is essential for our development teams but also for demonstrations including those at key IP Showcases both at IBC and NAB," commented Henry Goodman, Calrec’s Director of Product Management.
Merging’s own stand, C3037, will host its own interoperability demo, showcasing hardware from Luminex, Ward Beck Systems and Genelec all working seamlessly on an AES67 network and all monitored by ANEMAN Enterprise software. This new addition to the ANEMAN software is designed for high availability and large audio networking systems’ monitoring and configuration. NAB 2018 will be the first North American showing of ANEMAN Enterprise which uses the same connection and network management technology developed for the free to use ANEMAN software.
In addition to ANEMAN, the latest versions of Pyramix and the highly popular Ovation Audio and Event Server will be on show connected to Horus and Hapi. And as immersive audio is never far from the headlines at the moment, Merging continues to lead the way on providing a number of different workflows to suit a variety of applications.
On the Fraunhofer IIS booth, SU4916, Pyramix will be used to highlight MPEG-H and ADM capabilities that have been jointly developed by the two companies. Pyramix 11 is the first DAW with a complete workflow to generate master files with Object-Based Audio (OBA) metadata according to the Audio Definition Model (ADM) or MPEG-H 3D audio. This now transforms the former OBA workflow, primarily designed for Dolby Atmos mixing for film or immersive live performance, into a comprehensive workflow for TV production with the addition of multi-language support and ADM format export.
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