Despite the many challenges along the last two years, in 2021 Merging Technologies managed to introduce Music Mission, a complete set of recording and processing features with a fully-featured low latency mixer and many configuration possibilities, followed by the innovative Sonarworks' SoundID Reference integration, offering the lowest possible latency for correction software, right out of the box.
Launched already three years ago, the powerful Merging+Anubis hardware continues to show the power of integration and being open to third party add-ons. The Merging+Anubis Commentary Unit Mission is the most recent and highly relevant to the NAB attendees.
As Merging confirms, demand for products remains exceptionally strong and the engineering team have been continuously developing products during the two years of global pandemic. NAB 2022 was just the first opportunity to show several innovations in a public forum for the first time.
Developed in partnership with a major client, NEP, the Commentary Unit Mission utilizes the same hardware as other Anubis Missions providing the standard single port unit and the SPS version with dual RJ-45 connections for ST2022-7 redundancy. There will be a modest charge for this new Mission if purchased with the hardware unit and for existing Anubis customers, once the key has been purchased, it is a simple firmware update.
The Commentary Unit Mission focuses on providing a very easy to use implementation of a broadcast commentary box, targeted at journalists commenting on all kinds of On-Air live events such as sport, e-sport, radio programs and more. Once running the Mission, the unit offers monitoring and commentary features for one single or two commentators, with all necessary microphone, headphone and speakers’ connectivity, best in class mic preamp and headphone amp and AD/DA directly in the box.
While giving access to traditional analog I/O, the Commentary Unit Mission implementation also focuses on purely AoIP network audio integration, offering all required standards such as AES67, RAVENNA, ST2110, ST2022-7, NMOS as well as full remote access for operation and configuration through a full featured Web Interface and a Web Socket REST API. The Commentary Unit Mission user interface is entirely customizable to allow immediate usage of the unit when in live environments with minimal training for the simplest, mistake proof operation.
The new software option offers support to one single or two commentators. The first commentator has the choice to use the Mic 1 input or the unit’s built-in microphone and the Headphone 1 output. When enabled the second commentator uses the Mic 2 input and Headphone 2 output and can either share the unit touch screen with the first commentator or be only controlled through the Web Interface and/or the mapping of the unit physical buttons.
Both commentators are offered the monitoring of 8 stereo programs, 2 mono intercoms, their own sidetone and the sidetone of the other commentator. Both monitoring busses are patched by default to the unit’s internal headphone outputs but can be also routed to other outputs through the network. Any of these inputs can be hidden and renamed for a better and safer user experience. Various monitoring options are also available to customize the monitoring behavior when On-Air, when talking, when receiving signal from the intercoms or when receiving commands from the broadcast console.
When operating the unit, both commentators can control their access to the On-Air output, can Mute their microphone (Cough Cut) and can talk to up to 4 available Talkback outputs. All these controls can be configured to be hidden, locked, latch/press-release, renamed, to offer an as safe and easy to operate experience. Various monitoring options are also available to customize the monitoring behavior when operating these controls, along with separate effects processing for both commentators and both signal paths, the On-Air and the Monitoring (Talk and Sidetone) paths. EQ and Dynamics are available on these 4 paths.
A fully featured Web Interface allows for controlling both commentators separately, as well as giving access to all parameters of the unit for remote technical operators. A REST API permits taking full control of the unit through web socket for the complete broadcast orchestrator integration
GPI/O commands can be mapped to all functionalities.
Merging also confirms that the Commentary Unit Mission is just the latest development in the evolution of Merging+Anubis and there are several more additions planned for 2022 and beyond, enhancing the functionality of the unit even more.
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