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New audio solutions exhibited for the UC market

Xilica showcased its latest UC audio solutions, which were compared to ‘black magic’ by a Xilica exec at Barcelona ISE.

Shaun Robinson, VP of Product Management at Xilica, explained that this description refers to the huge amount of mathematics that goes into its audio solutions. Out of the complexity, Robinson says its solutions have been made easy to use, plug and play devices.  

The collaboration product designer’s range includes room kits, processors, network endpoints, speakers, user interfaces and accessories.  

Some of the speakers it showcased required only a single point of connection.  

Robinson explained the advantages of reduced cabling:

“We have USB that connects to a computer or laptop. Everything else is connected, including the speakers, so we did not put any audio connections on the speaker itself.  

“IT technicians don’t need to be worried about keeping stock of speaker cables, stripping speaker cables or accidentally getting polarity wrong; all the things that audio installers would do.  

“We do not want technicians having to do that, so just grab a patch cable or any other Ethernet cable and plug it into our amp, plug it in our speaker, and it’s going to work.”  

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HEC Montreal – A better learning experience for both in-room and remote class participants with Xilica’s Solaro DSPs with built-in HearClear AEC.

SOLUTION BENEFITS

Clarity of communication for hybrid students with HearClear acoustic echo cancellation, and Xilica noise reduction technology.

Integrated status and mute sync for Microsoft Teams drives easy, user-friendly conferencing system with the tools users already understand.

Ultra-low-profile eliminates in-room AV racks and keeps infrastructure hidden, so the focus can be on teaching – not technology.

IMPACT

HEC Montréal’s new Xilica Solaro systems provide both faculty and students with smooth, high-quality audio performance that results in a better learning experience for both in-room and remote class participants. The integrated HearClear AEC technology professionally removes the disruption of unwanted echo and noise, while built-in Dante audio networking streamlines operations, monitoring, and management. The modularity of Xilica’s systems also provide the additional advantage of scalability as hybrid learning continues to evolve.

Patton Electronics, a leading US manufacturer of Pro-AV, Unified Communications, and industrial connectivity products and services, has signed a distribution agreement with Techni+Contact Canada Ltd, to be a national distributor for the commercial AV markets.

Patton’s connectivity solutions are used in government, healthcare, hospitality, leisure sports & entertainment, transportation, retail, as well as energy, mining, and utilities.

Patton made headline news earlier this year with the introduction of the world’s first Dante AV over IP Gateways (Encoders & Decoders). The FPX6000 series connect the AV product ecosystem—such as cameras or monitors—to the IP network. Dante AV brings ease-of-use, seamless multi-vendor interoperability, and an integrated control experience to AVoIP. The gateways deliver the highest image quality of any 1-Gbps solution by using JPEG2000 – visually lossless 4K60 with no generational losses when re-encoding.

“Techni+Contact is a welcome addition to the Patton channel as a distributor focused on the Pro-AV market” said Burton Patton, Patton’s’ Executive Vice President. “We needed a strong and market-trusted partner with Pro-AV skill sets of Techni+Contact to represent us in Canada.”

“Our corporate and government client-base rely on us to offer best of breed technology solutions. Since Dante AV supports audio-video-data networks on a standard enterprise gigabit Ethernet network, Patton’s AV capabilities allow us to offer our customers reliable, robust, and cost-effective AV integration,” said Julie Legault, President, Techni+Contact Canada.

Techni+Contact Canada is very pleased to announce that we are now distributing UNITEK product solutions in Canada. UNITEK is a manufacturer of a wide range of solutions from USB Storage, Video & Network Adapters, USB Hubs, Cable & Extensions, USB Chargers, Audio & Video Accessories and Mobile Accessories.

A very common and popular application for the USB extenders is when you want to send 1080P30 video over a 10-meter distance for example from a Minrray camera’s 2.0 port to a computer’s USB port for video conferencing such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

Likewise, from the same room PC, we can send the digital 4 channels of USB audio from the computer to the Xilica DSP for instance, where the audio is processed for the conference space also using a second UNITEK 10-meter extension cable. See below design as an example.

Standard USB cables are limited as to the distance they can span. With engineered extenders, such as the UNITEK products, this can be overcome so the devices do not need to be so close in relation to each other. This added flexibility for the installation means devices can be placed out of sight, such as under tables, behind displays, in cabinets or pretty much anywhere you can run the USB cable.

Plus, since the signal is digital, it also has a less chance of encountering interference and ground loops. Care must still be taken when running cables in walls and ceilings to meet code regulations and standards.

Finally, with USB extensions, if the room configuration changes, one can always add any of the UNITEK hubs to the system as dozens of devices can live on a single USB port.

When choosing a PTZ camera, Minrray or other mdoel, it is important to understand which lens options are available. Before we dive into the specifics, let us look at what “field of view” (FOV) is and how it impacts the overall viewing experience.

FOV can be described as: “how much of an object is visible after viewing it through an optical lens”.

It is important to understand that there are two different specifications to consider – Horizontal FOV and Vertical FOV. Below is an example of Horizontal FOV with a lens, having 6.3 degrees FOV (tele). We can observe at 15 feet from the subject, there is 1.7’ visible when the camera is zoomed in, and 22’ when zoomed out.

The notion that “bigger is always better” does not hold true when selecting a lens. Careful consideration MUST be taken to match the environment and the needs of the installation to the correct lens type.

The chart below can be used as a “general guideline” (distance from camera to subject):

Lens options are available in resolutions supporting Full HD (1920x1080p) up to 4K.

There are many online tools available to aid in lens calculation, but caution should be exercised as specifications between manufacturers can widely vary. When in doubt, please consult with your local Techni-Contact sales manager or technical specialist for further assistance.

The Xilica Solaro QR1 is the little brother in the line of fully configurable, open architecture DSP Processor.  The QR1 has a wide range of optional card slot available from USB audio, GPIO, AES/BEU, analogue in and out to relay cards.  Standard 4×4 Dante networking comes standard as does AES67 connectivity. 

As many integrators are challenged with “where can I install the AV equipment” in many boardrooms. The QR1 is literally so small, it can be installed right under the boardroom table, in a cabinet, above the ceiling.  Literally anywhere. This little powerhouse does not require to be installed next to an electrical outlet as it can be powered by a POE switch.  That is right!  This DSP is POE powered which makes the QR1 extremely flexible for installations. 

As this is an open architecture design platform, the QR1 will easily fit the requirements from a boardroom/conference space to a small facility with multi-zone paging/BGM solution. When a client requires an AEC (Acoustic Echo Cancelation) there is no requirement for extra hardware, simply request an AEC license for the client to unlock that feature.  A little reprogramming of the design in Xilica Designer (Open Architecture DSP software) and the client is set to go.

 For larger channel I/O (larger than 16 channels), the FR1 would be the solution to use.

With the same DSP power as the big brother Solaro FR1 and the control scripting abilities of LUA over IP, the QR1 has shown to be a true Powerhouse with its innovative design and features.

Voice lift for video conference applications in board rooms or lecture halls can be tricky and do require a little planning and expertise.  At the outset, ignoring the type of room that we are working with, particularly the nature and location of hard surfaces. may lead to undesired results for the client.  Additionally, if the space is lively, room acoustical treatment may be required. 

Additionally, placement of the microphone array should not be near a noise source such as an HVAC duct, a fan, noisy lighting, etc. Other considerations include, building code, using proper cabling, conduit requirements, raceways and of course accessibility of the ceiling. This all needs to be taken in to account when designing and installing conferencing microphones.

A leading go-to solution is the beyerdynamic MPR 210 Ceiling microphone.  This array device has 17 capsules that are engineered to build an audio corridor pickup pattern.  As an example of this powerful technology, one can be as little as 2-3 feet from the MPR 210 and talking normally. While speaking at the same level, 15-20 feet away, the microphone would have very similar properties.  This is of course based on room acoustics.

The below images exemplify 2 typical MPR 210 installations. Notice the audio corridors generated by each of the MPR 210 array microphones.  Audio from the local side (near end) does not usually get transmitted to the near end speakers as this would cause issues with the microphone.  The audio from these microphones is transmitted to the remote end (far end) as to not interfere with the local audio.

You may have standardised on another DSP platform over the years, but the Canadian market is taking notice of Xilica. Their DSPs are competitively-priced, modular solutions, getting dealers results you expect: Simplicity, profitability and in stock!