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Author Topic: AES50 X32 routing question  (Read 5220 times)

Brian Jojade

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AES50 X32 routing question
« on: June 10, 2014, 02:32:23 AM »

I have a show coming up where I will be using an X32 compact FOH, and 2 X32 racks on stage as stage boxes.  There will be a FOH operator, as well as a monitor operator, side stage via iPad.

I was thinking of using one of the X32 racks as a monitor desk instead of having the iPad have control of the main desk, as a way to alleviate any potential user error making adjustments to the FOH sound.  My plan was to route the FOH outputs to the 2nd X32 rack, so if there were some sort of cable malfunction, some sound could still pass.  If I daisy chained the X32 racks, and the one in the middle failed, everything would go down.

Then I got to thinking, what if I create a loop? Since each unit has 2 AES50 ports, it could be wired like this:

Rack --- Rack
 \              /
   \           /
   Compact

Set up this way, if there were some breach in cabling, there would be the ability to re-set the routing that doesn't use the broken piece of cable.  This could be saved pre-show as a preset, making an emergency change much easier.

Any flaws you can see with this sort of setup?
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Brian Jojade

Tim Weaver

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Re: AES50 X32 routing question
« Reply #1 on: June 10, 2014, 10:35:39 AM »

I have a show coming up where I will be using an X32 compact FOH, and 2 X32 racks on stage as stage boxes.  There will be a FOH operator, as well as a monitor operator, side stage via iPad.

I was thinking of using one of the X32 racks as a monitor desk instead of having the iPad have control of the main desk, as a way to alleviate any potential user error making adjustments to the FOH sound.  My plan was to route the FOH outputs to the 2nd X32 rack, so if there were some sort of cable malfunction, some sound could still pass.  If I daisy chained the X32 racks, and the one in the middle failed, everything would go down.

Then I got to thinking, what if I create a loop? Since each unit has 2 AES50 ports, it could be wired like this:

Rack --- Rack
 \              /
   \           /
   Compact

Set up this way, if there were some breach in cabling, there would be the ability to re-set the routing that doesn't use the broken piece of cable.  This could be saved pre-show as a preset, making an emergency change much easier.

Any flaws you can see with this sort of setup?


I think you are over-thinking it a bit. Besides the fact that Behringer doesn't recommend this setup, where does clock sync come from?

I would go from rack to rack then FOH and call it a day. Use rack #2 as your monitor desk.
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Dan Mortensen

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Re: AES50 X32 routing question
« Reply #2 on: June 10, 2014, 01:56:21 PM »

I have a show coming up where I will be using an X32 compact FOH, and 2 X32 racks on stage as stage boxes.  There will be a FOH operator, as well as a monitor operator, side stage via iPad.

I was thinking of using one of the X32 racks as a monitor desk instead of having the iPad have control of the main desk, as a way to alleviate any potential user error making adjustments to the FOH sound.  My plan was to route the FOH outputs to the 2nd X32 rack, so if there were some sort of cable malfunction, some sound could still pass.  If I daisy chained the X32 racks, and the one in the middle failed, everything would go down.

Then I got to thinking, what if I create a loop? Since each unit has 2 AES50 ports, it could be wired like this:

Rack --- Rack
 \              /
   \           /
   Compact

Set up this way, if there were some breach in cabling, there would be the ability to re-set the routing that doesn't use the broken piece of cable.  This could be saved pre-show as a preset, making an emergency change much easier.

Any flaws you can see with this sort of setup?

There's nothing wrong with what you are proposing; although you'd have cable plugged in where it's not needed, if it's not in the routing it has no effect on anything.

The thing is, IF you had a problem with one line, it would take longer to reroute everything internally than if you just had the second cable sitting there, ready to replace the malfunctioning one. I see that you plan to have a preset, but as Tim says, the sync would need to change in all the desks. Is that stored in a preset? I don't know. If not, you'd have to run around to all the desks.

Unless there is an advantage to having a loop (signal going both ways, etc.; Per has a post somewhere about situations that benefit from a loop), I'd just have a spare run of cable in each link.

It would be interesting to hear back from you if you do it and it works, though. Try it and see if it does what you want.
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Brian Jojade

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Re: AES50 X32 routing question
« Reply #3 on: June 13, 2014, 07:20:23 PM »

I was able to patch it and get it working. I did set up different scenarios of routing that would work with any one of the 3 connections not there, for the most part.  The reason for the switch was more in the event that there was interference on a cable for whatever reason that would allow me to use a different physical route of the cable quickly.  Running a 2nd wire presumably would be subject to the same interference issues and not solve the issue.  Yeah, overthinking it a bit, I suppose.

Anyway, in playing with the system, I found that running FOH --> X32 ---> X32 worked fine for the audio path, but I could not get the HA remote function to pass through to the 2nd X32.  The only way the HA remote would work is if it was direct connected to the FOH mixer. To get that to work, each X32 must connect to FOH, apparently.  No big deal.

Then I got to thinking that if the FOH console was the center of the universe and something goes wrong, I lose EVERYTHING.  Right back where I started.  Hmm.

O.K, so my solution I came up with was fairly simple.  The X32 monitor rack is the master clock.  I patch the 2 X32 racks together on AES50B.  The monitor rack gets its feed from the 2nd X32.  FOH isn't involved at all, so if FOH gives up, I still have sound on the stage, which is better than nothing.

Outputs to the mains are fed from FOH to the 2nd X32.  If the monitor X32 quits, I simply set the clock on the 2 remaining units and can continue to function, sans monitors.

So essentially, none of the audio ends up daisy chained.  It's a 1 hop system throughout.

I'm sure I'm overthinking things more than I have to, but I like to eliminate single points of failure whenever I can, or at least have a quick solution to work around them.  Partial system going down is better than everything going down.  Now that I've played with the routing and have a grasp on it, it should be much easier.
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Brian Jojade

ProSoundWeb Community

Re: AES50 X32 routing question
« Reply #3 on: June 13, 2014, 07:20:23 PM »


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