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[Pete Erskine]

I am going to use it on a show this week, Thurs and Friday, at MSG interfaced to the Riedel comm system.

[Paul Guthrie]

I used it on a corporate show last weekend. 

Approx 1200 people in attendance, in a civic center.  It was a variety talent show.  We had 14 or 15 people on comm: Audio, Lighting, Video, Stage Managers, Props, and Backstage.   

 Downloaded the Demo server onto a Mac Mini, which was hardwired to Apple Airport Extreme Located at FOH (Back of Civic Center) , a Apple Airport express was in my Wireless Mic Rack Case at the side of the Stage (it extends network or rebroadcast the wifi, * this is not a unique setup, this was normal for me to monitor wireless mics and use stage mix)   Mixture of Iphones, Android phones people using regular headsets for phones, or gaming headsets, I was using IEM's with a phone cable i Got from JH Audio.   

 It worked flawlessly!  I was very impressed with it. 

Video Director was able to call shots for the Cam Operators, Stage managers were able to inform me what mics were coming onto stage, Props and backstage were able to let me know if we were ready for the next act or needed more time, at which I would call either to roll another commercial or roll music for intro etc.   

I have been looking for a Comm system for a while now.  I think for our use this will be fine.   There are a few things I would like to see expanded or developed but for the low cost, its pretty great. 

[Pete Erskine]

Here is a statement from Unity about the latency:

Unity adds latency through the server and at the receive end as well for audio buffering.  This is a settable parameter in the individual applications.  When using WiFi or cellular connections, we recommend 140ms as a universal number, since most WiFi installations are really quite terrible.  If you're using the desktop applications in a hard-wired configuration (Mac or Windows), you can configure down to 40ms.  You'll find the 140ms setting is similar to a cell-phone call in terms of overall latency.

Currently there is a latency setting in the server which physically sets it's buffer size if it's larger than the remote applications buffer.  This will probably go away in future versions, since it's almost never changed from 40ms.  If a particular user is in a bad location for wireless coverage, they bump up their individual setting, which changes that on the server as well for that particular connection.

The latency does not increase as you add more users.

My demo version of Unity will now be permanent but with 2 users only, Demo1 and Demo2.  Later this week I will be using a new beta produce from Unity called Unity Connect, a Mac based high-quality/low-latency multiple audio channel encoder/decoder for internet transmission of audio.  It can send one to many and many to one 4 wire circuits.  This will allow me to interconnect my Riedel system at my show to my server located off site.

[Pete Erskine]

As would i.  The devil is always in the details, although i should think that level matching and such would be relatively easy via whatever sound card software you're using.

Still, if there's one thing i've learned over the years it's the little things that get you.  I would be curious to talk with folks that have interfaced this into analog comms to see what their experiences were like.

Here is info about it's use on real life shows from Jess Heimlich.

Peter Erskine posted a wonderful introduction to Unity Intercom and Unity Connect.  I just wanted to  add a few comments to Peter's, so you have some more info to think about.

Many of you don't know me, so a brief background, solely to validate what I am about to say:

At the 2015 NAB show, I ran into the Unity people. The old saying goes  if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.  Well, to make a long story short, I immediately called them and offered to throw money at them to become a dealer.

I have been using their product(s) since last March on some pretty high profile shows. (In the interest of NOT being sued, or 'spanked', I won't mention the shows directly,) However, I can give you enough info for you to figure out what these shows are: A yearly golf tournament that takes place in Augusta, GA. Another that follows in August. Football games that air on Monday and Thursday Night, and one that aired this past Sunday. And a 4 Letter network's worldwide coverage of tennis .

The pro's of the system are its simplicity, the low latency, and the cost. Unity's closest competitor charges 8x as much and requires a ton of programming.  The learning curve is about 45 seconds, and....well, it just works !!!

The cons: It does use a good bit of battery life. my suggestion is to purchase one of the batteries that slip onto your phone and also act as a case.

Having written the GUI's for quite a few programs related to live sound and communications, I can tell you with complete confidence that the Unity team knows how to write great code, and spectacular interfaces.  Unity Intercom is NOT a tool to replace any of the RTS/Riedel/Dalec systems, but rather an application to expand the tool kit we use to enhance the ability's of our clients.

In the interests of full disclosure, as previously stated, I am a Unity Dealer.  You can contact me if you have questions about use, connectivity, et. al.  Best of all, if you do, I will send you a discount coupon to save you a bit more money.

========================================

I am about to use it on a show interfacing the show Riedel system for a fashion show Thursday at MSG.  I am using Unity connect to send the 4 wires to the Unity server located off site.  see post and video on Unity connect here: http://forums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/topic,158064.0.html

If you want to listen in to rehearsals Wednesday on user: Demo1 pass 1234
Only channel 5 will be able to talk and then only to me.
I will not have it online during the show on Thursday.

[Steve Anderson]

Hey Pete, how did the MSG job go? Any more thoughts on the system? Cheers

[Pete Erskine]

Hey Pete, how did the MSG job go? Any more thoughts on the system? Cheers

It's all about your connection...Prior to doors open it worked well.  Good solid connection to Riedel and back.  Unfortunately I couldn't get a hard internet line so My Riedel was on a wifi.  Tried a cellular dongle but no better.

[Steve Anderson]

From an app update on the IOS App Store, the Unity server will soon support 48kHz... which hopefully will fix the Dante Via problem mentioned in the other thread.

It seems they've listened

[Jordan Wolf]

From an app update on the IOS App Store, the Unity server will soon support 48kHz... which hopefully will fix the Dante Via problem mentioned in the other thread.

It seems they've listened

I was just about to post this. Makes me happy, too.


- Jordan Wolf

[Pete Erskine]

From an app update on the IOS App Store, the Unity server will soon support 48kHz... which hopefully will fix the Dante Via problem mentioned in the other thread.

It seems they've listened

They are extremely responsive to their users.  I think it is only a couple of people and still are in their infancy.

[ProSoundWeb Community]