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[Alan Dove]

Hi All - any suggestions welcomed

Busy venue - club DJs, live music, comedy
200 - 1200 cap shows in 3 rooms

Currently uses a couple of green box soundweb processing units to handle central sound switching, processing, alarm interface, DJ limiting and volume controls for rooms. These are long in the tooth and we are thinking about what will happen if and when they fail.

The are set up to receive around 14 inputs and feed out to 6 zones (some stereo and some mono). Working well on a 16x16 set up.

The overall control of what is going on in what rooms and be able to patch any room to any room is vital. There is some house eq in there for the smaller system, main systems are all d&b using amplifier controllers. Limiting is important for DJ inputs and interface into fire alarm is requirement to mute system. We have a live control screen on a PC for the engineer to monitor and control venue from - showing all levels in and out, patches, mutes etc.

Is Soundweb London the only real option or am I missing some other options? I assume we will lose the ability to custom build processing networks if we switch to another platform like Allen and Heath?

Thank you Alan

[Jonathan Kok]

There are multiple vendors able to provide what you're looking for; A&H is one option, as is London. There's also Symetrix, QSYS, Biamp, AtlasIED, and Xilica, and that's just off the top of my head. Frankly, Soundweb London would be low on my list of choices, due to concerns over its future, as would A&H, as it would be a bit overkill for this...but perhaps there's things they offer that you want and can't get from others.

Find a local integrator that can work with you to go over what your wants and needs are, and can provide a solution that best fits what you're looking for.

[Erik Jerde]

Jonathan listed a number of good options.  Some are very flexible, Q-SYS for instance, others less so.  The big thing these days is product availability.  Quite frankly it's horrendous.  Q-SYS has problems getting critical parts for their smaller offerings with onboard I/O to the point that they're replacing them with new versions.  They may start shipping in the spring but based on how things are going I wouldn't hold my breath.  I looked into BSS availability for a project a month ago and it looked like reputable places listed skus as being out of stock too. 

Depending on your timetable you may be able to design a system and wait for parts availability (have a very frank conversation with your distributor) or you may need to build something around what's available now.  If you can wait you should have much more power available to you now than with the currently available system.  With the right product you should be able to do everything you currently can and a lot more.  It could be worth having a conversation with the customer around "what would you like the system to do that it doesn't currently do?"

[Scott Carneval]

Jonathan listed a number of good options.  Some are very flexible, Q-SYS for instance, others less so.  The big thing these days is product availability.  Quite frankly it's horrendous.  Q-SYS has problems getting critical parts for their smaller offerings with onboard I/O to the point that they're replacing them with new versions.  They may start shipping in the spring but based on how things are going I wouldn't hold my breath.  I looked into BSS availability for a project a month ago and it looked like reputable places listed skus as being out of stock too. 

Depending on your timetable you may be able to design a system and wait for parts availability (have a very frank conversation with your distributor) or you may need to build something around what's available now.  If you can wait you should have much more power available to you now than with the currently available system.  With the right product you should be able to do everything you currently can and a lot more.  It could be worth having a conversation with the customer around "what would you like the system to do that it doesn't currently do?"

I've used all of the usual suspects and my vote would be Allen & Heath AHM. They make a -16, a -32, and a -64. The AHM-16 would work, but you would need to add one of their I/O boxes as it only has 8 phoenix inputs. Actually even the AHM-64 only has 12 inputs, you would need at least one of their I/O boxes to accommodate 14 inputs. But it does all of the processing and routing you would need, the sound quality is top notch, and if you ever add an A&H console it would integrate directly with the AHM processor. I used to use a lot of Q-SYS but I haven't looked back since the AHM came out.

[David Sturzenbecher]

I've used all of the usual suspects and my vote would be Allen & Heath AHM. They make a -16, a -32, and a -64. The AHM-16 would work, but you would need to add one of their I/O boxes as it only has 8 phoenix inputs. Actually even the AHM-64 only has 12 inputs, you would need at least one of their I/O boxes to accommodate 14 inputs. But it does all of the processing and routing you would need, the sound quality is top notch, and if you ever add an A&H console it would integrate directly with the AHM processor. I used to use a lot of Q-SYS but I haven't looked back since the AHM came out.

Hi Scott,
I am curious how a A&H console would “integrate” directly with it?  Simply the protocols match or is there a level of bidirectional control?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Minka Matikainen]

My main thing nowadays is fixed installation, and based on my own experiences on reliability, scalability, configurability etc., I would promote following:
- Yamaha MRX7-D with MY8-ADDA96 (I've heard that the availability is getting better)
- Q-Sys CORE 110f (the new model to meet supply chain issues is enough) + 2x QIO-L4o

And if you have tight budget then
- Yamaha MTX5-D with MY8-ADDA96

MTX5-D is a lot more simplified and depending on your needs, it might meet them, or not... MRX7-D and Q-Sys WILL meet your needs.

Those are the ones I am mainly using in my work. I've worked also with London, BiAmp, Symetrix... All of those are OK, but none of those would be my "go to" choice for various reasons.

Br,
-Minka-

[Scott Carneval]

Hi Scott,
I am curious how a A&H console would “integrate” directly with it?  Simply the protocols match or is there a level of bidirectional control?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

The AHM can act as a 'stage box' for Allen & Heath SQ, Avantis, or D-Live. Any source that is physically connected to the AHM processor is also available as an input in the Console, and vice versa. Same with outputs.

This is really useful in a scenario where you want to give an unskilled operator the ability to turn up a couple wireless mics, audio from video, and maybe a BT/Aux input plate on the wall. These sources can be connected directly to the AHM and the unskilled operator can use one of the physical wall controls from A&H  or the iOS app. But those same inputs are also patched to the A&H console so they can be used during a show with a skilled operator. This means you don't have to buy extra wireless mics or mess with XLR splitters.

[Tim McCulloch]

If you're happy with the BSS Soundweb, consider the London Blu series.

[ProSoundWeb Community]