BSS Audio™ Introduces Four New Soundweb™ London Family Members

New units feature low-latency, fault-tolerant digital audio bus

BSS Audio™, a Harman International Company (NYSE-HAR), introduces four new members to its acclaimed Soundweb™ London family of digital signal processors. The new BLU-800, BLU-320, BLU-160 and BLU-120 join the BLU-80, BLU-32 and BLU-16 devices in the series, reflecting BSS Audio’s commitment to continually offer increased flexibility and system enhancements. HiQnet London Architect, v2.00, provides support for the four new devices and several significant feature additions. A dedicated and comprehensively featured Room Combine Processing Object abstracts the complexity of room combining applications and greatly reduces programming time for such applications. The addition of Dynamic Metering allows efficient troubleshooting of Soundweb London systems through the use of simple signal presence monitoring. The recently launched HiQnet London Architect v2.02 introduces a parameter export from HiQnet London Architect for control of Soundweb London devices from HiQnet System Architect™ Custom Control Panels and wiring enhancements. The incredible flexibility and capability of the Soundweb London platform has resulted in global adoption and installation within a diverse range of applications, and these four new models represent the latest technological innovations as they take the power and performance of Soundweb to unprecedented levels.

The new devices feature a low-latency, fault-tolerant digital audio bus of 256 channels. In addition to providing a backbone for the transportation of multiple channels, this bus also facilitates the creation of large, fault-tolerant, centralized matrices containing multiple devices. The digital audio bus uses standard, inexpensive Cat 5e or Cat 6 cable, which enables a distance of 100 meters between devices; fiber media converters and fiber can be utilized to increase this distance in excess of 40km.

A ring topology ensures that if a single connection fails, all bus channels are retained with negligible interruption to audio. Comprehensive error reporting notifies users of a cable fault or termination issue so that necessary steps can be taken to restore the integrity of the system. Further processing fault tolerance can be achieved by spanning matrices over multiple devices.

The BLU-800 and BLU-160 models feature configurable DSP, boasting four times the processing capability of exiting Soundweb London DSP devices. The combination of the digital audio bus and increased DSP capability allow 128 x 128 matrices within individual devices and 128 x n matrices within a system.

Since its advent, the BSS Audio Soundweb London family has drawn acclaim for its flexibility and intuitive operation. All seven models offer pristine audio quality, advanced A/D and D/A conversion, 96kHz capability, drag-and-drop system design with CobraNet™ bundle assignment, Ethernet based control, an extensive range of control options from simple to sophisticated, easy expansion or reconfiguration of system hardware in the field and an upgrade path for future enhancements.

Each of the seven different processors maintains device level I/O flexibility and offers a different mix of signal processing, CobraNet and digital audio bus functionality, making a Soundweb London system the perfect match for any application.