Horus interface

[DJS]

Are there Nagra designed mic preamps and ADDA in the Horus?

[Bernhard Guettler]

Are there Nagra designed mic preamps and ADDA in the Horus?

Probably not. Sphynx2 AD/DA converters are DAD units with a Merging faceplate.
http://www.digitalaudio.dk/page1213.aspx
Horus looks like it comes from the same lineage, but only Merging would know atm.

[klaukholm]

Bernhard, I am pretty sure the old DAD team were not involved in this project, although some of the approach seems similar.
I was under the impression that some of mergings own people may have been involved in the design.

It is odd that there is so little information available on a product that was officially mentioned in the pressrelease from IBC2010 over a year ago.

If merging would chime in here to answer a few questions, it would be very helpful.

Can the fan be disabled if there is ample air circulation in the rack?

Would they consider making a muffler system for the fan?

What is the pricepoint of this unit in its various incarnations?

[Graemme]

Horus was designed 'in-house'...

[Claude Cellier]

Horus and the fan issue for the fanatics of fanless operation.

There will be a fan, capable of turning itself gradually on whenever the internally sensed temperature will exceed preset limits. We do not want our customers to have their Horus audio characteristics degrade or even fail above certain temperature !

Fortunately, Merging has spent enormous time carefully engineering each and every component of Horus to be drawing as little power as technologically possible these days, while not compromising the sound at any time.
We therefore expect our users to enjoy their Horus as an essentially "fanless" device since the fan will in many (if not most circumstances) never switch on. So the fact that we still planned a fan is to be more seen as an "emergency" fan that:
a) will only turn on when absolutely required (for instance in situations of high ambient temperature, with many phantom-powered connected microphones drawing a lot of aggregate power)
b) even when turned on, we are engineering it in such a way that the fan will be essentially inaudible.

Designing a 2 U unit which offers, in such a compact space, up to 4 MADI ports, 24 channels of AES I/O and 24 channels of MIC preamplifiers along with ultra high-quality A/D and up to 24 channel of D/A conversion, not even mentioning Ravenna, a backlit TFT touchscreen and an optionnal Redundant Power supply with no decent "heat-control" would just have been ludicrous. As a matter of fact, we expect a fully loaded Horus to still not consume more than 50 to max. 60 Watt total.

Those of you who might have a chance to visit the AES NY are welcome to join us for a small experiment that we'll be happy to conduct in a quiet space outside the show floor. I'll force the fan to operate and you'll tell us what you think: alright?

[Jose Raposo]

Hi Claude thanks for this important info about the fan.
All sucess for Horus, we expect the prices for the different packages.

Best Regards,

[klaukholm]

Great Claude!

I realize we are a picky crowd, but if we cut corners we probably would not be merging customers!
The issue it not only on stage, but also in the control room.
I just spent $350 replacing the PSUs on my two Tangos with two fanless units as I want to keep the noise down in my control room.
My bricastis are ingeniously designed and indespensable tools here, but they add noise as well (although they also claim the fan is inaudible).
On their own you dont hear much, but as I powered up the whole room there was a definate woosh as I have accumulated far to many pieces of outboard gear that all have noiseless fans. At the end of the day the noise accumulates and eventually becomes an issue.

I applaud the idea of the emergency fan. I would of course rather have it kick in than having an in-session failure.
In fact, I would welcome a fan such as you describe in all my gear.
This year alone I have lost 3 separate preamp channels on high end preamps and I do not appreciate the hassle, cost and problems that causes in session.
I look forward to working with the demo model Peter will be getting (sometime this fall?).

How easily serviceable are the preamps on the AD cards if I blow the preamps opamps?

A feature request is protools controllable preamps as well as giving pyramix the ability to control protools pres.
Alternatively, maybe you can make the HTML app that controls horus control protools remote protocol preamps in order to consolidate the number of remotes.
If we get the horus, I would be dealing with three different remotes for my different remote pres and that is not ideal.

[Claude Cellier]

Great Claude!

I realize we are a picky crowd, but if we cut corners we probably would not be merging customers!

We love you for that!

The issue it not only on stage, but also in the control room.
I just spent $350 replacing the PSUs on my two Tangos with two fanless units as I want to keep the noise down in my control room.
My bricastis are ingeniously designed and indespensable tools here, but they add noise as well (although they also claim the fan is inaudible).
On their own you dont hear much, but as I powered up the whole room there was a definate woosh as I have accumulated far to many pieces of outboard gear that all have noiseless fans. At the end of the day the noise accumulates and eventually becomes an issue.

I applaud the idea of the emergency fan. I would of course rather have it kick in than having an in-session failure.
In fact, I would welcome a fan such as you describe in all my gear.
This year alone I have lost 3 separate preamp channels on high end preamps and I do not appreciate the hassle, cost and problems that causes in session.
I look forward to working with the demo model Peter will be getting (sometime this fall?).

How easily serviceable are the preamps on the AD cards if I blow the preamps opamps?

2 screws to loose, remove the defective unit, slide a new unit in. Can't be much easier...

A feature request is protools controllable preamps as well as giving pyramix the ability to control protools pres.
Alternatively, maybe you can make the HTML app that controls horus control protools prer in order to consolidate the number of remotes.
If we get the horus, I would be dealing with three different remotes for my different remote pres and that is not ideal.

Not sure (yet) about Protools but all Horus settings (including routing, Mic Pres, etc...) will entirely be remote controllable from any Web browser via the same Ethernet Ravenna port that audio will be streaming through. Can be an iPad or iphone, Pyramix itself or any Oasis-enabled third-party mixing desk. As a matter of fact Horus's front panel touchscreen itself is based on a Web-browser too!

[Jose Raposo]

Not sure (yet) about Protools but all Horus settings (including routing, Mic Pres, etc...) will entirely be remote controllable from any Web browser via the same Ethernet Ravenna port that audio will be streaming through. Can be an iPad or iphone, Pyramix itself or any Oasis-enabled third-party mixing desk. As a matter of fact Horus's front panel touchscreen itself is based on a Web-browser too![/quote]


Hello Claude, some questions:
Is this Web-browser control depends of the java's console of the host or depends of the flash plugins installed? Because in my ISDN Codec Centauri II 3000, from Mayah I have some problems with that...many times I have to refresh to have all pictures or sets present.
If Horus is not present in control room or if it isn't not in the user line of sight, the Web-browser shows all the sets, levels, etc?
Is the Pyramix going to have some special feature to control Horus inside the app?

When we have the documentation available in Merging Website?
And the cost of all configurations possible?

I have some more questions but later is better? I am trying to reconfig my two rooms and I will need some help.

Have a good AES in NY.

Best Regards,

[Claude Cellier]

Hi Jose,

with respect to complete Horus documentation, we are in the process of completing that and it will be published in due time on our Web site. But pelase don't expect that to happen before we managed to settle back from the AES first.
With respect to pricing, please contact your local Merging sales partner who should have all the preliminary information.

[Jose Raposo]

Hi Claude,

Ok, we can wait to see all info. About price I am going to contact Auvid to have some details about that. And about the Web- browser the it is gone be a powerfull controll and visualization of all sets? It is only via the Ravenna?
Of course you don't have to reveal all;)

Best Regards,

[Bernhard Guettler]

...About price ...

http://www.scvhitech.fr/tarif11-4.pdf

page 6

[Bernhard Guettler]

Hi,

I'm curious about the realtime performance of Ravenna, have never seen any specs yet.
Streaming performance over one Gigabit Ethernet port, how many channels can it handle reliably?
And additional processing delay...
Also the AD and Mic Preamp specs are of great interest, once the device is finalized. The usual parameters including CMRR!

Cheers
B.

[Jose Raposo]

http://www.scvhitech.fr/tarif11-4.pdf

page 6

Thanks Bernhard,
last week had been on the site ... but the Merging values was to update ... it seems that is the only representative to promote the values ​​online.
Now it´s upadated and we have all the prices in the various options in Horus.
I have to say, it is a bit expensive!!! But what is good normally...

Best Regards,

[Jose Raposo]

Not sure (yet) about Protools but all Horus settings (including routing, Mic Pres, etc...) will entirely be remote controllable from any Web browser via the same Ethernet Ravenna port that audio will be streaming through. Can be an iPad or iphone, Pyramix itself or any Oasis-enabled third-party mixing desk. As a matter of fact Horus's front panel touchscreen itself is based on a Web-browser too!

Hi Claude,
When you said any Oasis -enabled, it means that also Tango1 from SmartAv can do it. Of course we have Pyramix to controll it but if we have in front of us a controller like Tango is also very good.
I think I am going to buy one with 20 faders, let´s see.

Now I have my Mykerinos connected via Madi to my sony DMX R-100, if I have an Horus the connection is done via Ravenna RJ 45...And the Mykerinos, whats is going to happen? Continue to be required for internal processing?

Best Regards,