How to resolve AdBlock issue? Merging technologies returns to IBC 2022
Stand 8.F96sees Merging’s return to IBC after an enforced three year gap which has seen many changes in products and a change of ownership for the company. Despite the new integration with Neumann.Berlin, Merging will still have its own space at this IBC.
The MERGING+ANUBIS Commentary Unit Mission has already been thoroughly tested in Australia on all major sporting events since the 2021 Open Tennis Championship. Developed jointly with the NEP Australia’s engineering team, the latest NEP group company to take delivery of eighteen units is the Norwegian operation. This Mission utilizes the same hardware as other Anubis Missions with the SPS version offering dual RJ-45 connections for ST2022-7 redundancy. There is a small charge for this new Mission if purchased with the hardware unit and for existing Anubis customers, once the key has been purchased, it is a simple firmware update.
The Commentary Unit Mission focuses on providing a very easy-to-use implementation of a broadcast commentary unit, targeted at journalists commentating on any type of On-Air live events such as sport, e-sport, radio programs and more. When running the Mission, the unit offers monitoring and commentary features for either one or two commentators, with all necessary microphone, speakers, and headphones connectivity, best-in-class mic preamp, headphone amp and AD/DA as well as EQ, Dynamics and De-esser, directly in the box with no latency. While giving access to traditional analog I/O, the Commentary Unit Mission implementation also focuses on purely AoIP network audio integration, offering all required standards such as AES67, RAVENNA, ST2110, ST2022-7, NMOS, as well as full remote access for operation and configuration through a fully featured web Interface and a Web Socket REST API. The Commentary Unit Mission user interface is entirely customizable to allow immediate usage of the unit in live environments with minimal training for the simplest fool proof operation. The Commentary Unit Mission is a nominee in the Outstanding Audio Innovation category of the Sports TV Awards sponsored by the Sports Video Group.
MERGING+ANUBIS has found its place in so many different workflows and this is certainly the case with Dolby Atmos. As an integral part of the Merging mixing and mastering solution for Atmos for Music, Anubis combined with Hapi MKII and Pyramix offers one of the most powerful and flexible solutions available. An extra bonus for Anubis was the addition of SoundID Reference from Sonarworks but hitherto this was only available in stereo. MERGING+ANUBIS is again the first interface and monitoring controller on the market to be able to seamlessly import any multichannel SoundID Reference preset and run it onto any speaker set, making it the perfect solution for Dolby Atmos up to 9.1.6. When building a Dolby Atmos room, special attention is required to get the speakers to align in level, time and frequency response. Thanks to the very powerful and flexible Merging’s ZMAN core board at the heart of MERGING+ANUBIS, getting to this level of performance required only minimal changes to unleash the necessary DSP power.
Aside from the SoundID Reference multichannel addition, everyone will benefit from this new architecture in the following ways:
- EQ resources have been upgraded from 80 bands to 336 bands, making it easy to calibrate the most challenging Dolby Atmos Room
- Use Anubis as a crossover for a multi way system, making the most out of EQ on “patch outputs”
- Many more Sonarworks SoundID Reference headphones’ calibration can now be run by Anubis simultaneously boosting Anubis's already advanced headphones cue capabilities to new heights. The SoundID Reference upgrade is scheduled for release in October 2022.
The announcement prior to NAB that Merging was the first third-party manufacturer to join the Lawo HOME platform was welcome news for many broadcasters and now there is another significant workflow enhancement to announce. Lawo has implemented Merging’s OASIS open protocol. This allows Merging’s DAW, Pyramix and show controller, Ovation to be directly remote controlled by Lawo’s MC² range of consoles. Faders, pans, EQ and Dynamics and transport functions are amongst the elements that are fully integrated. It will be fully demonstrated at the Lawo stand, 8.B90.
On the Lawo console, switching between the Pyramix and Ovation applications is directly implemented, and the dedicated displays follow your choice. Dolby Atmos ADM playback with moving elements, is now a rapidly increasing requirement which perfectly fits the Pyramix and Ovation programs. Once the Dolby Atmos ADM is imported into Pyramix with all its automation, all mixer and/or panner movements will be reproduced on the Lawo console. An imported ADM into Pyramix will instantly become a Cue in Ovation, ready to be launched during an On-Air production.
Merging Technologies’ CEO, Claude Cellier commented; “It will be a delight for us to return to IBC after such a difficult enforced break. There is much to celebrate this year, not only with the advances in our own products, but also the integration with other partners such as Lawo and Stagenet. This offers truly worthwhile improvements to our broadcast customers. This is also our first event after becoming part of the Neumann.Berlin family and already there are demonstrable results of our technology partnership on display and the future looks exceptionally bright.”