Showing products in the Hamilton Metalcraft booth (C1731), AEA displayed a new mic inspired by their forty years of experience with ribbon mics. The AEA A440 has the greatest useable dynamic range of any ribbon microphone manufactured today. The A440 is also the quietest ribbon microphone in existence.

At the low frequency end the A440 delivers bass with effortless authority. It has a flat frequency response and holds an accurate figure-eight polar pattern down to 20 Hz. The A440 has a smooth and articulate midrange, and at the high end, transients are quick and detailed without hard edges.

All AEA mics are hand built in Pasadena, California. However the A440, is built to order as an AEA Service Shop Special. The physical appearance is like the R44C, but with a standard finish of umber gray.

Featuring new “Stealth” FPGA-based processors for the audio path and Tiger Shark processors for the DSP, Digico’s SD7 console offers solutions for theatre, live, house of worship, post, broadcast and corporate applications. The completely redesigned surface features 256 audio paths at 96k, 160 buses, 15″ TFT touch screens, 32 by 32 matrix, Hidden To Lit displays and much more.

DPA Microphones had the 4017 Shotgun Microphone on hand as well as their new

4080 Miniature Cardioid Lavalier. The 4017 is remarkably similar to Schoeps’ CMIT, sharing its LF roll-off and high boost switches. The switching is operated with rings running round the entire circumference of the mic. There is also a permanent third-order high-pass filter at 50Hz which is handy for reducing the effects of mechanical vibration.

The 4080 delivers isolation from mechanical noise by mounting the capsule in a foam windshield which is, in turn, held captive with a light pliable mount. This arrangement provides damping to the cable and the mounting can rotate on a standard ‘croc clip.’

Not exactly brand new, but new to NAB-goers, The D-Control™ ES worksurface from Digidesign comes dressed in a new dark color scheme and combines the feel of a large-format console with a level of control and added Pro Tools® functionality that can only be accessed with an ICON system. D-Control ES offers a comprehensive array of touch-sensitive controls and visual mixing feedback. Other features include a dedicated center section allowing critical mixing tasks to be performed without leaving the sweet spot, per-channel control over all processing functions and routing, global automation capabilities, and full studio and control room monitoring and communications facilities. Digi also announced that across the board Pro Tools Leopard compatibility will bow within 60 days.

Making digital live mixing more affordable than ever, The V-Mixing system from Roland Systems Group uses the REAC technology to convert the audio to digital on stage using high quality 24-bit remote-controlled mic pre-amps. Because the V-Mixing System is all digital, the integrity and sound quality of the audio signal is maintained from the stage units to the M-400 V-Mixer and back to the outputs for connection to amps and speakers. Up to 40 channels of multi-track audio can be recorded by simply connecting a Cat5e cable from the REAC Split port on the M-400 V-Mixer to a gigabit network port on your PC running Cakwalk’s SONAR. You can also connect the V-Mixing System to Edirol’s video mixers for a completely integrated audio

and video performance solution.

Making NAB’s Mac-heads jump with glee, Studio Network Solutions announced that Leopard/Tiger support is available for PCIe and PCI-X Ellipse and Ellipse Enterprise Fibre Channel adapters. SANmp version 2.5 supports Leopard, Tiger and Panther. With SANmp, computers can concurrently share massive amounts of data over high-speed Fibre and iSCSI Storage Networks.

The globalSAN iSCSI initiator for OS X Leopard is also available and can be downloaded at the SNS website. A new Leopard-compatible version of Postmap (v.1.8) is now available for trial/download. This latest version of Postmap includes some incredible new features, such as on-the-fly indexing, complete integration with SANmp, eSAS/eSATA compatibility and the ability to edit metadata for any number of files at once!

Euphonix brought two new solution updates for its broadcast range of audio mixing systems to the NAB this year. These new solutions are part of a long-term evolutionary upgrade of System 5-B and Max Air started 18 months ago with the introduction of new control surfaces and DSP SuperCore for the broadcast market.

On display will be a new Fiber Stagebox Solution for broadcast applications. This modular, remote, high-density Stagebox, capable of up to 56 mic preamps each, features redundant fiber audio connectivity and control. This new solution connects multiple high-density stage boxes into the Euphonix DSP SuperCore via MADI over fiber with control directly from the console’s channel strips.

Euphonix will also be demonstrating Ross OverDrive Production Control integrated with the System 5-B mixing system. The OverDrive offers centralized control of many studio devices including servers, routers, and robotic cameras, as well as the audio console. The system’s Rundown Control playlist software allows for fully automated productions.

Well, I lied about it taking two, because Euphonix also brought their Artist Series controllers for the first time at NAB . Comprised of the MC Mix and MC Control units the Artist Series brings the unparalleled speed, resolution and control of Euphonix’ high-end professional consoles to software based audio and video applications on the Mac OSX platform. Of particular interest to broadcasters is the MC Control’s ability to speed up and enhance video editing with applications such as Apple’s Final Cut Pro.

RME’s booth was buzzing due to their new MADIface, the world’s first portable MADI solution for Laptops. Consisting of the HDSPe ExpressCard MADI and a small breakout box, the MADIface offers full MADI power: 64 channels input and 64 channels output, up to 192 kHz sample rate, in MADI embedded MIDI transmission, complete TotalMix that is even remote controllable and has all features of the ‘bigger’ HDSPe MADI, as well as lowest latency and CPU-load. To make the usage as comfortable as possible, the power for the breakout box is provided directly by the ExpressCard, so no external power supply is required.

The new MSD100C meter from DK-Technologies ($2690), is designed to tackle the issue of the perceived loudness of audio signals. It incorporates an algorithm that is recommended by ITU and features selectable digital and analog stereo inputs and displays left and right channel loudness as well as the summed loudness. It also delivers the information as a numeric readout and in a number of languages with different scales to suit different users. The meter uses the Loudness Units (LU) scale, covering a range from -18db to +9dB. It also features an audio vector oscilloscope, phase correlation meter displays, a full VGA colour display and VGA output for external display.

Studer is celebrating its 60th birthday with the release of its new OnAir 2500 console for on-air radio use. Featuring a fully digital, all-in-one design and well-established software technology derived from the highly acclaimed OnAir 3000, the OnAir 2500 delivers a new standard in ease-of-use for radio broadcast.

The Studer OnAir 2500 is a totally self-contained system and builds upon the operational concepts of its successful predecessor, the OnAir 2000. With the OnAir 2500, the control surface, I/O breakout, DSP core and power supply are all integrated within a single compact chassis.

The desk’s fader strips each include a graphical OLED (Organic LED) screen, which contains a channel label, level and gain reduction meter and parameter readouts, adjustable via a rotary encoder and two push buttons below the display. OLED screens have a much wider viewing angle than LCDs, and have much higher definition, so operators can immediately see information much more clearly.