ART Pro Audio P16 - XLR Balanced Patch Bay - Manual (Page 4)

4
USING AN XLR PATCH BAY
Although the ART P16, like all patch bays, is conceptually a simple device, it is worth a small
investment in time to familiarize yourself with a few of the many ways in which it can be used.
The most basic use for the P16 is to extend connections from the back of audio devices that are hard
to reach using XLR cables to the back of the patch bay in a rack. From the front, you can then patch
these connections to any place you want. Now you won't have to crawl around behind your gear to
access the appropriate jack.
For larger installations, try to include several (within reason) patch bays along an audio signal path
(both inputs and outputs) so that rerouting, patching in temporary sound sources and sending signals
to temporary output devices can be done without connecting and disconnecting cables directly to and
from your devices, like console inputs and outputs. For example, bringing room tie lines up to a P16
patch bay allows you to use short XLR patch cables to route mics in the studio booths to preamps in
the control room. This saves wear and tear on equipment that is much more expensive to replace
than patch bays are.
Using XLR connectors allows you to pass both balanced and unbalanced signals and use standard
XLR adapters like ground lifts, isolation transformers, filters and attenuators. The signals may include
phantom power for microphones that require it. The P16's outputs are connected directly to the inputs
(pin 1 to pin 1, pin 2 to pin 2 and pin 3 to pin 3) so that phantom power passes through unchanged.
Please note, however, that you should be extremely careful not to connect phantom power to an input
or output not designed to handle it.
However you decide to use it, we're sure you'll find the ART P16 Sixteen Channel XLR Balanced
Patch Bay to be an indispensable addition to your audio equipment arsenal.