Omnia Audio Omnia 8x - Manual (Page 4)

Features:
Eight stereo audio processors in one 2RU chassis, each with three bands of processing, and look-ahead final limiter
• Built-in Livewire
TM interface for single-cable audio, control, and data connection to IP-Audio networks • Connect
directly via Ethernet to an Axia Audio Node for standard AES and analog I/O • Networked remote control and
configuration using any standard web browser • Reliable 24/7 processing based on tried-and-true Omnia-3
algorithms • Flexible architecture that can be used for multiple processing purposes: FM, AM, HD Radio, DAB,
Internet streams, etc • Future Ready engine platform allows new processing designs to be implemented easily – The
online software upgrade procedure ensures you’ll always have the latest developments
More…
The audio industry employs dynamics signal processing for many aspects within a broadcast station, recording
studio, mastering facility, and numerous other requirements. From simple compression of a microphone channel, to
special desired effects in the production studio, and on through the creation of dial-dominance in the transmission
path, processing has always been a hardware based implementation. Even with the evolution of digital signal
processing (DSP), processors are still physical boxes that engineers, producers, and program directors tweak as they
endeavor to achieve that signature sound. But where is it all headed as technology moves into a different form or
box? The personal computer has revolutionized our culture, and it now can provide us with the required machine
cycles of power to accomplish many of the tasks we ask DSP chips to perform.
We introduce to you a new audio processing platform that is available as a pure software utility…Omnia 8x! Our
research and design efforts revealed how dedicated hardware functions are now reduced to software applets, or
plug-in modules, and brought to life inside a software based engine. The ability to download a processor into the
radio studio facility of tomorrow is available today. Now, a processing system is as easily configurable with the
point and click of the mouse. We’ve come a long way from swapping out boxes in the equipment rack room to
simple downloading of executable files! With workstations becoming the mainstay in the studio facility, the audio
processor also has a place in those machine cycles as current technology allows us to further create a synergy of
technical resources.
Our Omnia processors dominate the airwaves the world over. We are on the fast track as the best kept secret in the
recording and mastering field. The products that have helped us achieve this success are based upon innovative
ideas in the area of dynamic audio processing. Thus, it keeps within our mission to raise the innovation bar yet
again and migrate our processing efforts into the true executable software domain. Chances are that soon others will
follow.
Omnia 8x is not only a software processing solution; it’s an affordable device that has numerous applications. It’s
modeled after the highly successful Omnia.3, our DSP-based 3-Band processor. From basic audio production, to
recording, mastering, webcasting, and workstations, Omnia 8x offers what other rack mountable, or PC based hard-
card products do, but it doesn’t require the overhead of these other products. It makes use of the processing power
available with current faster PC resources. Today, off the shelf PC’s contain more than enough power to perform
dynamics processing and serve up audio streams in a single computer, or web-server.
Compare that to the use of dedicated audio hardware that performs these same functions. Those not only cost more
to acquire, but also consume more technical rack space, as well as infrastructure. Just think…we’re approaching the
day where everything will emanate from a single machine! Omnia 8x is a step in that direction.
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