According to experiences at the recent AES show in New York, interface manufacturer RME says that interest in the MADI (Multichannel Audio Digital Interface) is on the rise.
“There was a constant stream of people coming into the booth from rental houses and production companies interested in using our remote controlled mic preamps for awards shows, large music festivals, and televised sports,” said Jeff Petersen, U.S. technical support manager for RME. “Regional touring companies also stopped by the booth inquiring about recording a large amount of tracks directly from the console into a laptop by using our MADIface Express 34 laptop interface.”
RME’s vice president of operations, Brian McCall, also noticed the increased interest in the interface.
“In addition to our professional DAW interfaces, mic preamps and converters, RME has exhibited MADI devices for the last eight years at AES conventions worldwide,” said McCall. “But at AES New York we saw a dramatic uptick from people interested in using MADI for signal transport and distribution.”
RME explained that the upswing in interest is due to the fact that the interface is able to accommodate a large number of audio channels on small and lightweight fiber optic cabling, and also due to MADI’s open architecture, which allows users to integrate gear from multiple manufacturers into their systems without fear of getting themselves locked into a proprietary format.
