During its 2010 NAB Show press conference, Wohler Technologies introduced the new AMP2-E16V modular AV processing monitor. The AMP2-E16V features dual 4.3in OLED displays that support dedicated video monitoring, loudness metering and control, audio routing and mix controls and Dolby Zoom functions. Its robust metering and monitoring features and modular I/O options, including SDI, AES and analog, combine to make the AMP2-E16V a complete audio management system that’s user-customizable to meet specific needs
“The beauty of the new features debuting on the AMP2-E16V is that you can take just the 3G and Dolby options and have a simple, straightforward, 16-channel audio and video monitor. But if you fill out the unit with additional modules, it becomes a whole different animal. I am so proud of our team on this achievement” said Carl J. Dempsey, Wohler president and CEO. “The AMP2-E16V has the ability to completely take apart an SDI signal and put it back together again. It can perform so many different tasks, such as embed raw AES audio streams into an SDI signal for broadcast, quickly adjust the level of something gone wrong in one channel and control the loudness of an entire program. I can’t wait to see what uses our customers come up with for this unit.”
The AMP2-E16V allows operators to view 3G/HD/SD-SDI video while controlling audio channels from AES, analog, SDI signals or encoded Dolby. Each audio input can be monitored, metered, panned, trimmed and routed freely. Flexible hot key configurations ensure that these features are not hidden deep within a menu structure, but are available immediately in live or other critical applications.
The integration of video, metadata, audio routing and mixing, SDI audio re-embedding and loudness monitoring and control within a single AMP2-E16V unit can eliminate the need for numerous units. The Dolby Zoom feature dynamically and instantaneously switches between the standard overview of monitored channels and monitoring of the decoded channels and metadata of an available Dolby bit stream, making live troubleshooting much simpler.
The AMP2-E16V's mixing and routing essentially creates a complete mix environment for each output-capable module, providing full trim, pan and bus routing per channel, as well as the option to meter both input and output levels on the main screen. These output mixes can also simply follow the monitor mix as it is heard through the speakers.
When equipped with Wohler’s new loudness control module, an AMP2-E16V can aid in directly and transparently normalizing volume differences between program and commercial content to ITU-1770-1 standards, or to the broadcaster’s own standard.
Key to the flexibility and power of the AMP2-E16V are the eight front-panel rotary push encoders, which can be configured to behave as 16 hot keys and can be assigned to solo/mute any number of the 16 monitored channels, enter Dolby Zoom on a preselected encoded stream or recall a systemwide preset that contains everything from meter colors to mix setups. Each encoder can also be turned for direct and instant adjustment of the volume trim of monitor mix channels or any mix setup output bus. All of this can be accomplished directly from the main screen without entering any menus.
The main screen of the AMP2-E16V serves as “audio central” with simultaneous color and scale-adjustable metering of 16 channels of audio from a choice of input and output cards including 3G/HD/SD-SDI, AES and analog. Also displayed are variable-integration-time loudness metering and the metadata types chosen in settings.
