Brähler ICS AG of Germany, with UK offices in Cambridge and Edinburgh, has announced two new digital audio products. Both have been designed and developed by Brähler and both are designed as components for the company’s Congress Data System - Virtual Audio Network or CDS-VAN for short. The first is the B8, a new feature-rich AD/DA interface unit. The second is the smaller OE16 interface converter. With the B8, it is possible to connect up to eight analogue audio sources to the digital CDS-VAN system via rear-panel electronically-balanced inputs and outputs (XLR-plug, XLR-socket or jack-plug). The unit also has three optical ADAT connections (in, out, and thru), two MIDI connectors (in and out), a wordclock BNC and 2 RJ45 ADAT sockets to power digital language selectors.

Brähler claims that the new B8, designed also as a standalone device, brings much more flexibility and versatility to established systems. Furthermore, it can be combined with other products - or techniques such as hard-disk recording and digital signal distribution, etc. In addition, Brähler points out that when linked with a DSP card from the Brähler CDS-VAN range, the B8 can eliminate the need for all peripheral devices such as graphic or parametric equalisers, delays, gates, compressors, routers and limiters.

Brähler’s second new hardware unit is an interface converter, the OE16, which is equipped with two ADAT optical input/outputs. The externally-powered OE16 converts the audio on both the ADAT 8 channels into ADAT RJ45 interfaces. (The conversion works bi-directionally and drives the audio up to 200m. To extend the distance between transmitter and receiver, several OE16’s can be cascaded.) This device is used in conjunction with the B8 and CDS-VAN but can also work as a standalone unit, and is particularly suitable for digital audio distribution at conference centres.


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