Digital and analog audio transmission for a studio and theater complex - planning, installation and measurements

摘要

A multi-purpose theater, small recording studios, and control rooms were built in the city of Karlsruhe for ZKM (Center for Art and Media Technology). In order to meet the special requirements for the nature of the work done by ZKM in the field of multi-media technology, 36 control rooms had to be interconnected via an Audio Routing System (ARS). The ARS works in a mixed ring and star configuration in which partly 256 or 128 or less channels can be simultaneously switched between Base-Devices (BD) which are spread out over the studio complex in distances of over 300 Meters. The system is synchronized internally or by an external wordclock-generator. For studio paractice, the timing tolerance on a sample-by-sample basis had to be considered. High quality digital mixing desks (such as LAWO MC 80), analog desks (such as MIDAS) and many peripheral devices were checked in accordance with German and international standards. The Karlsruhe-Mediale in October 1997 offered the first opportunity for testing the total system with its many interconnections and installations.