From 9 to 12 October Sound Devices, a US-based company which produces field-production audio products, will showcase its audio-only rack-mounted recorder/player
at AES 2014, an audio convention in Los Angeles.
The 970 boasts an impressive 64 channels of Dante™ and MADI, and incorporates
Sound Devices’ latest FileSafe™ technology, which recovers audio files if drives are
unintentionally removed or power is lost during recording. The half-rack 2U device
simplifies any application requiring high-quality, high-track-count audio recording
such as capture of multi-channel sound for large-scale live performance and
acquisition of dialogue for TV reality shows, drama and film.
The Sound Devices 970 records 64 channels of monophonic or polyphonic 24-bit
Broadcast WAV files from any of its 144 available inputs. Inputs available include 64
channels of Audio-over-IP using Dante, 64 channels of optical or coaxial MADI, eight
channels of line-level analogue and eight channels of AES digital. It is a powerful tool
for professionals who require a significant number of audio channels. Any input can
be assigned to any of the 64 tracks and any of these tracks can be routed to any
output. In addition, 32-track recording at 96 kHz is supported.
The product records to up to four attached drives, which include two front-panel drive
caddies and two rear-panel e-SATA connected drives. Material can be recorded to
multiple drives simultaneously or sequentially. This eliminates time-consuming post-record copying and allows for continuous long-form, high-track count recordings.
FileSafe, which automatically detects and repairs corrupted file headers when drives
are mounted, is incorporated directly into the 970. During recording, data is written
to a proprietary Sound Devices file format optimized for high-data rate, real-time
audio recording using an “.sda’ file extension. When a recording ends, files are
automatically finalised by converting the “.sda’ files to standard “.wav’ files. In the
event that files cannot be finalised, whether due to power loss or inadvertent drive
disconnection, they still remain intact on the drive. Users can recover these files by
simply inserting the drive back into the 970. In the absence of the 970, the FileSafe
Mac or PC utility, available as a free download, can be
used to recover files that have not been finalised.
In addition to RS-422 and GPIO control, the Sound Devices 970 features an
embedded Web-based control panel for remote transport and setup control from any
browser-enabled device as well as the ability to remotely instigate file transfer over
Gigabit Ethernet with SMB. In mission-critical audio-over-IP AV installations, where
hundreds of audio channels are distributed between zones, the ability to setup a
redundant Dante network to protect against loss of audio due to network failure
provides peace of mind. The ability to have one drive transferring files over Ethernet,
while another continues recording, offers significant production time savings.
Users can perform fast file metadata editing of scene name, take number, notes,
track names, circle status and reel folders during, before and after recording across
all drives. Metadata is stored in industry standard Broadcast Wave iXML and bEXT
containers.
With its variety of input and output types, the 970 allows for live conversion between
analogue, AES digital, MADI and Dante, acting as a bridge and routing matrix
between these types of audio I/O. The built-in, steady Ambient Recording Lockit time-
code technology makes the 970 well suited to operate as a master clock. It can also
slave or be jammed to any other time-code source. All common production time-code
rates and modes are supported. The 970 also supports external synchronisation from
word clock, MADI or AES. To simplify the connection of multiple digital inputs, SRCs
are available for all MADI, Dante or AES inputs.
Sound Devices 970 is designed with a large five-inch screen for large, easy-to-read,
full scale metering of up to 64 tracks and for fast and intuitive menu control. It also
features the Sound Devices proprietary PowerSafe technology. PowerSafe circuitry
has a built-in 10-second power reserve. In the event of power loss, the unit continues
to operate for up to 10 seconds, then stops any file operation and shuts down. This
ensures that a complete power loss has no effect on the recording.
