Today, HARMAN’s Studer launched its new Vista X digital console, and along with it several new technological innovations. Not only does the Vista X feature the groundbreaking Infinity processor; it also includes the brand-new A-Link audio interface system.
Photo above: Studer A-Link audio interface (click for hi-res version)
“In developing the Vista X and the Infinity Core, we needed to provide a suitable audio interface system to connect the huge number of audio channels,” said Andrew Hills, Product Director, Studer. “Out of this need came the development of the A-Link digital audio interface.”
A-Link is a fibre-based audio interface that uses a 3 GBit/s data rate to offer 1,536 audio channels per connection. A new PCI express card has been designed to fit into the Infinity Core's server board. This card is fitted with 12 A-Link interfaces capable of over 5,000 inputs and 5,000 outputs offering the huge I/O interface counts required of this new processing engine.
A newly designed, D23m high-density I/O system is used to break out these A-Link connections to standard analog, digital and video interfaces. The A-Link interface also provides direct connection to the MediorNet distributed router, allowing multiple Infinity Cores to be connected together.
A white paper expanding on this new technology is also available.
