January 6, 2012
MediaMatrix Takes AV Control Mobile
Quick Bio
COMPANY: Peavey Electronics
Corporation
HEADQUARTERS: Meridian, MS
OBJECTIVE: Originally conceived
as one product, the Mainframe,
MediaMatrix now encompasses over
16 products in all. In its simplest form,
MediaMatrix exists as a small rackmountable
processor. In more involved
applications, it may serve as a large
enterprise system using ethernet networks
for the routing and distribution of
audio, using CobraNet technology.
If you’re not reading this on an iPad,
chances are that an iPad, iPhone, or
other iDevice is within your reach.
And if you’re not using it for AV
projects yet, you will soon.
The prevalence of handheld and
convenient wireless devices has given
rise to a new market in applicationbased
AV control. MediaMatrix, which
brought the world’s first digital networked audio
system online in the U.S. House of Representatives
in 1994, has developed an iOS mobile application
that, with a suite of powerful control products, allows
integrators to create custom control interfaces to direct
audio and video in networked installations.
Peavey’s MediaMatrix offers a highly scalable and flexible
digital audio distribution and processing system, configurable
for everything from board rooms to theme parks, stadiums,
and the largest airports in the world. The recent development of
enhanced control processing within MediaMatrix’s NWare software
has added an important control element to the MediaMatrix product
set. The MediaMatrix offerings have now expanded into hardware
and software functionality that rivals traditional third-party control
systems.
Through NWare, designers and programmers can create simple
or complex logic circuits to perform conditional control over internal
and external audio processing and routing functions, and over myriad
external devices such as video routers and switchers, video file servers,
lighting controls, and data network elements. Since the communication
with such devices is bi-directional, systems can also be programmed to
moni tor
the health
and performance of
system elements such as
data network switches,
power supplies, and power
amplifiers.
The MediaMatrix nControl
frame is an enhanced
control processor, which
serves as an adjunct to the
NION (MediaMatrix’s core
processor module) control capabilities by adding multiple card slots for
additional serial control, content input/output, and up to four TB of
local storage. This allows the nControl to be configured as a control
device and/or media server that takes its instructions from the host
NION. MediaMatrix projects can now call hosted content for triggered
or scheduled audio and video playback through the house audio system,
digital signage, video monitors, and handheld devices.
The new MediaMatrix NWare Mobile app for iPhone, iPad, and
iPod Touch allows integrators to create custom wireless control
interfaces for MediaMatrix installations. The layout and design of
the user interface and experience is a product of the designer’s
imagination and the vast programmability and flexibility of NWare.
Designers and programmers can import portable network graphics
of floor plans and zones, photographs of devices or content to be
controlled, or layouts of physical spaces to define the scope of the
area and the devices to be controlled. They can then add and label
control buttons, switches, faders or sliders to extend the control
interface to the wireless device. Moreover, the graphic functions
of the internal audio processing
devices can be extended to the
device, allowing the user to EQ
a room, for example, by simply
grabbing and shaping the response
curves of a multi-band parametric
EQ—all on a handheld iOS device.
Kevin Ivey is general manager, Peavey
Commercial Audio.
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