The new Vista X digital mixing console is being unveiled by Studer, based around the CPU-based Infinity Processing Engine.
The Vista X retains Studer’s patented Vistonics and FaderGlow user interface, but provides control of 800 or more audio DSP channels and more than 5000 inputs and outputs.
At the heart of the system is the Infinity DSP core, which uses CPU-based processors to provide large numbers of DSP channels for high-resolution audio processing and mixing. Studer claimed this is the first time more than 800 audio channels have been processed in a single CPU-based board. Until now, most audio DSP has used SHARC or FPGA chips.
The company said CPU processing provided a scalable system, faster development of new signal processing designs, huge channel counts, full system redundancy without a single point of failure and the possibility of running third-party algorithms.
The new Infinity DSP engine powers 12 A-Link high-capacity fibre digital audio interfaces, providing more than 5,000 inputs and outputs. A newly designed high-density I/O system, D23m, is used to break out these A-Link connections to standard analogue, digital and video interfaces.
The new Vista X console features four processors, offering complete redundancy of the control surface. The Infinity Core, with a combination of CPU-based DSP and A-Link audio interfaces, offers N+1 redundancy of the DSP engine and I/O with instant switchover between main and standby system without audio break.
CPU-based DSP also means it is now economically viable to provide two completely independent DSP cores running in parallel, with instant changeover in case of DSP problems. Studer said this new design also offers the possibility of two complete Vista X surfaces to be working on the same project at the same time, allowing very large, dual language or multi-format productions to be undertaken with ease.
