At next month’s CABSAT, TSL Products will introduce a software upgrade for its Touchmix (AVM-T-Mix) rackmount audio mixer/monitor system. The manufacturer of surround sound microphones and processing, audio monitoring, broadcast control systems and power management solutions will appear at the event at the Dubai World Trade Centre from 11-13 March.
When operated as a mixer, the Touchmix allows the user to mix and monitor any combination of 5.1, stereo and mono signals, in their native form without the need for up- or down-mixing, via two independent, multichannel mix engines. Mixer 1 (formerly stereo-only) now features a parallel 5.1 bus, which becomes active as soon as the user identifies a 5.1 signal source, whilst the secondary mixer maintains its original stereo configuration.
A number of features have been bundled as part of the mix capability including a combined panner/divergence control so that the engineer can direct a mono signal to any spatial position across the LCR front channels. The 5.1 monitoring outputs can be routed to surround sound speakers via analogue or AES connections, and controlled using the onboard master volume encoder, whilst the 5.1 mixer line output can be routed independently to an external device.
“The free software upgrade for Touchmix marks a seismic development for this product line allowing broadcasters to significantly upgrade capabilities and address extended production needs without purchasing and integrating a new unit,” says Martin Dyster, head of audio, TSL Products. “Touchmix has evolved from a simple audio monitoring unit with mixing capabilities to a sophisticated audio problem solver capable of fulfilling a multitude of roles from broadcast production confidence monitoring through to a complete mixing/routing/monitoring solution at the heart of TV programme making.”
The Touchmix upgrade also means that the product doubles as a 16-channel SDI source de-embedder to AES or analogue outputs and a multi-format audio cross converter with A to D/D to A functionality.
