Setting Up The Patch Point In The Omnia.11

Updated by Mark Manolio

Scope

This document applies to the setup of the patch point in the Omnia.11 when used with Voltair.

Description

The patch (insert) point in the Omnia.11 is useful for things like watermark ratings encoders and EAS units. The patch point is between the wideband AGC and the multiband AGC. Specifically, with watermark rating encoders, it can improve the efficiency and consistency of the encoding and reduce the audibility of the encoder tones.

Example

Using watermark encoders with a Voltair

The audio path from the studio to the Omnia.11 does not change.
Create a side loop between the Omnia.11 and Voltair
  1. Select an unused Omnia.11 output (AES, Analog, or Livewire) and feed it to Voltair.
  2. Then connect the Voltair to an unused input on the Omnia.11.
The Omnia.11 has one analog and one AES input. You may need external D-to-A and/or A-to-D converters depending on the type of Voltair you have. You also can do this with an xNode and a Livewire switch (such as xSwitch) using the Omnia.11's Livewire I/O.
  1. Select the Output section on your Omnia.11.
  2. Select the Basic tab.
  3. Select the Output you chose in step 1 (AES/EBU in our example).
  4. Under the Output Selection heading select "PP" for the patch point.
We recommended setting the AES Output Master to -12 dBFS and the AES Input Level to 0.0 dB when using AES for the patch point.
Activate the Omnia.11 patch point
  1. Select the Input section on your Omnia.11.
  2. Select the Detail tab to show the patch point meters.
  3. Select the Advanced tab.
  4. Set the Patch Return and Patch Send sources. (In our example we are using AES).
  5. When you are ready, set Patch Mode to the ON state.
Patch mode is active immediately. Make sure you are wired, and meters are displayed on the Patch Send and Patch Return meters.
Adjusting Levels

The Patch Send and Patch Return Zoom meters in the metering Detail pane have a reduced scale to help in matching levels. There is an internal Patch Tone available to help as well that can be activated in the same menu where you enabled the patch point.

Two controls affect the patch output level.

  • The Patch Out Level on this Advanced tab
  • The other is the output level control in the Output menu.

The input level control on the Input / Basic menu controls the patch return level.

Our experts recommend that when using watermark encoders in the patch point, even without a Voltair, it is best to turn on Voltair Mode. The Voltair Mode pre-processes the patch send signal to enhance encodeability. Leave this setting off if you are using the patch point without a watermark encoder.
Other considerations

If you are using a profanity delay with watermark equipment, it should be placed post-delay. Otherwise, when you dump audio, you will lose the watermark for the amount of audio that was dumped. If you ramp in or out of delay, you are stretching and squeezing audio, and this can cause the watermark to become un-decodable.

If you have a TVC-15, connect it downstream from the Omnia.11 to get post-watermarked audio.

Let us know how we can help

If you have further questions on this topic or have ideas about how we can improve this document, please contact us.

How did we do?