Lawo diamond

After the acquisition of the diamond product family by the Lawo AG, the hardware platform was entirely renewed. The communication of the user interface with the processing unit was completely converted to CAN-Bus. The DSP-cards were additionally supplied with MADI-interfaces and the AES3-inputs were equipped with optional sample rate converters. The excellent cooperation of DSA and Lawo permitted an optimal integration of the new hardware resources into the experienced diamond software and user concept, guaranteeing an unbroken continuity.

You can find the current product description on the Website of the Lawo AG.

Components

Based on the so-called ‘Service-PC-Concept’ used by diamond especially in the remote maintenance (using ISDN access), a wide range of software tools has been developed for maintenance, system diagnosis and operational support. All these tools are based upon a Windows NT service, which grants access to the different applications over a PC-plug-in card on the CAN-Bus of a diamond.

CanMonitor

Software updates and diagnoses are the main assignments of the ‘CanMonitor’, a tool that displays and sends CAN-Messages. Special emphasis should be placed upon the filtered ‘Multi-Window-Displays’ that give a fast and -due to their arrangement in colour- easy readable overview of the internal status of the system. While updates of the diamond systems are done by CAN-Bus, the CanMonitor also contains the possibility to transform the compiler-outputs directly into corresponding Can-Messages.

MTXCON

From the employment of diamond hardware in the area of switch matrices new market segments arose. These applications are especially supported by the Matrix-Controller-Software ‘MTXCON’, a PC-based software tool developed by DSA. MTXCON not only allows the connection and display of crosspoints in list and matrix views but also permits access to all other DSP-resources, e.g. input and output levels, EQ- and dynamic sections. A scheduler controls the chronological sequence of cross connects and an administration of user access rights allows a restriction of switching possibilities, a protection of existing connections and a collision detection. Of great importance, especially in the highly sensitive broadcasting operation is that the PC is only used as a medium for visualization; all critical functions are processed by diamond’s highly reliable control unit..

“Multi Level”-Display

A further addition to the diamond mixing console is the so-called ‘Multi Level’-display. This tool allows multi-channel visualization of audio-levels on the PC-screen, which can be integrated as a TFT-display into the operating console. The selection of displayed signals is either laid down in the diamond configuration database or follows the fader assignment in the console. Beyond that an integrated channel status display informs at a glance about the complete settings of the channel strip selected by ACCESS. The information is then, while being visualized by the PC, traced in the diamond’s DSP-unit and transferred through CAN-Bus.