I am interested in getting some thoughts on which way to go for port B
We have
IDR64
T112
IDr48
T80
We also have acces to other IDR;s and surfaces all running Ace
The sort of work we do is pretty simple mostly music involving
FOH only with monitor from FOH
FOH / Monitor splits
We never do recording of shows (not to say we can’t or won’t)
We currently are looking at what to do about port B.
a) we want to be able to have AES outputs to go to our system processors
b) we want to be able to have a digital split to enable the two surfaces used in FOH/MON mode where we currently use an anolgue split feeding both IDR’s
As I see it we can
install MMIO to port b and buy an IDR-D out and also an M-Ace for the other rack this I think will give me digital outputs and allow for the FOH/Mon split
or
Install dante cards in each rack and then update the system processors to dante enabled such as LM44 and get digital outs from Dante that way.
I think this will be very expensive and non-preferred option also will we need to take a laptop to every gig and set up dante controller or once set can we leave.
Regarding the AES, you can use an inexpensive passive S/PDIF to AES transformer if you care to run additional cabling from the surface to the system processors…
we have two systems a idr 10/ with ilive 144 and a idr 48 with a t80 -
our small monitor mix version is with computer/i-pad on stage and one rack unit (gigs where we are doing monitor mix)
and for big stages we use both racks idr10 for f.o.h and idr48 for monitor. in this case
we (still) use our 48in analogue splitter as it is full gain access for both engineers - less explaining to extenal engineers and as our spltter has 3 separate sub boxes much more convenient. (sub box one stage left one to the right and one in the back)
we do have ace or dante as well,we did the digital split but went back to the analogue
actually - this is personal - i am thinking about getting the 24 channel adat card, we still have a alesis 24 track recorder sitting round, it makes live so much easier to record with it
on small rock / blues gigs / festivals one almost never needs more than 22 channels (2 for ambi)- you just turn it on and let it run…one computer less on the set.
just my opinion
ps: i know the splitter is more work during setup but after much easier