The Rasberry pi route does look really interesting - maybe for another installation - but I really want this one to last years and its had so much hard work put into the sound (started this one around 15 years ago) I really really want it to be rock solid and not let down by the hardware peripherals. I am not attached to any particular solution computer or otherwise - I just want it to work - budget is a factor but I think the client will want something more expensive that lasts than something cheaper that doesnt and I dont want to cut corners.. The last two installations both computer and motu were sealed in church altars in a museum - yet despite being hidden and laden with warning signs - they still got switched off by cleaners and there wer epower cuts. They were interactive so had to use computers - they used infrared range sensors (another note - when temperature changes so does the threshold of the infraredrange sensors to trigger events - I think it will be ultrasonic next time). Occasionally when rebooted the multichannel file playing software - did not find the motu audio driver but just went to the realtek MME. I was called out on a couple of occasions just to change the driver settings, once just to plug the computer back in. I think the problem with the motus might have been the cold - these places were unheated and winters were bad. I have used motus when doing installations in the Amazon and they were fine - perhaps they just prefer the heat. The idea of using a computer has its appeal if I can get on the network and change files out - that presents interesting remote possibilities , as well as of course being able to repair software problems remotely - I am sure plenty of installations round the world have been running on computers quite happily for years - however the physical location this system will be installed in (ie staff will have access) and the experience Ive had, even after taking every precaution - makes me wary of using a computer for this particular installation. The Cymatic and the Joeco look promising . The Cymatic is £375 and the Joe Co is around £2000. The difference in price is not really the issue for me - but reliability is. However I have already read reports of the Cymatic being more reliable in some situations and the agent at DV247 said they had never been sent one back - they also would both come with the same guarantee - 3 years . I would be interested if anyone has any experience with either of them ?
On 28 June 2017 at 14:37, Marc Lavallée <m...@hacklava.net> wrote: > > The Raspberry PI route is interesting and relatively cheap. > There are now 8-channel "hats" like this one: > http://www.suptronics.com/miniPCkits/x6000-8.0ch.html > and there's even one board with a 4x100W amp in the making. > Check all boards: http://www.suptronics.com/boards.html > I love my $30 X400 hat with the integrated speaker and headphone amps. > > But a 24-channel RPI based solution would be much more difficult to > integrate and would still cost over $400, which is about the same price > than the uTrack24 (but only in Europe where it's sold for 375 euros; in > the US it's $999, go figure). > > Then, there's the problem of building a custom Linux system for the task > of playing audio (and doing tax returns). Then the required logic to > synchronize 2 or more RPIs must be added. Also, the RPI takes at least a > minute to boot from an unreliable SD card. It'd be fun, but a bit risky. > > One possibility is to add 2 USB sound modules to the RPI, synchronizing > them to the 8-channel hat using the zita-ajbridge software, but I doubt > that a SD card can provide enough bandwidth for 24 channels of > uncompressed audio, even at 16bit/44.1Khz. > > So I still believe that for a reliable computer based solution, a > single PC computer would be easier and safer. Also, the PC platform is > mature, and a well defined method can survive PC hardware upgrades. > > -- > Marc > > On Wed, 28 Jun 2017 14:51:09 +0300 (EEST) > Sampo Syreeni <de...@iki.fi> wrote: > > > But if I *didn't* miss anything, I believe what you're after is > > simply a high number of well synched channels, at a reasonable price > > point. You want to get 22 of them right? Possibly more? You want them > > to be child and bomb proof, too, right? > > > > You can't get that kind of hardware in over seven channels. You can't > > get it compactly in over for, or perhaps six. Even then the stuff > > will take the form of developer boards or SoC based hacker boards > > such as the Pi. > > > > So, you're going to have to do some integration work in any case for > > channel counts as high as you're asking for. My favourite would be > > something like a Raspberry Pi for each eight channels, stacking the > > D/A converters on top on 2x4 daughterboards. That'd buy you 8 > > channels per board, with ample processing power and Ethernet > > connectivity to spare. You could even push it as far as three > > daughter boards, so 12 channels per motherboard, and you still > > wouldn't saturate either of the USB or the Ethernet port. But you be > > pushing the processor quite a lot already, if you did any substantial > > processing, such as well-resampled fractional sample delay correction > > which I suggested above. > > -- > Marc > _______________________________________________ > Sursound mailing list > Sursound@music.vt.edu > https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound - unsubscribe here, > edit account or options, view archives and so on. > -- Augustine Leudar Artistic Director Magik Door LTD Company Number : NI635217 Registered 63 Ballycoan rd, Belfast BT88LL -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/private/sursound/attachments/20170628/c21b65c3/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ Sursound mailing list Sursound@music.vt.edu https://mail.music.vt.edu/mailman/listinfo/sursound - unsubscribe here, edit account or options, view archives and so on.
