Network bandwidth

Before deciding on the wireless access point to buy, it is useful to have some idea of required the network bandwidth. The IDR32 and ilive editor communicate using TCP/IP, and I installed ntop to get some information about the data thoughput.

In this graph, I started the ilive editor around 17:00. You will see a small peak of 1.4 Mbit/s while the editor receives the configuration and all other information from the IDR32. After this, there is a steady stream of 1.2Mbit/s. This steady stream does not depend on the number of channels actually receiving input, as I started with feeding 10 channels into the IDR and I stopped this from 17:07.

This information tells me that any network connection that we use must be able to sustain 1.4 Mbit/s. Hopefully, this will help us in making a decision on the wireless networking technology to use.

Dell Latitude XT tablet

This weekend, we bought a second hand Dell Latitude XT tablet! We will be using this as primary device for running the ilive editor. The tablet has a intel core2duo 1.33ghz processor and 3 gigs of ram. The screen is 12.1" with a resolution of 1280x800. The idea is to run linux with the editor on this.

So the first thing I did was install Ubuntu 10.4 (Lucid) on this, by using UNetbootin. I created a LVM partition of 40 gig with 32 gig for root and 6 gig swap (the complete hard disk is 120 gig). A minimal installation was chosen, so I could add only the packages we really need, keeping it nice and clean.

To install the X server, I install the following packages: xserver-xorg-input-wacom xinit lxde chromium-browser cellwriter. However, there are some additional things we need, for example some support for wireless lan. For this I installed the network-manager, bcmwl-modaliases and bcmwl-kernel-source packages. Then, there is a bug in the wpa_supplicant (version 0.6.9), so I installed the debian packages for 0.6.10 using gdebi and the AMD64 .deb files from http://packages.debian.org/sid/wpasupplicant http://packages.debian.org/sid/libpcsclite1 and http://packages.debian.org/sid/libssl0.9.8.
wireless-tools.

To install the ilive editor, I first installed libc-i386 and default-jre. Next, the editor is downloaded from the ilive-digital site and installed. Now we have a working ilive editor on a minimal linux configuration. But, it turns out that the linux version only supports online with surfaces!

So in the end, I installed windows 7 on the remaining disk space and it works like a charm. Hopefully, linux support for only mix racks will be added, so I can switch back to the linux version.

ilive IDR32, tablet, ipad, T112 demo

On Wednesday, Gijs and me traveled to Utrecht to meet Martijn from TMAudio. He responded to my e-mails inquiring about the possibilities of using a mixrack and tablet by inviting us over to play with the system. In three hours time, we learned a lot about the system and the possibilities.

Martijn is showing Gijs the ipad app

I must say, the ilive system sounds incredible and has real good potential. Martijn started of by showing us the T112 surface in combination with the IDR32 mixrack. All processing is handled by the mixrack and the surface is just one very big remote with many nice and shiny buttons and faders. Another way to control the mixrack is using a laptop or tablet using the ilive editor software. Also, there is an app for the iphone (iTweak) that has the ability to change basic channel levels and EQ. Finally, there will be a nice ipad application that has the ability to perform many of the editor functions. You want to use the ipad over the tablet because it has multi-input, which allows you to change the levels of multiple channels simultaneously. Martijn is working closely with Allen & Heath of the development of this app and therefor has a beta version of this app, allowing us to actually try it out. When the app is released (in 2 month time), it will be a really nice way of controlling the mixrack!

T112

The control of the mixrack is performed using a computer network connection. This means that you can also use a wireless router that connects to the mixrack and use your ipad and tablet from anywhere in the room or stage. The ilive surfaces are also connected using a cat5 network cable to the mixrack, but use a different protocol (ACE) which combines the control with some channels of audio. These audio channels allow the surface to receive the PFL and allows some local input/output (at the back of the surface). These audio channels are not possible when using the ipad or tablet.

In three hours time, Martijn showed us a lot about the system and we were able to make a basic mix on the T112, the tablet and the ipad using the multitrack we brought with us. It is a bit slower to build a mix from scratch then using a normal surface with faders and such. However, when the basic mix is made, the control is more then adequate to mix the rest of the show. In our case, we will need to perform a sound-check once (and spend much time on that to make it right), save it, and recall it whenever we need it.

We ordered the IDR32 with the PL10, which is a small controller you can connect directly to the mixrack. This controller gives us direct access to all channel levels and aux sends, in case something goes wrong.

I'll write much more information when we receive the IDR32!