V0.0.64 and V1.2 Firmware
Hardware Overview
ARC Front Panel
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Figure 1 - Front panel
ARC front panel features include:
Four status LEDs indicating the status of each power supply (1A, 1B), the overall status of the unit (1C), and sync for the reference clock (1D).
A color LCD display to show status and basic configuration parameters (1E)
A five-button navigation cluster with Left, Right, Up, and Down arrows plus a green “OK” button (1F)
The front panel is used for the initial setup and configuration including setting the IP address of the Control Ethernet port. Additional configuration is accomplished via the remote user interface.
ARC Rear Panel
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Figure 2 - Rear panel
The rear panel of the ARC contains the following connections:
One parallel GPI/O control port (female DB-15) for five inputs and five outputs (2A)
One AES-3 Input (2B) and one AES-3 Output (2C) on female BNC connectors
One SDI 3Gb/s HD/SD-SDI Input (2E) and 3Gb/s HD/SD-SDI Output (2D) on female BNC connectors
Two RJ-45 Gigabit Ethernet connections, one for AES67 I/O (2F) and one for network remote control (2G)
Two IEC power inlets for the internal redundant universal auto-ranging power supplies (2H, 2I)
Installation and Initial Setup
Installation
ARC is a 1RU product intended to be permanently installed in a standard 19 ½” equipment rack and secured with four standard rack screws. It is fan cooled with air intakes and exhausts located on the side of the unit just behind the front panel, but whenever possible, it is recommended to leave 1RU of empty space above and below the unit.
Power
Plug the supplied IEC power cords into the ARC and connect each to different mains power sources. Remember that while redundant supplies do protect against the unit losing power in the event of a PSU failure, the loss of mains supply voltage is a bigger concern. Accordingly, each supply should be fed from a different circuit equipped with adequate surge protection and fitted with an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).
Boot Up and Home Screen
ARC will begin to boot upon applying power; there is no power switch. When ARC finishes booting, it displays the Home Screen which includes the Linear Acoustic and ARC logos, the unit’s Control IP address, and its reference source and status.
Figure 3 - Front panel home screen
Setting IP Addresses
ARC ships with DHCP enabled and will automatically retrieve an IP address when connected to a network with a DHCP server.
Important! Both the Control and AES67 connections must be connected to 1000BASE-T (Gigabit) switch ports. If a port will not be used, it should not be connected to a switch but does require a specific configuration described below. If both the Control and AES67 ports are used**, each must be on a different subnet**.
To set a fixed IP address for the Control port:
Press the Right button until the IP Configuration (Control) screen is displayed
Press the OK button to highlight “Edit”
Press OK again to highlight “Use DHCP”
Press the Right button to highlight “Yes”
Press the Up/Down button to “No”
Press the Left button to highlight the “Use DHCP” field
Press the Down button to highlight “Address”
Press the Right button to move to the first digit of the IP address
Use the Up/Down buttons to change the selection
Press the Right/Left buttons to select another digit to edit
When finished editing the address field, press the Right or Left button to return to “Address”
Press the Down button to navigate to the Netmask and Gateway fields
Repeat the above steps to edit the Netmask and Gateway fields; note that the gateway may be set to 000.000.000.000 if no gateway is required
After the Gateway is set, press the Left button to highlight “Gateway”
Press the Down button to highlight “Update”
Press OK to save the new IP information
Remove power from the ARC for at least 10 seconds, and then re-apply power.
If you suddenly notice you’ve entered some incorrect information and need to start over, use the Right/Left buttons to highlight “Cancel” followed by “OK”
If you are using AES67 I/O, use the Left/Right buttons to navigate to the IP Configuration (AES67) screen. The steps for configuring this port are identical to those above for the Control port. Please remember that when both the Control and AES67 ports are used, each must be on a different subnet.
If either of the two Ethernet ports will not be used, the unused port must be configured as follows. Do not connect the unused port to a network switch.
Using the steps above for Control port setup, navigate to the IP Configuration screen of the unused port
Set “Use DHCP” to “Yes”
Highlight and select “Update”
Power cycle the unit
Pressing the Right/Left buttons will eventually return you to the Home Screen.
Figure 4 - IP configuration for Control port
Connecting Inputs and Outputs
Connect inputs and outputs as required for your particular installation. ARC can access any of the eight audio pairs carried on an incoming HD- or SD-SDI stream and provide de-embedding and pair shuffling at its input. Audio can also be received using the AES-3 input or via AES67. Details instructions on audio routing are provided in the full ARC user manual.
Connecting to the Web-Based User Interface
No special client software is required to remotely connect to the ARC, and the HTML-5-based GUI is device, operating system, and browser agnostic. We recommend Google Chrome or Apple Safari. The computer or tablet should be on the same network and subnet as the ARC.
Once ARC and your computer are connected to your network, enter the IP address of the ARC to which you want to connect in the URL field of your browser. Once connected, the Home Screen will appear.
Clicking on the ARC logo (5A) in the top left corner will always return you to this screen.
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Figure 5- Remote interface home screen
Multiple users can connect to the same ARC hardware simultaneously. Anyone connected to the unit will be able to see the information on this screen including the unit’s name (5B) and physical location (5C).
Additionally, all users can access the Meters screen (5D) which shows loudness measurements and input/output levels for both programs. See the section “ARC Home Screen When Logged In” below for detailed information.
The Locate Unit feature (5E), which causes the front panel display of the unit to flash for easy identification in a crowded rack, can also be activated without logging in.
Additional information about installed options, clock sync, network status and IP address, power supply status, software and FPGA versions, and unit uptime are displayed to the right of the screen (5F).
Making modifications to ARC’s configuration, signal routing or audio processing parameters requires logging into the unit. At this time, only one user account with one password is supported. By default, the password is “1234”. The ability to change the password will be included in an upcoming software update.