The Omnia.11 User Interface
Now that your Omnia.11 is rack-mounted, connected to a program audio source, and turned on, you’re ready to learn how to operate it! This chapter covers the front panel touch screen user interface, your window into the Omnia.11 processor.
The large front panel full-color LCD touch screen along with a jog-wheel, make up the primary Omnia.11 User Interface. Shown below is the “traditional” (orange) processing style. The basics of the interface are similar for the G-Force (blue) style.
Omnia.11 Key Front Panel Features
Headphone Level Control
A standard ¼" TRS stereo headphone jack is located at the left side of the front panel and allows the processed audio signal to be monitored. The Headphone volume level control is physically located to the right of the headphone jack. The headphone amplifier itself is a high-headroom design and is driven by its own high quality D/A converter that is independent of the analog XLR outputs. Therefore level changes in either output will not affect the other.
Icon Buttons, Metering Area and Menu Area
Input Screen
The top row of the Omnia.11’s screen contains a Status Bar. The status bar shows the unit’s IP address, fault status, currently selected I/O configuration (if any), currently selected processing preset and the currently selected input.
Just below the status bar are 9 Icon Buttons: Setup, ADJ, Input, Wide Band, AGC, Limiters, FM, HD and Output. These are touch screen buttons that are always present and allow you to switch between the various metering/menu screens below them. Some of the icon buttons conveniently contain mini-sized working meters that represent their full-sized metering area countertypes.
You can touch the Input Icon Button to display the Input screen as shown above.
Below the icon buttons are the Metering Area to the left and the Menu Area to the right.
The metering area contains full-sized versions of the meters in the icon buttons and the menu area contains the controls used for adjustment. In the Input screen, the two horizontal bargraph meters show digital sample-accurate peak representations of the left and right channel input levels for both the primary and secondary inputs. The Primary Input meter corresponds to the input selected with the Input Source control in the menu area and the Secondary Input meter corresponds to the Failover Source.
The Menu Area is arranged in multiple Tabs for convenience. Any tabs that are not available or are reserved for future features are grayed-out.
Let’s go over setting your primary Input Source and adjusting the Input Level for that source now.
We will begin with an overview of the user interface.
User Interface Overview:
At the top of both the Metering Area and the Menu Area are Tabs that organize the meters and controls into smaller groups. Touch the tab for the desired group to bring up the meters and controls for that group.
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Additionally, sub-groups of controls in a tab (if any) are indicated by small Subgroup Buttons on the left side of the Menu Area. Touch the desired button to bring up the controls in that sub-group.
There are 4 styles of controls: Variable controls, Off/On switches, Drop-Down lists and Radio Button controls. Examples of Variable and Drop-Down controls can be seen in the Input screen picture above while Off/On switches, Subgroup Buttons and Variable Controls can be seen in the Wide Band AGC menu area picture below. Radio Buttons can be found in the Livewire setup menu and the Output menu sub-groups.
When “off” or not selected, Radio Buttons are white. When “on” or selected, Radio Buttons are green. In the picture at left, the “FM” output is selected.
The state of Off/On switches (see picture at left of the Wide Band AGC Basic menu area) can be changed either by touching the control over the gray indicator (so as not to change its state) to highlight it and rotating the Jog Wheel (counter-clockwise for off and clockwise for on) or simply by touching the left or right half of the control over the “ON” or “OFF” text. Touching the left half of the control will turn it off and touching the right half of the control will turn it on.
Gray Indicator
On/Off Switches
Help Icon
Subgroup Buttons Variable Controls
To select a Variable Control in the Menu Area for adjustment, touch it to select it (it will be highlighted in an alternate color when selected) then rotate the Jog Wheel to adjust it in real time. No additional confirmation touch is needed. Note: The Jog Wheel’s push switch is not yet implemented.
Drop-Down controls (shown on the previous page) are controls that have more than 2 selections in a drop-down list. These are changed by first touching the control to display the list and then touching the desired selection from the list.
The Help Icon when touched will open a dialog box containing help text for the currently selected control.
User Interface Tutorial – Input Source Selection and Peak Input Level Setting
The following exercise is a useful introduction to the user interface. Start from the Input metering/menu screen (as displayed when the unit is first turned on).
If the Input metering/menu screen is not being displayed, touch the ADJ icon button in the upper-left corner of the screen and then the Input icon button to display it.
- ➢ Touch the control in the Menu area labeled Input Source to bring up the drop-down list of possible input sources.
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➢ Analog is the default input source. The other choices are AES/EBU digital, Livewire 1 and Livewire 2. Touch the desired input source name to select it. (Note that the current selection will be highlighted white-on-gray in the list. Even if you will be using the analog inputs, try selecting another input and then switch back to Analog. If you do not wish to change the current selection, simply touch anywhere outside the control in a blank area of the screen to close the drop-down.)
➢ Now touch the Master input level variable control for the input you just selected above.
➢ Rotate the jog wheel clockwise to increase the input level. Rotate the jog-wheel counter-clockwise to decrease the input level. This control adjusts both channels together in precise 0.5 dB steps. The gain in dB is shown inside the control with the previous setting enclosed in brackets [ ].
➢ Watch the (L)eft and (R)ight channel Primary Input horizontal bargraph meters in the Metering Area while adjusting per the following section.
Proper Setting of Input Levels
With normal program audio levels applied, a correct input level setting will result in the Peak Indicators on the horizontal L & R bargraph meters regularly reaching between -18 and -12 dBFS or a little higher (just “into the yellow”). This gain setting corresponds to system peak headroom of about 12-18 dB. You may adjust the input level slightly lower for more headroom if you wish. Setting the input level for higher meter indications (less headroom) is strongly discouraged unless there is another level-control device prior to the Omnia.11 that will keep the input levels from reaching the maximum digital level of 0 dBFS. During normal operation, you should never see the red “0” segments light.
Peak Indicators
➢ Once the desired Input level setting is reached there is nothing more that needs to be done. No confirmation touch is needed.
➢ If the input source’s audio is not well balanced you can touch to highlight and adjust the Right Trim control located just below the Master you just adjusted. This will adjust the right channel’s gain only over a range of + or – 3 dB relative to the gain setting of the left channel.
All of the Omnia.11’s variable controls and Off/On switches are set in a similar fashion by using the touch screen to highlight the control to be adjusted, then rotating the jog-wheel to adjust the control. All drop-down list controls are adjusted with the touch screen only. Note: Altering any processing or gain parameter will instantly be reflected in a change in the Omnia.11’s output characteristics because all adjustments occur in real time. Therefore any adjustments you make will be instantly heard as they occur.
Processing Activity Metering (Gain-Reduction Meters)
Touch the AGC icon button to bring up the multi-band AGC metering/menu screen. These meters will be used to illustrate typical gain-reduction metering activity.
AGC Metering/Menu Screen
AGC Gain-Reduction Meters
The AGC gain-reduction meters in the metering area show the activity of the 5 AGC (automatic gain control) processing bands within the Omnia.11.
The leftmost meter shows the activity in the LO (low) band followed by the ML (mid-low), MH (mid-high), HI (high) and SH (super-high) bands. The Low bands control the bass part of the audio spectrum, the Mid bands the midrange (vocals & instrument fundamentals) and the Hi bands the treble (cymbals & instrument overtones). The 4 currently selected crossover frequencies are also shown near the top of and between the bargraphs.
The amount of gain-reduction occurring in each band is indicated by a solid blue bar that drops downward from the top.
Gating (gain-freezing) of each band is indicated by a bright yellow outline around the blue bar.
The gain-reduction of the AGCs recover to a resting gain setting which coincides with the RTP (Return to Platform) levels set for each band.
The AGC meters operate relatively slowly since the AGC’s job is to control overall levels and to provide a gentle dynamic EQ to moderate compression effect, preparing the audio for the peak controlling sections that follow.
The Wideband AGC section meter operates similarly while the Limiter section meters operate faster and with less overall gain-reduction.
All of the details regarding the AGC and Limiter sections are covered in Chapter 5.
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