Audio Devices and Monitoring
Omnia Enterprise 9s provides comprehensive audio monitoring for each Station, including a plethora of patch points throughout the processing chain. Monitoring can be accomplished in several ways as outlined below.
Client Audio Feature Using NfRemote
This is our recommended method for monitoring audio and involves connecting to the Omnia Enterprise 9s server from a remote PC on the same network using NfRemote
Navigate to the Client Audio > Client Audio Output > Patchpoint menu (A). Choose the desired output audio device from the Device dropdown (D).
The Power button (E) turns the client audio on and off. Use the Client Volume slider (C) to adjust the listening level, taking note that it is set to unity gain (full volume!) by default.
Enabling the SRC control (B) allows the client software to dynamically adjust the sample rate of the client playback. If you experience interruptions or dropouts in the client audio stream, enabling the SRC will result in a steadier connection, though at a slight CPU usage penalty.
Depending upon available network bandwidth, it may be necessary to buffer the incoming audio using the Audio buffer slider (F), whose values are expressed in milliseconds. Note that the meters on the remote PC will be delayed by an equal amount to keep them in sync with the audio, which can also be manually adjusted using the Delay slider in the Display Settings menu for each display.
Finally, use the Patch Point Menu (G) to select the audio you wish to monitor.
AoIP Monitor Output
An alternate method to using NfRemote is to assign a multicast address in the AoIP Monitor Out field and use the free Telos Alliance stereo AoIP driver for monitoring.
WDM Monitor Output
This method uses the WDM (Windows Driver Model) capabilities built into the Windows operating system, which can be configured in the Audio Devices tab of the configuration file.
The various dropdown menus allow you to specify the type of interface, output device, sample rate, block size, and whether or not to allow adaptive sample rate conversion. Once you have the configuration set, use the Run Test feature to check its status and performance.
Note: There are instances in which using the WDM Monitor Output can be advantageous. However, doing so introduces the potential for issues involving external sound cards and audio drivers. We presume that if you choose to monitor audio in this way, you are familiar with these risks and have a comprehensive understanding of how to manage external audio devices in a Windows environment.
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