Audio Suites

This is a guide to using the Audio Suites, the aim of this document is to guide you through the switch on and operation of the Audio Suites. To book these spaces you need to have attended the Audio Suite Induction. Upon completing this process you will be able to book these spaces on SISO. You can request an induction by emailing tvtechteam@bathspa.ac.uk.

PLEASE DO NOT UNPLUG ANYTHING IN THE AUDIO SUITES, THERE IS A USB HUB PROVIDED.

If you have any additional problems setting up or using these rooms, check the FAQ page.

Powering on the Suite

Turn on the Power Distribution Rack at the bottom of the unit. This will force the S6 to boot. Also check that phantom power is switched off on all the mic channels on the mic pre amp.
Once the S6 is fully booted, switch the Mac Pro on. There is a small power button near the mains connection on the circular black Mac Pro.
Once the Mac has loaded you can log into the machine using your Active Directory credentials. This may fail the first time you switch the machine on because it needs time to connect to the AD servers. If you fail to log in please try again and it should work.

Launching Pro Tools

Go to the dock and click on the Pro Tools icon. This will load Pro Tools and you can load a previous session or create a new one.
You can use the 'Pro Tools SSD' as a workbench.
Once you have loaded a session you need to set the XMON settings. XMON is the program AVID uses to control the monitoring in the studio. To load these you have to go to the XMON application, whilst this is active press the three buttons on the S6, then you can go back to Pro Tools and you have control of the volume of the speakers and you can switch between different speaker outputs.
XMON may loose it's MIDI connection which you can check with a right mouse click in the application icon in the dock.
If the XMON is muted (Red light on the front of the rack) you can quit and relaunch the program on the MAC.

Recording in Pro Tools

Create an Audio Track in Pro Tools (Track > New > Mono Audio Track) saving to the SSD drive as your file location if you do not have your own drive.
Select an input for that track.
The Mic Pre is normalled to have channels 1 - 4 arriving from the Commentary Studio and 5 - 8 from the Foley Studio.

You can plug directly into the Mic Pre in the Audio Suite via the GPO jack field. Look at the rack and find the section thats labelled 'Microphone Preamp Inputs'. You then need a GPO to XLR lead, which are available on request.

Next step would be to plug a mic in either the Foley Studio or the Commentary Studio.
Remember Commentary is 1 - 4 and Foley is 5 - 8.
With the Mic attached to the correct wallbox input you can then apply Phantom Power on the Mic Pre in the Pro Tools Suite.
Within Pro Tools check you have the same input assigned to your Audio Track.
Arm the track for input monitoring and or recording.

Talkback

In order to communicate with the person who is recording you need to arm talkback. The Gooseneck mic is attached to the S6 desk and connected to the patch bay via an XLR to GPO cable.
The talkback signal is mixed with the 'Control Room' output from Pro Tools, this means the recording artist will hear what we hear in the Pro Tools suite plus talkback when switched on. This is output from a 'Monitor C' section in the S6 / XMON. This needs to be connected to the headphone output in the Comms / Foley recording spaces.
The output of 'Mon C' is fed to the output on the patchbay labelled 'AVID XMON Cue Output 1R and 1L' . We now connect this to the Foley Room 'ST H/P 1 and 2'.

Visual Comms

We do have cameras and screens set up in both rooms so you have visual communication. To activate visual communication you use the small IDS touchscreen to the right hand side of the desk.You need to press the 'Take Control' button for either room. This will launch the camera from the Pro Tools suite and the chosen room to be displayed on the Monitor.
Using the small touch screen you can also

Sending a Video Signal

Import a video file into your pro tools session.
Turn on the large TV using the remote and select HDMI 1 for the video out from Pro Tools. This will display the signal from the video track in Pro Tools.
Check that the sync on the video is correct. If you go to 'Set Up > Video Sync Offset', this should be set to 60 milliseconds, we have tested this and agreed with academics that this is the correct video sync offset for these spaces.
Now that we have the video working in the pro tools space we can transmit this to the blackmagic screen in either the Foley or Commentary studio.

Shut down

Make sure the faders are down on the S6
Turn off any phantom power
Shut down the S6 (switch behind the screen)
Shut down software and Mac
Turn off power switch at the bottom of the rack

Using a Laptop

As well as using the Mac Pro with Pro tools you can plug your own laptop in via the 'Cambridge Audio USB Audio Interface'. This is a driverless device so you simply plug in the USB cable and select it as the audio output in your sound preferences.

Plug the USB cable from the Cambridge Audio Interface into your laptop.
Check your laptop sound output is set to Cambridge Audio
Check that 'Stereo 1' is switch on in the S6 menu

Pro Tools / Audio Suite FAQ's

XMON Muted and showing the red light - Check the USB connection by right clicking on the XMON app in the dock and selecting 'USBMIDI' from the menu options.

Pro Tools 'Playback' menu - If no sound is reaching the Pro Tools HDX interface and no metering is showing on the LED on this unit check that HDX is selected in the Pro Tools 'Playback' menu.

Loading S6 Set Up to gain control of the volume and monitoring controls - To load the S6 Set Up Menu switch over to the XMON app and press the 'Set Up' button on the top right corner of the master module of the S6. This will load the 'Set Up' menu and allow you to control the control room and monitor volume.

Patching a Microphone from Foley or Commentary Studio - Microphones can be connected from either the Commentary or Foley recording spaces. Mic inputs 1 - 4 are normalled to the Commentary recording space and 5 - 8 are normalled to the Foley recording space. The signals flow through to the microphone pre amp and then into the respective channel in the AVID HDX interface.

Phantom Power - Phantom power is provided to microphones via the Microphone PreAmp. The small red button switches phantom in and out. This should only be switched on once all the leads to the microphone are connected and switched off as you end the session.

Connecting Monitor Output to Recording Spaces - To provide audio to the recording spaces patch leads need to be connected between the AVID Cue Out 1 or 2 into the Commentary or Foley recording spaces Headphone In 1 or 2. You then need to check that the 'Monitor C', 'Dimming' and 'Talkback' controls are all set to 0dB.

Video Signals between rooms - Video out from Pro Tools is provided by the AJA T-Tap which is connected to the Mac Pro via a thunderbolt lead. This provides a HDMI feed to the TV Screen on the wall and an SDI output which can be patched to either the Foley or Commentary studio via teh SDI Tie Lines located on the patchbay above the AVID Sync HD.

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