On Stage Audio Revs Up Kawasaki Dealer Meeting With AVB and Harman HiQnet

On Stage Audio (OSA) deployed the IEEE 802.1 AVB Bridging protocol at the annual Kawasaki dealer meeting this September. With 2,500 Kawasaki dealers from across the United States at the Las Vegas Hilton's convention center, the gathering required a full-range audio delivery system for any combination of music and speech.

The AVB system deployed by the OSA team, led by vice president Jim Risgin, consisted of a pair of dbx SC 32 digital matrix processors and 24 AVB-capable Crown CTs 3000 amplifiers. The system also included network bridge switches from BSS Audio/NETGEAR, all under the control of Harman HiQnet System Architect, the world's first connectivity and control protocol to integrate all product categories in the signal chain for professional sound systems of all types, sizes, and applications.

"The network ran AVB transport and distribution from the SC 32 to the amplifiers, flawlessly," said Risgin. "The project was done entirely within a pure AVB signal chain, and that's becoming the case for many of our projects now." Risgin notes that, despite the short amount of preparation time before the event, very little was actually needed, thanks to the fact that HiQnet System Architect allows systems designers to map out the entire AVB sound system in an intuitive graphical software environment. "After the components are in their racks, all we need to do is apply the design by dragging and dropping the icons for each component," said Risgin. "With the virtual design, we can select every piece of equipment with accuracy and we have the ability to do all of the patching off-site."

Risgin, who was an early and active contributor to the AVB industry-wide initiative, was working with the latest iteration of HiQnet System Architect, the soon-to-be-announced version 2.3, which he says adds more streamlined features and further enhances the implementation of the AVB protocol.

"We were able to set up and run 15 audio streams to the amplifiers for this event. They not only performed perfectly in terms of control, but also sounded just as good as analog," said Risgin. "The best thing you can ever say about a piece of technology is that it just works and that's what we can say about AVB. It just works, all the time, every time."