New MADI products

A novelty that all five products have on board is the new RJ45 connector for MADI, which extends the existing two media options, optical cables and coaxial cables, by a third one: standard network cables. Making use of twisted pair Ethernet cables for multichannel audio signals brings along several advantages that optical and coaxial cables were lacking: bidirectional audio transmission between two devices over one cable, power supply, and unmatched availability of cables at a fraction of cost compared to traditional MADI cabling. Depending on the type of cable, cable lengths of up to 100m (330 ft.) can be achieved.

MADI Router

The MADI Router has four groups of three different MADI I/Os each and is used as patch bay and format converter between those. Apart from the fully transparent, stream-wise operation between its ports it excels the well-known MADI Bridge by letting users create output signals that combine audio channels from different MADI inputs.

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ADAT Router

The ADAT Router is based on the design of the ADI-648, providing eight optical ADAT inputs, eight ADAT outputs, and MADI connectors for optical, coaxial, and MADI Twisted Pair connections. All audio channels can be freely routed between MADI and ADAT.

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AES3 Router

Following into the footsteps of the ADI-642 and ADI-6432, RME presents a device that takes the best of both units: channel-wise routing and multiple AES3-MADI conversion capabilities. Apart from optical, coaxial and twisted pair MADI connections, the AES3 Router provides four D-sub 25-pin ports, carrying 32 audio channels both in and out of the device. However, the ports can be configured to be send-only or receive-only ports, resulting in 64 audio channel outputs or 64 audio channel inputs.

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All three routers are equipped with a TFT display for easy operation and status overview, redundant (double) power supplies, and USB ports for preset storage and firmware updates.

ADAT Converter

The ADAT Converter is an extension to either one of the routers, receiving its power over the MADI Twisted Pair connection from the Router. Therefore, no additional power supply is needed. The ADAT Converter translates the signals of up to eight ADAT inputs to MADI TP, and sends the signals from its MADI input to the eight ADAT outputs.

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AES3 Converter

Also the new AES3 Converter acts as an extension to either one of the routers. It can be configured to convert the attached MADI signal to send and receive 32 audio channels, or, if required, either send or receive 64 audio channels.

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The expected shipment date of all five products is Summer 2013.