Axia Element - Studioengine VMIX Controls

6: Virtual Mixer • 96
©2008 Axia Audio — Rev. 3.0
StudioEngine VMIX Controls
In an Axia system, all audio processing occurs in the
StudioEngine — the Element console itself does no au-
dio processing. That’s why VMIX settings are found in
the StudioEngine HTTP pages.
You may have noted that the Element HTTP
pages also have a VMIX section. This is the
remnants of an earlier implementation of VMIX,
whereing the control was shared between the
Engine and the console. With Element 2.0 soft-
ware, we have begun the process of transition-
ing to VMIX control on the StudioEngine side
only, but controls are mirrored on the Element
conguration pages to provide a smooth transi-
tion for users upgrading from earlier versions.
This chapter may make reference to the earlier
implementation for clarication reasons.
Even though the “V” in VMIX stands for “virtual”,
you can in fact perform a certain amount of “hands-on”
mixing. Although you don’t have physical control of the
virtual faders or virtual ON/OFF switches, adjustments
made to the VMIX take effect as soon as you apply them.
While you wouldn’t want to engineer an entire show this
way, it’s valuable to know that VMIX changes saved “on
the fly” will affect your output streams immediately.
In the HTTP pages of the StudioEngine, there is a
Virtual Mixer section and a V-Mode section (We’ll get
to the V-Mode portion later in this chapter). The portions
of this page that display settings on a grey background
are indicators only, not controls. Settings displayed on
white backgrounds are controls, and can be adjusted.
At the top of the page, you can see the name of the
Engine you are logged into. Below are eight submixers,
each with five inputs. All eight submixes are summed
into the VMIX Main. You’re probably already thinking
that there are a lot of things you can do with this setup!
Figure 6-1 shows a portion of the VMIX setup found
in the Studio Engine web pages. It shows the first of the
eight Submixes (VMIX 1). Let’s look at the controls and
see what they do.
VMIX Main is the sum of all eight submixes. Unless
you really need a stream that combines the audio outputs
of all the submixes, you may leave this disabled — it
doesn’t need to be Enabled for the submixers to work.
In Figure 6-1, the channel is Disabled (default setting).
If you need to use this mix, verify that the Channel num-
ber assigned to it is a unique channel number (just as
you would in configuring the channel numbers assigned
to Audio Node streams). When enabled, you can use this
source anywhere in your network.
In most cases, the VMIX Subs are the only channels
you will need to enable. Select the type of Livewire mode
needed for the application (Live, Medium or Standard
Stereo). Provide an appropriate unique channel number
to generate and send a Multicast signal to the network.
Only enable Submixes you intend to actively use; active
submixes without any activity simply clutter up your net-
work with empty streams!
At the bottom of each of the eight submix sections is
an Apply button. Any changes you make will be saved
when this button is pressed.
Other controls for each of the Sumbixer’s five input
channels include:
Src Name: Enter a user friendly name for the source
you want to assign to this input.
Channel: Enter the unique channel number of your
audio source.
In Stream Type: In most cases this drop down
will be set to From Source. If a source’s Backfeed
(unique feed or mix-minus audio) is desired as in
input into the mixer, select To Source. (If this in-
struction is not clear, please review the chapter on
backfeeds and mix-minus earlier in this manual to
understand what these terms mean.)
Status/Audio: These are status fields; OK is shown
for valid streams and ERR for invalid streams (usual-
ly, an invalid stream error indicates a duplicate source
- double-check your Channel Number entries). The
Audio box provides a snapshot of the audio level
with color indicator.
Enable: Turns the input channel ON or OFF; the
boxes just below provide an option to set the “fade
up” and “fade down” times.
Fade Time: These two fields contain time values
that control the rate in which the audio goes from
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