Responds to growing trend to use Ethernet as preferred infrastructure in entertainment

Responds to growing trend to use Ethernet as preferred infrastructure in entertainment

Show control company KissBox returned to ISE to launch two new products aimed at those responsible for the design and implementation of control systems in theme parks, museums, visitor attractions, live shows and many other types of venue, as well as those involved in music technology.

The AU6TR is the first of a new range of KissBox transceivers, developed to transport digital audio over IP networks with minimal latency. Its ruggedised design makes it ideal for deployment in harsh environments such as live/stage applications.

The second new product from KissBox is the CM-MIDI2 which integrates both the powerful RTP-MIDI implementation of KissBox’s MIDI2TR professional transceiver, and the USB-MIDI communication standard found on many music products. The CM-MIDI2 is ideal for musical applications where high speed communication between USB and RTP-MIDI is needed.

On the KissBox stand, the company partnered with Showlogix to demonstrate the TC2TR (Timecode over Ethernet) interface, highlighting the capabilities of the CM-MIDI2 as an RTP-MIDI interface.

“We see a growing trend in the entertainment industry to use Ethernet as the preferred infrastructure, with more and more control systems evolving into network-based distributed systems,” said
Sierk Janszen, co-founder of KissBox. “Using our solutions can greatly simplify control protocol handling and provides the possibility of setting up a distributed control network, utilising readily available, affordable off-the-shelf Ethernet infrastructure building blocks.”

Designed to use the open RTP protocol as well as to be compatible with the Ravenna protocol, the AU6TR delivers peer-to-peer audio streaming as well as audio streaming from/to an external source - similar to a networked sound card. It can perform local real-time audio processing, with integrated control through the network.

The AU6TR can also be used as an RTP audio Interface. It will receive RTP digital audio streams from any compatible device and output them as analog audio signals. Being a transceiver, the AU6TR will also stream analog audio input signals it receives on its inputs to connected receiving devices and software.

The CM-MIDI2 acts as a gateway between the three available MIDI interfaces; any MIDI stream fed into one interface can be re-distributed to any of the two other interfaces. For example, MIDI received on the MIDI-IN DIN connector can be sent both to RTP-MIDI and USB.

The RTP-MIDI interface of the CM-MIDI2 can be used directly with Apple Mac, iOS and Windows devices. It manifests itself as a standard MIDI interface, available for MIDI software such as sequencers, digital audio workstations, SysEx Editor/Librarian and so on.

KissBox solutions are widely deployed where reliability, flexibility and high performance are required. A recent example is the Canon of the Netherlands exhibition, which opened late last year at the Netherlands Open Air Museum in Arnhem. In order to deliver to visitors a highly personalised, engaging experience, over 50 KissBox networked RFID readers are deployed.

More information about KissBox can be found at: www.kissbox.nl