994 Chapter 25
There are two other major applications for this
router-as-console solution. One is radio
studios—several, if relatively small, consoles within a
single complex: they can all share the same hardware
and resources of a single router, indeed may all be in the
same box, yet to all intents and purposes be discrete
operationally.
It is a natural live sound solution, too, where as
described above there may indeed be multiple fair-sized
console systems (house, monitors, recording) but that
all share common sources from the stage and yet have
very separate destinations (PA, monitors, recorder). The
mixing router not only performs the signal routings, but
it is also home to all the console-type signal processing
required for all three operations.
A valid concern for each of the above applications is
that of single point of failure. Large routing mixers typi-
cally address this with fail-safe measures, meaning each
host microcomputer has a hot standby ready to take
over if the main one should hiccup, and spare signal
processing/mixing DSP boards equally stand ready to
be reassigned on-the-fly to take over from one that may
have halted. Some designs even have an entirely sepa-
rate router, operating in parallel to the main one, ready
to take over in the case of a failure. Although they could
be perceived as expensive precautions, they look really
inexpensive in relation to dead air.Figure 25-155. The Wheatstone D5.1 large-format TV
audio console, a control surface which has no audio in it at
all! It merely controls a remote router, the “Bridge” in Fig.
25-156. Courtesy Wheatstone Corporation.
Figure 25-156. A Wheatstone “Bridge” cage, a mixing/pro-
cessing router providing the audio “engine” for the D5.1
console in Fig. 25-155. Courtesy Wheatstone Corporation.