Tech Tip: D-901 EQ Settings for TOA Speakers Made Easy

By Jim McGuinness, Product Support Specialist

As we all have heard before time is money, and no one understands that better than the custom integrator or installer.  For many jobs, much time and effort goes into the design and deployment of a new sound system.  Since many electronic products are programmable these days, time spent on setting up a unit, or group of units to finish a system, is always a concern.  Realistically hours can be spent which can burn up your profit ratio on a job.  Even if the setup goes perfectly, time just tweaking a new system is costly.  Ultimately, you’re trying to hit that sweat spot of profitable job and happy client for future business.

So in comes the question of how can we save time when installing TOA speakers in conjunction with the D-901 mixer.  Well we’ve just made it a little easier by taking advantage of some of the flexibility of the D-901’s multi-iteration capable software.  We now have several files which contain the EQ curves for many of our popular speakers which can be used like a template.  These files can be found at the following link.  Having these two files independently opened along with your project file allow you to copy paste the filters from the template EQ files to your project file for the output filters needed.

The first thing you will need to do is download the template zip file from our website to your
Windows compatible computer.  You will then need to unzip the file to obtain the two .d9t files which can be saved to your 'My Documents' folder or any folder you decide to place them in.

The second step you should do is to open your project file and have it ready on your computer.  The screenshot below is a general example to go to a file location and open a file.

The next step is to open two more iterations of the D-901 software on your PC.  Then for each iteration, use the 'Open File' icon again on your tool bar to locate your .d9t template files and open one file in each of your two additional iterations of the software.  
TIP:  If the type or types of TOA speakers that need to be used all reside on one of these template files, then only the template file of interest needs to be open.

Below you will find the screenshots of these steps.  Note that once you open the template files with the software, the speaker names will appear as preset memory names.

Open file example.

Speaker EQs shown as presets once the file is loaded.

To select a particular EQ curve, let’s say the HX-5 in this example, click on the HX-5 Output Filter preset and click on 'Change'.

Then click on the output filter button for any of the output channels to reveal the stored EQ curve.

The output EQ curve will be displayed as shown.

Now that you have the EQ curve of interest loaded, right hand click the same output filter button to reveal additional options and select 'Copy'.

The last step will be to switch over to your project D-901 software, click on the output filter button for the channel that has the HX-5 speaker on it and select 'Paste'.  If you have more than one channel with the HX-5 speaker on it, you will need to past the EQ settings for each channel separately.

You will be able to verify the EQ curve in the graphical display at the bottom portion of the software each time you paste an EQ curve into your project.

Lastly when you go to close the template files it will ask you if you want to save the changes as the software has detected a functional change.  Say NO to Save file for your Template files and YES to your project file as you don’t want to lose your work.

That’s it, simple and easy, especially if you have several models of speakers you are working with.

Happy programming!

9000M2 Software Series Part 10 - Setting Paging Priority and Volume Settings

In this tutorial you will learn how to assign paging priority and adjust paging volume with the TOA 9000m2 GUI Software application.

Before we start, it is important to keep in mind that paging priority is stored in global memory. This means that paging settings will remain regardless of scene changes. This is helpful in many cases--for example, if a user turns down the master volume in a particular room, an important page from a priority microphone will consistently operate with the same programmed behavior and volume no matter what.

First, you may open the priority setting view by clicking the priority button. You can also find this in the Setting Menu.

Next, you may assign a priority with a level 1 through 3 to any input. 1 is the highest priority, and 3 is lowest priority. A blank assignment indicates no priority.
 
Then, you can indicate if this priority input will be triggered by a VOX threshold. This means that the input will be triggered when an audio signal exceeds a certain threshold.

Keep in mind that in order to use the VOX, the channel's Gate setting must be turned on. See our video on Gate settings to learn how to turn a channel's gate on.

Next, set the ducking level: the Ducking Level is  the amount that the source will be reduced when a signal of higher priority is activated. In this example. When a page comes in through channel 1, channel 2 will be ducked by -40dB.

To adjust the paging volume, click the Paging Volume Button. As mentioned earlier, these volume settings are independent of normal output volume settings.

TOA 9000M2 Software Part 9 - Output Assignments & Crosspoints

Setting Output Assignments

 

In this tutorial you will learn how to configure output assignments  with the TOA 9000M2 GUI Software application.

Click on the Crosspoint Matrix block to call up the output Assignment view.

The crosspoint matrix represents inputs assigned to outputs with inputs represented as rows and outputs represented as columns.

New projects default to all inputs assigned to all outputs, represented by orange box. Clicking a box will turn the box to RED and will activate the cross-point fader. This fader adjusts the selected input channel's contribution to that output channel.

Click the button again to turn the output assignment off.

Keep in Mind that any source input that has been assigned assigned with a priority will not be included in this view. Priority inputs are managed in the paging settings. In this example Input 2 has been assigned a priority and is therefor not included in the output assignment view.

You may click the ADJUST button to transmit your Output Assignment settings to a connected 9000M2 unit.

Be sure to visit our YouTube page for more 9000M2 Software tutorials.

Tech Tip: How To Resolve A MAC Addressing / IP Conflict

By Rick Escobar, Product Support Assistant Manager

Anyone who works with equipment that has a MAC address and IP address have run into the main topic of this tech tip. Heck even a banana these days has networking as a feature. 

Problem: Cannot login to a unit or even ping it with a windows operating system.

Explanation:
Let's use two of TOA's NX-100 units, and set them both to maintenance mode. (NOTE: many TOA products have an IP Address of 192.168.1.1 right out of the box)
Connect one of the units to your switcher.
Open a DOS prompt and enter 'ping 192.168.1.1'

Result: The unit will pass the ping test without an issue.

NOTE: From a DOS prompt type 'arp -a' this will display the MAC address currently associated with 192.168.1.1

Now, move the Ethernet cable to the second NX-100 unit and again ping 192.168.1.1

Expected Result: Good chance your ping test will time out. If you type 'arp -a' again, you will see that it is still using the previous NX-100 MAC address.

TIP: You can use your QWERTY up / down arrows to use a previous typed command.

What's going on?:
Your PC is still associating the previous MAC address with 192.168.1.1. This is stored in the Windows Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) Cache. Windows Vista, XP and 7 should release the ARP Cache all on its own after 2 minutes. However, if you are moving quickly, you are very likely to run into this issue, and may even end up in a loop where it may appear as if your unit is defective. Also, I have encountered an operating system that was not releasing the ARP Cache, and forcing a refresh was the only option.

Solution:
From the DOS command prompt enter 'netsh interface ip delete arpcache'. This will force the ARP cache to refresh and allow you to connect to the unit you were unable to connect to before.

TOA 9000M2 Software Part 2 - Overview Main Settings Window

By Sean Barton - TOA Area Systems Engineer West

In this tutorial you will become familiar with the Main Settings Window in the TOA 9000M2 GUI Software application.

The Scene Memory View displays the list of 32 SCENE memories, as well as the currently selected scene. A SCENE is a memory preset containing all of the channel and routing settings associated with a given application. Each scene may be named and also assigned to be a power-on default.

The Main I/O Configuration View - This window provides an overview of the entire unit’s Input / Output configuration. It will show all channel names, available DSP & signal routing. Clicking on any “block” will call up that parameter in the edit window below.

The Active Edit View displays the currently selected parameter. When editing a parameter in the main view window, that channel & the specific parameter will be highlighted in both windows.