The first product to prove the Open Control Architecture
(OCA) in the
field, the D80 amplifier from d&b audiotechnik, was
already at launch in
January an innovative product with many features and
benefits making it
immediately attractive to the d&b user community. Why
the addition of OCA?
\”You might call this parallel evolution,\”
explained Marc Weber, the driving
force in Product Management behind the development of the
D80 at d&b. \”The
new amplifier was designed to include sophisticated
functionality and
control, the future possibility of interoperability with
other
manufacturers was also a consideration, this is where OCA
fits in.\”
In essence OCA, developed by the OCA Alliance of
companies that includes
Bosch, Yamaha and d&b audiotechnik, is a method of
\’talking\’ over Ethernet.
Being an open public communications standard, the target
is for a common
language that all pro audio manufacturers can use.
\”At d&b we have been
using CAN-Bus for such a function with our systems since
the 1990s, because
it is very stable,\” continued Weber. \”It was
also easy to implement,
relatively inexpensive, but a little on the slow side by
today\’s bandwidth
standards. The new D80 needs to provide remote
information very quickly,
especially when adjusting EQs across multiple channels in
live situations,
so the foundation of the OCA Alliance was an opportunity
d&b willingly
joined. Is OCA as bomb proof as CAN-Bus? \”Put it
this way, we showed the
potential to Skan PA in the UK and they were so confident
of the stability
of OCA they implemented it for the first time at the
Other Stage at this
year\’s Glastonbury Festival.\”
Tom Tunney, Skan\’s system engineer for the Festival saw
it this way, \”We
were desperately waiting for the implementation of this
protocol to become
available. When I finally got my hands on a beta version,
we immediately
deployed it at Glastonbury to put it through the rigours
of a festival to
prove its stability and performance. This control and
monitoring is a
milestone for us, it makes the already outstanding D80
amplifier a cutting
edge product. All happy faces here. Having used the same
subwoofer array
here for the last three years it was just astonishing to
hear the array
perform measurably louder, while the energy efficiency of
the D80 saw lower
power consumption. We are looking forward to deploying
this system on our
up and coming tours.\”
The release version of d&b R1 Remote control software
V2.2.1, which
incorporates the OCA protocol to communicate over
Ethernet with D80
amplifiers, is available to download from http://www.dbaudio.com
