Adgil Director 9800

While surround sound is attracting considerable interest from modest facilities, it is fundamental to up-market business Rob James assesses a professional surround monitor management system

THE DIRECTOR is an expandable, modular system for controlling the increasingly complex monitoring requirements for surround mixing. This is a 'big league' unit and therefore not directly comparable with the more modest Studio Technologies Studio Comm 68/69 and Magtrax Music Box units (Studio Sound October 1998, Jan 1999). In addition to these 'plug-and-play' units, both Studio Technologies and Magtrax offer custom up-market solutions that compete more directly with the Adgil and Otari PicMix systems.

Director consists of two main building blocks--a mainframe and a remote. In fact, there are three alternative remotes available to suit differing requirements. The 9822 supports up to 12 sources plus a 'wild' source together with LCRS and stereo speaker systems. The 9824 extends the speaker system to 5.1 channels and stereo, while the 9840 allows up to 30 sources plus a wild source, and up to eight speaker channels.

The mainframe is a 3U-high rack-mount with a number of front-panel controls. At the rear are 16 card slots plus the power supply connection (IEC) and switch. Each of the first ten slots can contain either a 9802 (factory configured) or 9808 (user-configurable) input card. Each card provides eight input channels, each of which may be assigned to one bus. Slot 11 takes a 9803 Insert Send card, that also doubles as the bus amplifier. Slot 12 contains the 9804 Insert Return card, that also includes the mono summing amp. In slot 13 is the Master Output card, 9805-4M. This has four main outputs, LCRS and two auxiliary stereo outputs. A multiturn trimpot is provided for each output. Slot 14 can contain either a 9805-2S 2-channel slave output card or the 4-channel version, 9805-4S depending on the requirement for 5.1 or 7.1 monitoring. The 9804-SO solo input card is in Slot 15 and the 9806 Microprocessor Communication Controller is in Slot 16. This comes with a Y adaptor to split the connections between a 9-pin D-connector for the remote control and a 15-pin D-connector for GPIOs.

GPIOs provide for external PEC-Direct switching and tallies, red-light or cue-light switching, talkback (muting), external Dim and Solo 1 & 2. The two external Solos are provided for multi-operator consoles with split solo arrangements. Also provided are a couple of open collector outputs to switch a matrix encoder-decoder (a Dolby SEU4--SDU4) when changing between LCRS and one of the stereo outputs. All audio connections are on 25-pin D-connectors with pin-outs conforming to the Tascam convention.

The front panel has a bright, backlit, 2-line lcd that is used in conjunction with a rotary shaft encoder and ten internally illuminated keys to control and programme the unit. The top row of six consists of a cut key, four setup recall keys and a store key. The other four, on either side of the encoder are cursor keys for navigation.

The configuration supplied for review consisted of a mainframe with a configurable 9808 input card and a factory configured 6 + 2 9802 input card, the insert send and return cards, a 9805-4M master out and a 2-channel slave for 5.1 use.

The neat desktop remote uses the same keys and knobs as the mainframe plus a mono level pot. The keys are arranged as four rows of six. The top row is used together with the shift key to select any or all of the 12 possible sources. It is simple and quick to make multiple selections for multistem monitoring. In Group mode, four sets of sources may be defined on the mainframe as Group 1, Group 2, PEC and Direct. These can then be compared with a single key press on the group master source or by using an external pec-direct key via the GPIO. Alternatively, when not in Group mode, sets of sources can be defined from the remote.

The second row is L, C, R, SL, SR and sub output enables--the leds light when channels are active and flash when muted. These keys also double as solo selects when the SOLO mode is selected on the mainframe. I generally prefer the opposite convention of output mutes with the leds lit when muted as this makes it easier to see at a glance why it's all gone quiet.

In the third row are the shift key, wild key, spkr a, b and c keys and a mono key. The wild key selects or deselects an assigned group of input channels from a source card independently of all other source selections. The wild key may also be assigned as Group 2 master. spkr a and b select multichannel monitors, depending on which output cards are fitted, c selects the alternative stereo monitors.

The mono key selects a source or summed sources to L, C or R speakers or all three. The actual sources and destinations are programmed on the Director mainframe. Programming of various functions, including PEC-Direct sources, bus assignments and so on can also be programmed from the remote. A lot of the programming becomes more direct on the remote since more keys are available. For example. when you are programming the input, the corresponding input led will be lit as well as all the sources it is assigned to and its output bus. If you want to change the bus assignation you simply press on the enable key that corresponds to that bus. This is far more intuitive than using cursor keys and quicker to do than describe.

The bottom row has the cue key, which can be programmed to provide a momentary action for cueing or to toggle a latching output for red light switching. The insert key switches the speaker source before or after the insert point. The dim key attenuates the output level by a preset amount, anything from nothing to -89.625dB or Mute in 0.375dB increments. The final keys are spl a and b which allow two fixed monitoring levels to be set in increments of 0.375dB attenuation from maximum. The shaft encoder remains active. When the knob is moved off the selected preset level the led extinguishes. When the knob is back at the preset level the led re-illuminates.

The Director system is an comprehensive monitoring package. Monitoring systems are very much a matter of personal likes and dislikes, and I have plenty of prejudices borne out of years of mixing. I would have liked to see a way of locking out the volume knob to prevent inadvertent changes to the monitoring level and a decibel read-out on the remote. Many mixers use different levels during premixing to the recommended SPL for the final mix. I also still feel channels should be lit when muted not active (although they do flash when muted). In fact, I appreciate why Adgil has chosen to use this logic; the output channel leds also show which buses are active for the selected source(s) and speakers which would be difficult to achieve with the reverse logic.

Other than these minor gripes, I want to deliver a little praise. Unlike the units previously tested, the Director can be powered up or down without producing large thumps in the monitors. Further, it wakes up with the cut key active. I think this should be kindergarten stuff on professional equipment, but sadly it is not always the case. The audio performance issubjectively excellent--transparent and silent.

Adgil says it has recently upgraded the 'top of the line' 9840 remote to support 80 leds showing exactly which inputs are selected and adding an alphanumeric SPL display. Adgil will also quote for custom controls and software so, if you wanted the output channels enable keys illuminated when muted this might bepossible.

With the range of possibilities on offer, it should be possible to specify a system to cater for almost any current requirement. The remote is small and it would be fairly easy to integrate into a panel and the system has the advantage of expandability allowing a studio to start with a relatively modest system and add to it as your requirements change.

A fully expanded system with the 9840 remote offers the possibility of up to 80 inputs with two 8-channel outs plus one stereo. A subsystem is also available that can work in tandem with a Director system or function as a stand-alone format selector and-or equaliser. The Format selector is a matrix, that maps any of eight inputs to any of ten outputs with a total of three subwoofer outs. Mappings can be stored as presets with up to four on dedicated keys. Equaliser boards may be added that function as 5-band parametrics or subwoofer crossovers.

The Director feels right--which is half the battle with this type of unit--and I enjoyed using it.