CE Console 8.1

[Derek Payne]

I've recently downloaded CE Console 8.1 and I don't see any associated release notes that tell me what has changed from CE Console 8.0.

The feature I'm hoping has been added is the ability to send the Audio of Mic Input 1 (podium) to the room ceiling speakers for the local audience.

We had this capability in TC Console, and because of this limitation we have 1 codec in our environment that still must run TC, while all of the others have been upgraded to CE.

Thanks for any assistance.

Derek

[Patrick Sparkman]

CE Console is the same as TC Console, except support for C Series codecs and the video compositor has been removed, as it's meant to support newer endpoints that run CE software.  Release notes are contained within the application under the About menu.

Changes in version 8.0.0

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Removed:

- Disable Video Compositor

- Support for C-series codecs

Fixes:

- Remote participants not visible in Audio Console

What that said, you can use CE console to create an audio route from the microphone to the speakers, but note that in my experience this can cause the audio to become distorted as I've tried this once.  You're better off having all the microphones go to an audio DSP, and from there to the SX80 for video conference and also to the local speakers for speech reinforcement.

[Enrico Conedera · Accepted solution]

Hello Derek -

Patrick is correct in that using CE Console to map a microphone input to a speaker output is not the proper way to setup sound reinforcement.  The SX80 already has a recording output, which contains all audio including local microphones.  If you were to send that to the loudspeakers in the room you would get feedback from the local microphones.  Not a good idea.

There are various ways to set up sound reinforcement - also sometimes called microphone lift - with video conferencing codecs.  In general, you have to use mix-minus audio routing plus an external mixer.  But on the SX80 platform, including MX700/800, we have enabled sound reinforcement right in the codec.  You can find the information on cisco.com/go/telepresence, which is an excellent source of documentation.  Look for "Using Extra Loudspeakers and Sound Reinforcement" on this page: Cisco TelePresence SX Series - Maintain and Operate Guides - Cisco

Or you can use this direct link: http://www.cisco.com/c/dam/en/us/td/docs/telepresence/endpoint/misc/audio/extra-loudspeakers-local-reinforcement-guide-m…

So to your point, Patrick, you can actually do sound reinforcement in the codec now, without needing an external DSP.

[Derek Payne]

Thank you for your responses. 

When CE Console was introduced, I was told by someone at Cisco that CE Console did not support Microphone Lift as TC Console before it had.

I am indeed using an SX80 codec, and it was the "right in the codec" option I was looking for.   I had seen that direct link at one point, but truthfully it's existence slipped my mind.

Now that it's confirmed the CE Console does have the same feature, I'm all set.

Thanks for your time, gentlemen.

[t.svatek]

I think you always need an external DSP.

Let me share some thoughts on that:

The SX80 has enough input/outputs to cover a not too complicated audience. If I connect the microphones directly, I need 3 functions for live sound reinforcement: mute, volume and a compressor. Imagine that you have up to 8 microphones on stage and perhaps also untrained speakers. They won't remember to mute the microphone themselves, and they won't know exactly how loud to speak and how close to hold the microphone when they don't have a headset. So I need a way to mute the microphones remotely and get the volume under control. The best solution is one compressor per microphone channel and then one volume control per channel. The compressor prevents too much noise differences and the regulator then allows me to control it when a speaker is speaking very quietly or loudly. All three functions cannot be controlled by the SX80 (Maybe Mute via a Macro).

I'm not happy at the output either, because I can only adjust the content volume with the Touch 10. Actually I need a slider for the microphone sum, content and then a slider for the master volume. Today I can't solve that, because the SX80 doesn't have a way to only output the microphone signal when I activate Reinforcement. It would be better if I could control it all directly in the SX80. A Master Limiter directly in front of the power amplifier is absolutely necessary as protection for the loudspeakers.

I don't know what the DSP in the SX80 theoretically offers, but these functions would be necessary to provide a professional audience without an external DSP.