New Axia xNodes receive double praise at NAB
New AoIP interfaces feature dual power, dual network connections, get dual awards
30 April 2012, Cleveland Ohio, USA
Visitors to the Axia Audio display at NAB 2012 took notice of Axia xNodes, the new compact AoIP interfaces just introduced. And so did the judging panels assembled by two top broadcast trade journals, who bestowed xNodes with both a Radio World "Cool Stuff" award and a Radio Magazine "Pick Hit" award.
"After the awards were announced, some judges said xNodes received these awards because they significantly advance the state of the art in IP-Audio networking," explains Clark Novak, Axia's marketing manager.
"xNodes pack a lot of neat capabilities into a unit that only takes half a rack space. They have two Ethernet ports for connection to dual-redundant network paths. There's dual-redundant power that switches automatically. They can take power from an internal AC supply or a network connection with PoE. They've got SNMP built in. And they have a fanless convection cooling system that uses cool studio air, instead of hot air from the back of the rack," says Novak, a former air talent who notes with a wink that "hot air has also been found present in the studio from time to time."
Some other xNode features the judges liked:
Self-configuration and one-button setup.
Compact size: two xNodes fit in just 1RU of space,
Versatile mounting: xNodes can go in a rack, on a wall, the ceiling, or under a counter with the optional wall-mount kit.
Flexibility: xNodes can be configured to provide either 8-in/8-out mono streams or 4-in/4-out stereo streams.
Fast connections: Audio I/O is presented on convenient RJ-45s and locking DB-25 connectors that are compatible with industry-standard DB-to-XLR snakes.
xNodes come in an Analog model with 8 mono balanced line-level inputs and 8 mono balanced line-level outputs (or 4 stereo inputs and outputs); an AES/EBU version with 4 stereo digital inputs and 4 stereo digital outputs, which can also be treated as 8 mono inputs and 8 mono outputs; a Microphone xNode with four professional-grade microphone preamps and four balanced analog line outputs; a GPIO model with 6 general-purpose logic ports; and a unique Mixed-Signal xNode with 1 selectable Mic/Line analog input, 2 dedicated analog line inputs, 3 analog line outputs, 1 digital AES3 input and 1 AES3 output, and 2 GPIO ports.
