XTA makes a switch

To give it its full title, the MX36 DSP Enabled Console Switching System has been designed by XTA to offer a ‘simple solution to the long-standing problem of handling multiple mixing consoles’ audio feeds in a multi-stage situation’. The MX36 handles 36 inputs in 2U across analogue, AES and Dante networks, arranged in sets of four (to typically support left-, right- and front-fill and sub feeds from an individual console). There is also one set of four outputs, available simultaneously across analogue, AES and Dante networks with Word Clock output sync available on AES.

All switching takes place in the digital domain with soft cross-fades designed to switch up to three consoles, each with up to three levels of redundancy. The primary and secondary sources may be selected depending on the availability of support on the console (so AES or Dante, or even just analogue) and the MX36 will automatically select the secondary source should the primary fail. If failover with redundancy is not required, the MX36 can handle up to nine consoles (accommodating three each on analogue, AES and Dante).

In addition to the quad channel sets for the consoles, there is a fully featured high-quality mono mic preamp with selectable routing, as well as clarity filtering in DSP and switchable 48V phantom power. The MX36 also features a stereo line input with ‘sweetening’ filtering, selectable routing, fully balanced rear inputs and an unbalanced 3.5mm jack front-panel input. Dante allows for units to operate in either cascade or parallel modes to extend the input set sizes or number of consoles that may be simultaneously switched.