Anthem

Applications
For MUSIC clients: Anthem offers In-line and Split Modes for music recording and mixing sessions with access to plenty of hardcore music production features such as; familiar signal paths (lots of them!), EQ and Dynamics always available on every channel, inserts and plug-ins, buckets of headroom, awesome automation, fast and rock solid transport controls.

For the POST clients: Anthem offers Constellation Mode which puts on line a complete suite of specific post tools such as: integrated recorder and editor, clip based automation, extensive multi-format and spatial panning facilities, integrated audio and video networking.

   Modes

Traditional Split Console Mode
The Split Mode provides users a traditional split-desk configuration, ideal for recording purposes. Split Mode consists of 48 fully featured inputs with 96 fully featured monitor returns each with an associated recording and playback track, for a total of 144 channels. In this mode the operator can flexibly assign (map) surface resources (faders and encoder sections) to the input paths and the track returns thus ensuring an efficient use of the available hardware. Using the “fader set” buttons, the user can quickly page through all of the available channels.

Classic In-Line Mode
A second operational mode is based on the classic In-Line mixing desk format. In-Line mode is configurable in two settings: Classic In-Line with 96 long faders and 96 short faders (192 channels in total), where a fully featured channel’s resources are shared between the input and the monitor path; and In-Line Plus, which offers 72 long faders and 72 fully featured short faders (144 channels) delivering a unique setup with 6-band equalizer and full dynamic section allocated to both the input and monitor paths. Each monitor path has an associated record/playback track. Channels may be sent to any of the Main mix busses each of which may be user configured for Mono or up to 7.1 formats. This feature allows the operator to mix for stereo and surround formats from within a single mix project.

Each of the traditional operational modes above are instantly apparent to an experienced operator meaning no training is required and effectively assuring a zero learning curve.

Constellation Mode
The third mode, Constellation, offers the industry-proven post-production technologies synonymous with the Fairlight family. Constellation mode allows full access to the sub bus system for mix stem preparation and bus to bus mixing. Constellation mode also opens the Fairlight editing and recording system and provides seamless integration of digital picture.

The console can instantly move back and forth between any of the aforementioned modes, increasing the number of potential business opportunities and providing a new level of flexibility to the studio environment.


Anthem Hardware Features
Anthem’s surface is designed to support automation and the layout provides an ergonomic working environment. No one control is ever very far away from the operator.
The surface provides excellent visual feedback of channel status through its comprehensive use of embedded OLED displays and backlit knobs and buttons. Visualizing channel assignments to busses and I/O patching couldn’t be easier. Fader set buttons enable the user to map signals to faders in convenient groups. The Anthem’s optional channel assign panel features unique touch sensitive motorized rotary encoders. Each rotary pot has a tri-color LED display at its base. The LED is used to indicate if the control is Recording (Red), has been automated (Green) or is in Trim mode (Amber).

Anthem’s comprehensive automation system encompasses every parameter of every onboard function, including processing, routing and 3rd-party plug-ins.

The automation system is simple to navigate and operate. Motorized touch sensitive faders and knobs clearly show the current values of all parameters and allow instant direct access to control and modify on the fly.

Selecting which parameters to automate is made easy through a simple interactive selection process. A single parameter on a single feed may be selected to write or update by pressing the dedicated automation enable buttons positioned above the transport. Similarly, a selection of feeds or busses may be made with the selection keys and the required parameters enabled for that set. This approach makes complex control selections simple, guarding mix data and making automated mix modifications a breeze.

Anthem’s automation includes several methods of writing or updating automation data. The operator can punch in and out of automation and record manually using the IN and OUT keys, which can also be used to set IN and OUT points for automated drop-ins. Touch mode allows automation to be enabled on faders, knobs and buttons only as they are touched. All modes support adjustable Glide Out to smooth transitions between old and new automation data. New automation data may be written in absolute values or trimmed from the current levels by applying a relative trim offset.


Anthem Master Control Panel (MCP)
Anthem’s master control panel provides access to all transport functions, the automation system, solo and monitoring functions, talkback section, Anthem fader and meter management system, speaker selection, macros, project management, virtual studio runner, meter selection and editing functions. In addition the master control section can control the allocation of the master TFT display. A jog/shuttle wheel allows precise transport movement and a numeric keypad provides support to a comprehensive auto-locate system. Track and automation arming is accomplished from the main transport keys at the centre of the panel. A large centrally located LCD display is used to support all editing and project/file management functions. A transport macro system with play menu functions is also provided adjacent to the main transport keys. Anthem’s comprehensive automation enables matrix is also supported above the main transport keys.


Anthem TFT Display Panel and Touch Screen interface
Anthem’s TFT display panel is conveniently located above the Master Control Panel and is hinged to conveniently support the user’s required viewing angle. Using an intuitive touch screen interface all console patching functions including routing and management of physical I/Os are easily accomplished.

Graphical representations of the channel path and channel settings are also provided. Automatic zoom windows allow operators to interrogate EQ, Dynamics, Pan, Auxiliaries, Plug-ins and Input settings on a per channel basis. Housed adjacent to the TFT panel is a Joystick panner control and a set of quick keys to enable instant switching between commonly used applications on the display.


Full Featured System
Anthem delivers up to 192 channels routed to up to 64 mix bus elements. This pool of 64 bus elements are divided up and freely assigned between the eight main busses, up to 32 multi-track busses and 12 auxiliary sends, any of which can be user assigned from mono to 7.1. A 6-band EQ, including filtering and a two-stage dynamics processor is available on up to 144 channels simultaneously. The comprehensive busing system allows simultaneous generation of multiple surround formats and bus to bus mixing for multiple mix stem generation.

Physical I/Os are available in analogue, AES, AES SRC and MADI formats and a sophisticated internal patching system allows totally free routing of inputs, outputs and busses between external and internal destinations. The monitoring system is completely configurable with programmable fold-down and fold-up modes allowing instantaneous switching to up to nine speaker sets each of which can be configured for any desired bus format

Anthem In-Line Panel (ILP)
The purpose of Anthems In-Line Panel is to provide a dedicated set of controls for the channels Filters, Input settings, Panning and Plug-ins all of which are adjacent to the channels fader. Anthem’s In-Line panel (ILP) has 72 touch sensitive rotary encoders each with In/Out switches and an adjacent OLED display. Each channel strip can be independently assigned to control a channel’s input, EQ, Dynamics, AUX Sends, panning or Plug-ins. The nine buttons at the bottom of the panel enable the user to globally assign the panel’s selected function with a simple double click operation. The bottom two encoders may be allocated to the short fader and its pan control when operated as an In-Line console and a fader flip function is supported by the Soft key adjacent to the channel’s fader.

A “Fat Channel” mode allocates the entire ILP panel to control all of the available parameters for the “called” channel. This effectively re-deploys the entire panel as an assignable panel. Enable buttons are also provided to access the automation, and tri color LED’s are provided adjacent to all knobs and switches to indicate the automation status. In addition the operator may double tap a knob to fan out its controls to the adjacent left and right channels. In the case of the EQ a double tap of the Hi Mid frequency control would place its Q and Frequency controls on the horizontally adjacent knobs.

Anthem Fader Panel (DFP)
Each Anthem fader panel provides support for twelve motorized touch sensitive faders and a motorized rotary control for panning. Solo and mute buttons are positioned above the fader. An OLED display above the fader displays the name of the signal. Level and Pan position are also displayed. The Call button will send the channel to the central assign panel. The Soft button provides insertion of automation and fader flip when in In-line mix modes. The Auto button is used to punch in automation for the channel. LED indicators above the fader show channel bus assignment to Main, Subs and Multi-track busses. If the fader is used for a track feed an LED is also provided to indicate ARM status of the track. To the left of the fader, LEDs are provided to indicate automation modes such as Touch, Latch, Safe, Read, Write and Trim. Other LEDs indicate if the channel is a Track, Feed or Bus as well as Signal present. Insert, EQ and Dynamics, if in use, are also indicated.

Plug-ins
The optional plug-in manager provides access to a suite of over 240 DSP and VST plug-ins. These include high quality Reverbs, Delays, Flangers, Chorus, EQ and Dynamic filters. When inserted, the controls are mapped to faders and knobs on a user designated fader panel. The graphics for the currently loaded plug-in are automatically displayed on the main mix screen.

Equalizer
Each fully featured channel is provided with a six band equalizer. Anthem provides a dedicated control for each function. Bands one and six can be switched between shelving and low/high-pass. The other four bands are fully parametric including shelving response. The EQ section has its own level compensation control and each band can be independently switched in and out and enabled for automation.

Panning
Panning may be applied to individual mono feeds or to multi-format “Constellation” channels. A Divergence control affects the amount of energy shared from a single element to the available outputs. In the case of a Constellation channel two extra controls become available. The “Spread” control effects the width of the signal feeding the Pan control. The “Rotate” control literally rotates the entire sound field as if the listener was turning around on the spot. The sub-bass or boom channel is provided with an individual level control within the panner.

Auxiliary Sends
The 12 Auxiliary Sends on Anthem are accessed in two banks of rotary controls from the In-Line Panel. Dedicated buttons at the bottom of the panel access Aux sends 1-6 and 7-12 as required on a per channel basis. Each of the 12 available auxiliary busses may be defined in any multi-channel format from stereo up to 7.1. The rotary control for each send can control the send level or panning.

Dynamics
Two independent dynamics sections are provided. The first is a fully featured compressor with control over threshold, level, compression ratio, attack time, release time, hold time and gain make-up. The second dynamics section can be configured as a limiter, an expander or a gate. The limiter offers control over the threshold level, gain make-up, attack, release and hold times. The expander and gate have controls for threshold level, expansion ratio, reduction depth (range), attack, release and hold times.

Patching and Assignment
Electronic remote patching and routing tasks are achieved easily with the intuitive control surface touch screen interface. I/O patching is entirely flexible. Anthem systems incorporate both an analog and digital cross-point switching system. The physical studio configuration can thus be completely transformed by simple user initiation or by recalling a mixer state. Patching may be accomplished on either single inputs and channels or on multiple channels simultaneously.

Patching Inputs to Feeds
Input patching operations are performed by first selecting the destination feed and then selecting the input source. Anthem allocates separate selection keys on the central TFT for digital inputs, MADI Channels and analog inputs. An intuitive button illumination scheme provides instant interrogation of the current patch configuration:
Input splits may be achieved simply - Anthem allows physical inputs to be simultaneously connected to multiple destinations.

Patching Bus Elements to Feeds
Bus elements may be internally patched to either Tracks or Live Feeds. Once again the destination feed or feeds are selected first and then a bus is selected.

Patching Outputs
Bus outputs may be patched to physical outputs in the same efficient manner as input patching. The familiar illumination scheme is adopted, prompting the user to select from the available I/Os. Multi-channel busses may be patched to a group of outputs in a pre-defined order with a sequential maneuver on the touch screen interface. Busses may be patched to any number of physical outputs of any type for sending to multiple destinations.

Bus Format Selection
Bus format selection is achieved by simply selecting from one of the pre-defined standards: Mono, Stereo, LCR, Dolby Surround (LCRS), 5.0, 5.1, 6.1, or 7.1.

Automatic Bus Reduction
Automated multi-format production is made easy by the advanced surround mixing architecture. When a bus is defined in a lower surround format to the main bus (e.g. Main bus-7.1, Sub-bus-Dolby Surround), the system performs automatic down mixing to that bus based on the panner position in the Main bus. These reduced bus mixes are based on the parameter data for the Main bus but can also be trimmed independently for each mix. All parameters can be written to automation for all mixes. This flexibility allows the surround mix to be rapidly optimized for each delivery format within the same mix project.

Assignments
Assignments are achieved simply by selecting the destination bus then selecting the source feeds or sub-busses. Once again the familiar button illumination guides the user to select from available feeds or modify the existing routing. Source feeds may be toggled in or out of the current selection by pressing their dedicated keys. Multiple selections are easily achieved by simply holding the first in the group and pressing the last.
“Stem Assignment” allows the user to determine whether a given feed sends to all elements of the destination bus or to only a subset. Specific feeds may therefore be excluded from sending to particular bus destinations (e.g. the Centre element of a 5.1 mix bus) where appropriate.