InfoComm 2016 was the setting for a big announcement - the next generation of ClearOne's flagship Pro Audio DSP product family, CONVERGE® Pro. The product name was already familiar across the AV industry, and it was important to retain this well-known name across the new group of SKUs. CONVERGE Pro had become synonymous with the term "Audio DSP mixer" for most AV practitioners. CONVERGE Pro 2 was now on the scene, with many new features and options, and the importance of naming conventions came to the forefront, to avoid confusion and make the transition as smooth as possible.
The new CONVERGE Pro 2 family includes an extensive list of additions to its powerful new architecture, including:
- New AEC algorithm, new NC algorithm,
- Acoustic Intelligence with faster convergence,
- Distributed Echo Cancellation on every mic input,
- Built-in feedback elimination advanced microphone gating,
- 2 VoIP lines plus additional 3 more lines through licensing,
- Built-in USB for web/UC conferencing applications,
- Built-in Telco or VoIP, built-in Dante for audio networking,
- New expansion bus (C-link) for connecting more our DSP units together for scalable system,
- New peripheral bus (P-link) for native integration with our new & 2nd generation Beamforming Microphone Array 2 and new DIALOG 20 2 channel Wireless Mics
- New CONSOLE software with FlowView for visualized audio signal flow along with traditional MatrixView
The list goes on and on, as this product redefines Pro Audio again!
To accommodate various scenarios and end-user expectations, and to provide more flexibility for integrators in choosing the proper SKUs, ClearOne created multiple SKUs for CONVERGE Pro 2 with various combinations of features and physical interfaces.
The trick was in naming the multiple versions to make them easy to identify.
The solution was a simple rule of thumb so that end-customers, consultants, distributors, integrators, resellers, sales staff – everyone could easily identify and remember each SKU’s features/interfaces by the model name.
The main features or interfaces that contribute for forming the model name of the CONVERGE Pro 2 SKUs are:
1) Number of Inputs (12 or 4)
2) Number of Outputs (8 or 0)
3) Telco (T) / VoIP (V)
4) Dante (D)
5) Sound Reinforcement (SR)
These points are very important when specifying and choosing DSP products for conferencing and reinforcement applications, projects are designed by using one or multiple sets of these features. So, that became the system for the model names.
All the SKUs have commin interfaces, with built-in USB audio interface, RS232, GPIO, Ethernet, C-link and P-link ports, USB for Connecting to PC to run software. But the differences in features listed above are now inherent in the model names themselves:
1) 128 - Model name represents 12 inputs + 8 outputs
2) 128D - Model name represents 12 inputs + 8 outputs + Dante
3) 128T - Model name represents 12 inputs + 8 outputs + Telco
4) 128TD - Model name represents 12 inputs + 8 outputs + Telco + Dante
5) 128V - Model name represents 12 inputs + 8 outputs + VoIP
6) 128VD - Model name represents 12 inputs + 8 outputs + VoIP + Dante
7) 120 - Model name represents 12 inputs + 0 output
8) 48T - Model name represents 4 inputs + 8 outputs + Telco
9) 128SR - Model name represents 12 inputs + 8 outputs + No-AEC
10) 128SRD - Model name represents 12 inputs + 8 outputs + No-AEC + Dante
We hope this system will make it easier to specify the right hardware for the right project and the combination of DSP features required!
If you have any questions, contact us today and we'll be happy to help.
