Vorsis AirAura Specifications

Digital Spectral Processor Quick Start Guide and Short Form Manual First Printing – May 2010 600 Industrial Drive, New Bern, North Caroli

The Vorsis Vision The Vorsis Audio Processing division of Wheatstone was created in 2005, and for a single purpose — to “competently design new audi

General Information Introduction The Vorsis AirAura is designed to exceed the expectations of customers who want more loudness on the radio dial wit

Processing Structure Overview The AirAura digital audio processor is designed to separately process the audio for both conventional analog FM and dig

Installation We know that you’re probably in a hurry to get on the air with your new AirAura. If you have little technical expertise with audio proces

Rack Mounting AirAura is designed to be mounted into an industry standard 19” equipment rack and requires three rack units (5.25 inches / 13.335cm) o

AirAura Installation Tips: • Grounding: Establish a low impedance common ground in your facility and try to route all grounds to that point. AirAura

The higher capacitance of generic analog cables slows down the rise time of the digital data signals which can impair the ability of the AES3 receiver

else, this is at least a convenient setup. When a modern composite STL is used it can be nearly as transparent audio-wise as a digital STL. Analog Ph

Also, pre-emphasis should always be applied by the audio processing, not the exciter. Modern FM audio processors have special and quite complicated bu

Energizing Assuming AirAura is correctly rack mounted you may now energize it, noting that, for long-term reliability reasons there is no power switc

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Audio Inputs Input audio can be applied to either the analog left/right inputs or to the AES3 digital input as appropriate. The AES3 input accepts sa

Headphones A high-power, overload protected headphone output is available on the front panel for local monitoring. The headphone audio source can be

User Presets AirAura comes equipped with several dozen factory presets and can hold a total of 80 presets in its onboard memory. You can design and s

- The number of installed factory presets is subject to change and varies with software version but is typically several dozen. - User presets, other

Basic Setup Basic setup and adjustment can be accomplished using the front panel GUI Lite and its tabbed menu structure. There are seven tabbed optio

If using the Analog L/R outputs pre-emphasized, navigate to the Output screen and select the checkbox for Analog L/R, either flat or de-emphasized not

Next click on the Presets tab to reveal the list of Factory supplied presets. The “A Quick Start” preset is the Factory default and will be active

Modifying the Sound of Factory Presets using the Front Panel GUI Selecting the “Sound” tab will reveal the screen containing controls by which the so

Note that increasing Density will not cause the final clipper to be overdriven because those controls are also ganged to the Density control to ensur

- HD – Density The Density control adjusts how much short-term limiting the audio is allowed to undergo. Higher settings will make the audio

Subject Page Number Welcome to AirAura 4 The Vorsis Company Vision 5 General Information - Introduction 6 Processing Structure

applied to the audio. The effect of this is to add sparkle and sheen to the audio without adding undesired stridency. Loudness Once the previous con

Preset Scheduler / Events Both long and short-term preset changing schedules are available in AirAura. Short term schedules are used for the normal

Setting up AirAura and GUI Lite to ‘talk’ Using a Wired Network/LAN Connection AirAura and the PC running the AirAura GUI program (Lite or Pro) can b

Hardware IP Address – This is the address of AirAura’s DSP farm and is the address that the remote GUI on a host computer will use to connect to AirAu

In the IP address field below the name enter the “HARDWARE” IP address that you just gave the unit in prior steps and then click OK. This name will ap

Wireless Connection Many users will want to make adjustments to AirAura while listening to it in a remote location such as out in a car in the station

About DHCP and AirAura AirAura does not utilize or support DHCP — Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (or automatically assigned network addressing) —

INPUT MENU This is the first tab on the top far left of the GUI. (Note: the screen that is currently being displayed is indicated by a red background

Analog Gain The Analog audio input gain can be adjusted by clicking on the knob and dragging the mouse or touchpad to the right or left. The Analog Ga

The Analog Output Type box needs special attention! Unlike other audio processors AirAura’s balanced analog outputs can also carry balanced composite

Basic Setup 19 Rack Mounting 19 AC Power 19 Selecting the Active Audio Input 19 Adjusting Input Levels 19 Making Ou

Soft Clipper – the soft clipper can add fullness and warmth to the sound without adding harsh distortion. When the soft clipper is in use it will be n

PRESETS MENU The presets tab opens a screen where presets may be selected for on air, saved to the processor, or managed through AirAura’s comprehensi

Preset Library Functions Clicking on the Library button opens up the classic Vorsis preset library management feature. When this window is open both t

Headphone Source The headphones may selectively listen to a number of points inside the signal processing chain: • Input: Listens to the output of

Status Indicators There are three status indicators: Temp, Analog, and AES. Temp This indicator is green when the GUI is online to AirAura and the in

Setting System Time Allows the system time of AirAura’s onboard computer to be set or changed. AirAura’s system time can be synchronized to external t

Next in the drop down list is Presets. When selected, the Presets item opens up a list of three items: Take: Opens the Take Preset dialog to allow th

A detailed explanation of each analysis display follows. Note that the Analysis menu has a selection for viewing either the FM or HD signals. FFT –

3-D Plot – A 3-D plot of the audio shows the last ten seconds of audio and what the audio levels were at each frequency in the audio spectrum during t

Appendix A Default Factory Wired Ethernet Configuration - Modifying the Settings - AirAura requires two IP addresses – one serves the main DSP board

About DHCP and AirAura 31 AirAura Ports and Network Protocols 31 If UDP Doesn’t Work 31 Using GUI Lite 31 Input Menu 32

Within that dialog, select the Hardware/Network Settings option and the following dialog will appear. Next, using the backspace button of the numeri

Appendix B Default Factory Wireless Ethernet Configuration - Modifying the Settings – Introduction AirAura utilizes an industrial grade off-the-shel

Factory Default Configuration The following are the Vorsis factory defaults for the most important parameters of the module’s basic configuration. W

In most circumstances it is not necessary to reconfigure the wireless side address (the 192.168.2.100 address that the remote GUI uses to connect via

Once valid credentials are entered and the OK button is pressed, a module status page should appear. In the selection bar above the words “Module Sta

If the IP addresses of the AirAura are modified to be compatible with the local network and that IP address scheme is different from our factory defau

Appendix C General Specifications System Headroom: >20dB Nominal Operating Level: -20dBFS Analog Line Input Type: Electronic Dif

Stereo Enhancement: Post Multiband AGC – 0 to +6db. Spectral EQ available on difference channel. Multiband FM Limiter: 31-bands, proprietar

HD Digital Output: AES 3-pin XLR (digital) Phase: Left and Right channels may be phase-reversed. Channel Swap: Left and Right Channels may be

TX -1/TX-2 Output Level: -79.95dB to +6.0dB, 0.05dB steps, or OFF Composite Multiplex Outputs: Unbalanced, floating over ground. D/A Converter

System Menu 37 System Settings Change with Preset Takes 37 Metering Data over TCP/IP 37 Headphone Source 38 Input 38

Appendix D Wireless Module Approvals and Miscellaneous Data AirAura’s 802.11/a/g wireless interface is a high quality, off-the-shelf product manufa

Typical Usable Wireless Range The following table illustrates the typical data rates, performance and range of the wireless module that can be expecte

Transmitter Power Transmit power is automatically managed by the device for best range and minimum power consumption. The maximum transmit power avail

Appendix E AirAura GPIO Interface AirAura is equipped two GPIO (General Purpose Input/Output) control interfaces; an eight input optoisolated inte

Use the following table to determine if an external resistance is required and if so, what value it should be. Note that a one-half watt resistor is s

GPO – General Purpose Output Note: In Version 0.2.0 software (current as of May 2010) the GPO functions are disabled. An upcoming software release wi

Analysis Menu 41 FFT Introduction 41 O-scope Introduction 41 E vs. F Introduction 41 3-D Plot Introduction 41 SDR Introdu

Appendix A Default Wired Ethernet Configuration / Changing the Configuration Appendix B Default Wireless Ethernet Configuration / Changing the Con

- Welcome to AirAura - The Audio Processing ‘Game Changer’ In the fall of 2007 we set an aggressive goal to design a new FM peak clipper. Our goal w