ALLEN & HEATH EXTERNAL CONTROL

INTEGRATING A&H SYSTEMS IN TCP/IP

ENVIRONMENTS

With the shift from analogue to digital AV tech- brands. Open collectors or relays on the out-
nology and the integration of AV with building puts would drive an LED or external relay,
infrastructure, AV solutions are starting to look while contact closures would typically be
more and more like IT networks. At the same driven by a switch.
time, feature-rich AV systems and their net-
working nature have created a strong demand This simple technology still works well today
for simplified user control. where basic on/off logic applies. GPIO use is
widespread in integration with fire alarm sys-
Control systems must be flexible in their capac- tems, school bells, movable walls, on-air lights,
ity to handle all aspects of an installation (au- video projectors, music players, curtain rails
dio, lights, video, HVAC). They also must be and much more.
simple to install, configure, deploy and use, re-
gardless of the complexity or power of the un- More complex communication was the realm
derlying infrastructure. of popular protocols like RS-232 (point to
point) and RS485 (master + multiple receivers).
Both protocols are bidirectional and dictate
limits on cable type and length (15 metres / 50
feet for RS232, 12 metres / 40 feet @10Mbps
or 1.2km / 4000 feet @100kbps for RS485).
Due to their serial nature, the bandwidth is
also limited and the reliability often problem-
atic over long cable runs.

A control system is the main interface between end user

and the space around them

This white paper will summarise different ap-

proaches to AV control through the years and TIA-232-F (1997) updates the original 1960 Recom-
how Allen & Heath has responded to the mod- mended Standard 232
ern challenges of user control.
As AV systems increased in complexity and fea-
Control technologies, in 400 words tures, so did the control requirements in terms
of bandwidth and networkability. The obvious
Several decades ago, before the days of Ether- answer, and one which is now widely adopted,
net and TCP/IP, GPIO ports (General Purpose is TCP/IP over Ethernet. It is beyond the scope
Input / Output) were already in use as a simple of this document to list all advantages of an
way to interface equipment from different Ethernet platform for AV control, suffice to say
that control traffic can now happily coexist

ALLEN & HEATH LIMITED, KERNICK INDUSTRIAL ESTATE,

PENRYN, CORNWALL, TR10 9LU, UNITED KINGDOM.
www.allen-heath.com
with other traffic in converged networks, and / crosspoint levels, routing assignments, pre-
make use of standard Ethernet infrastructure amp gain, pad and 48V, channel name and col-
and topologies. our, and scene recall.
An ever-increasing number of audio and video Qu series mixers offer control of all of the
devices is designed to be networkable and of- above plus input source selection, insert
fer some degree of external control. Although in/out, channel processing, pan, remote shut-
standards and protocols such as AES70 are down and more.
emerging, more often than not the set of con-
trol messages is proprietary and vendor spe- SQ series mixers offer control of levels and
cific. It is therefore the job of the control sys- mutes, send levels and mutes, routing assign-
tem to make use of such messages and inter- ments and scene recalls. Get commands ena-
face such devices in a meaningful way. ble the broadcast of these parameter values.

Ethernet control can take different forms, from

dedicated control systems with a hardware Third-party control systems
 Works with: AHM-64, CDM / DM engines, SQ, Qu
component and touch panels by the likes of
AMX, Crestron and Extron, to iPad kiosks or The Allen & Heath TCP protocol is often utilised
modern BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices) ap- by integrators when programming third-party
proaches - tablet and smartphone adoption control systems.
means users can be given the ability to control
the AV system, lights or HVAC with their own For AMX, Extron and Crestron systems, drivers
mobile devices. BYOD solutions can minimise are available for download at www.allen-
the cost for hardware and the touch screen in- heath.com/thirdpartycontrol/ to ease the pro-
terface should be instantly familiar to most us- gramming and facilitate integration. Control el-
ers. So much for RS232. ements include levels and mutes for input and
output channels, send / crosspoint levels, and
scene / preset recall. An example programme
is provided with each driver and can be used as
Control of Allen & Heath systems over a a starting point by more advanced program-
network mers.
All Allen & Heath digital mixing systems are
controllable over an Ethernet network. A TCP MIDI over TCP
protocol spec document is available for each  Works with: AHM-64, CDM / DM engines, Avan-
product line at www.allen-heath.com and de- tis1, SQ, Qu
tails the string format, set of messages and TCP
port to be used. The message format in the Allen & Heath TCP
protocol is essentially based on hexadecimal
AHM-64 matrix processors offer control of in- MIDI strings. A driver for Windows and Mac OS
put, zone and control group levels, mutes, is available to expose such strings on a virtual
crosspoint levels and mutes, preset recall, MIDI port, enabling communication with any
track playback and source selector. Mute and MIDI enabled software. Typical applications in-
level values can be broadcast via a Get com- clude show control software such as Qlab trig-
mand. gering scenes / mutes / fader moves in the mix-
ing system, or automation of Waves Multirack
dLive DM/CDM audio engines and Avantis mix-
presets.
ers offer control of channel levels, mutes, send

1
Requires Avantis firmware V1.1 or higher

ALLEN & HEATH LIMITED, KERNICK INDUSTRIAL ESTATE,

PENRYN, CORNWALL, TR10 9LU, UNITED KINGDOM.
www.allen-heath.com
The MIDI Program Change, SysEx and NRPN
strings can be mapped directly to compatible
software. In addition, blocks of faders can be
dedicated to MIDI CC control and optionally
translated to popular HUI or Mackie Control
protocols for DAW applications. The Allen & Heath networkable, PoE enabled
GPIO interface
For direct connection to legacy devices over 5-
pin MIDI, a TCP to MIDI converter such as the The unit provides 8 opto-isolated inputs, 8 nor-
Bome BomeBox can be used. mally open (N/O) relay outputs and two 10V
lines, all on phoenix connectors. One of the
outputs can be configured to normally closed
Hardware controllers and GPIO (N/C) for failsafe applications. An optional
 Works with: AHM-64, CDM / DM engines, Avan- rackmount kit is available.
tis
Additionally, the AHM-64 matrix processor in-
When the control requirement doesn’t extend cludes integrated 2x2 GPIO on the rear panel
beyond audio, the Allen & Heath ecosystem for local connection to third party hardware.
can provide dedicated, tactile hardware con-
trollers. These are TCP/IP based and PoE ena- The AHM-64 GPIO offers 2 inputs switching to
bled devices that can interface directly with ground and 2 relay outputs in addition to a
the audio engine. +10V DC output. Output 1 can be wired as nor-
mally closed (N/C) or normally open (N/O)
The IP1 is a single gang 1-knob wall-plate for whilst output 2 is normally open (N/O).
simple level control or scene / source selection,
while the IP6 (6 rotaries, 12 programmable
keys, 6 displays) and IP8 (8 motorised faders,
16 programmable keys and 8 displays) can be
used on a desktop or wall mounted with a cus-
tom frame.
The AHM-64 includes integrated 2x2 GPIO

Qu-Control
 Works with: Qu series

Qu-Control is a customizable iOS app for iPod

Touch, iPhone and iPad. It provides an end user
interface for wireless mobile control of the Qu
digital mixers. Qu-Control offers simple config-
The IP1 wall-plate controller, available in US or EU stand-
uration of up to five screens with up to 15 con-
ard, black or white. trol widgets each, for applications including
background music source selection, master
Also in the range is a GPIO interface which zone level, scene recall, or microphone paging.
takes simple GPIO functionality to the present Password protection prevents unauthorized
day of IT networking. Fully networkable and access to controls, making it the ideal solution
PoE enabled, it can be deployed wherever re- for mobile wireless control of venues, confer-
quired in a building, with up to 8 units in a sin- ence rooms, hotel lobbies and any other in-
gle system, eliminating the need for long ana- stalled sound environment where the operator
logue cable runs. may not have experience with audio mixing.

ALLEN & HEATH LIMITED, KERNICK INDUSTRIAL ESTATE,

PENRYN, CORNWALL, TR10 9LU, UNITED KINGDOM.
www.allen-heath.com
 Any device running the Custom Control app
can log into the system with a given user, at
which point the correct user interface is in-
stantly downloaded and displayed. This allows
for both kiosk applications and BYOD use, since
the configuration is deployed on demand. Us-
ers can be password protected for added secu-
rity.

Custom Control app and editor

 Works with: AHM-64, CDM / DM engines, Avan-
tis2

Similar to Qu-Control in concept, the Custom

Control app for AHM-64, dLive DM/CDM audio
engines and Avantis mixers also offers cus-
tomisable user interfaces, but with an ex- The Custom Control app is available for free on
panded feature set and cross-platform com- iOS, Android, Windows and Mac operating sys-
patibility. tems.

Integrators can design multiple user interfaces Conclusion

for the system, tailored to different user levels As we have seen, seamless integration of con-
and/or device types. For example, the bar- trol and AV systems is now expected and a
tender is presented with a simple phone inter- standard feature of new installations. Allen &
face, while the AV operator has access to un- Heath tackles this challenge from multiple an-
cluttered levels and routing on a tablet, but gles, providing integrators with an array of op-
more comprehensive control on a laptop. tions, from dedicated hardware controllers to
The design of the user interface is via the Cus- innovative BYOD solutions or simplified inte-
tom Control editor for Windows and Mac OS. gration with industry leading third-party sys-
Access to all levels, mutes, sends as well as pre- tems.
set recall, source selection, metering are pro-
vided, and tabs can be configured for access to
multiple control pages or zones. Once com-
plete, the configuration is uploaded to the au-
dio engine, ready for deployment.

2
Requires Avantis firmware V1.1 or higher

ALLEN & HEATH LIMITED, KERNICK INDUSTRIAL ESTATE,

PENRYN, CORNWALL, TR10 9LU, UNITED KINGDOM.
www.allen-heath.com
 ALLEN & HEATH EXTERNAL CONTROL
INTEGRATING A&H SYSTEMS IN TCP/IP
ENVIRONMENTS

For further information, application guides, and recommended products please visit
https://www.allen-heath.com/installation/

Don't hesitate to contact our Install team at installedsolutions@allen-heath.com if you need

assistance on which products to specify or if you have questions about an application.

ALLEN & HEATH LIMITED, KERNICK INDUSTRIAL ESTATE,

PENRYN, CORNWALL, TR10 9LU, UNITED KINGDOM.
www.allen-heath.com