QSC, Digital Harmony Announce Licensing Agreement

QSC Audio Products, Inc. and Digital Harmony Technologies Inc. announced today a licensing agreement that gives QSC access to Digital Harmony's IEEE-1394-based technology for the development of pro audio systems products.

By partnering with QSC, whose Ethernet-based control and signal transport systems have made significant inroads in the sound contracting and live sound industries, Digital Harmony continues to expand the adoption of its technology from consumer products to commercial and residential systems applications.

Under the terms of the agreement, QSC licensed the rights to use Digital Harmony's Interface for Video and Audio (DHIVA) embedded 1394 interface, software drivers, and professional production assistant (PPA) software modules. In addition, built in to every DHIVA-powered audio device is an auto-upgrading feature for system firmware enhancements. The DHIVA product portfolio currently includes discrete interface cards and standards-based firmware. In 2001, cost-reduced DHIVA interfaces will be released, taking advantage of new node controller integrated circuits.

"Digital Harmony is the leading developer of 1394-based technology in consumer electronics products," said QSC CEO Barry Andrews. "This partnership is an indication of our continuing commitment to explore all protocols that utilize open standards and off-the-shelf technologies."

"Digital Harmony is proud to be working with QSC, one of the world's top sound system manufacturers," said Greg Bartlett, president of Digital Harmony Technologies. "This technology partnership will ultimately provide QSC customers some relief from the complexity of sound system design. Digital Harmony continues to gain momentum in the professional audio market, working now with the top three professional audio amplifier manufacturers in the world."

The IEEE-1394 standard is one of several protocols QSC is exploring in the development of non-proprietary network control and transport systems. QSC was the first manufacturer to bring Peak Audio's CobraNet technology to the market with RAVE (Routing Audio Via Ethernet), a digital signal transport system capable of transmitting up to 64 channels of uncompressed 20-bit, 48 kHz digital audio over long distances. QSControl, a flexible, computer-controlled audio networking system, is based on off-the-shelf Ethernet technology.

A Digital Harmony-certified 1394 system can accommodate up to 1,023 separate buses of up to 63 nodes each, allowing more than 64,000 devices on one bus. Each node can include up to 256 terabytes of addressable space and be located 100m from other nodes, using plastic optical fiber (POF) or CAT5. Digital Harmony's DHIVA implementation of IEEE-1394 can carry more than 275 channels of uncompressed 24-bit, 48kHz digital audio at 400Mbit/s.