Sound Devices' 970 Nominated For NAMM Tec Award

Sound Devices' 970, the company's first dedicated rack-mounted audio recorder, has been nominated for the 30th Annual NAMM TEC Awards in the category of Outstanding Technical Achievement, Recording Devices.

A half-rack, 2U audio recording device, the Sound Devices 970 facilitates any application requiring high-track-count audio recording, including live musical productions, concert recordings and drama. The incorporation of FileSafe means audio files can be recovered if, during recording, drives are unintentionally removed or power is lost.

The 970 records 64 channels of monophonic or polyphonic 24-bit WAV files from any of its 144 available inputs. These inputs include 64 channels of Ethernet-based Dante, 64 channels of optical or coaxial MADI, eight channels of line-level analog and eight channels of AES digital. Any input can be assigned to any track. In addition, 32-track recording at 96 kHz is supported. The 970 records to any of four attached drives, which include two front-panel drive bays and two rear-panel e-SATA connected drives. Material can be recorded to multiple drives simultaneously or sequentially.

The 970 can also operate as a master clock, as well as slaving or being jammed to any other time-code source. All common production time-code rates and modes are supported. The 970 also supports word-clock synchronisation from an external word clock, video sync, MADI or AES. To simplify the connection of multiple digital inputs, SRCs are available for all MADI, Dante or AES inputs.

The Sound Devices 970 features an embedded Web-based control panel for machine transport and setup control over Ethernet-based networks, as well as file transfer over the data network with SMB. File metadata editing of scene name, take name, notes, track names and reel folders can be performed during, before and after recording across all drives. In addition to RS-422 and GPIO control, the unit also operates as a bridging interface between analog, AES digital, MADI and Dante connectivity.

The solution features the company's PowerSafe technology, featuring a built-in 10-second power reserve. In the event of power loss, the unit continues to operate for up to 10 seconds, then stops any file operation and shuts down. This ensures that a complete power loss has no effect on the recording. 970 also features FileSafe, which automatically detects and repairs corrupted file headers when drives are mounted. Should this occur when a drive is inadvertently removed during recording, the user can simply reinsert the drive and FileSafe will automatically repair the files.

"We are honoured that the 970 has been nominated for the prestigious TEC Award," says Paul Isaacs, VP Marketing and Product Design, Sound Devices. "It's great to receive such recognition from the professional audio industry for our first dedicated rack-mounted audio recorder. For audio professionals requiring a significant number of audio channels, the 970 is an incredibly powerful and flexible tool, backed by Sound Devices' reputation for high-quality audio and reliability."

The awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, January 24, during the 2015 NAMM Show, one of the world's largest global music industry trade shows, held annually in Anaheim, CA.

www.sounddevices.com

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(IT/JP)