Riedel Unveils Powerful Expansion To Artist Intercom Ecosystem

Riedel has unveiled a new powerful expansion to its Artist intercom ecosystem, featuring higher port densities and full SMPTE 2110-30/31 (AES67) compliance.

Launched at NAB 2019 in Las Vegas, the new Artist-1024 is the evolutionary step in the continuous development of Riedel's popular ecosystem.

The Artist-1024 node boasts 1024 non-blocking ports in just 2 RU, significantly reducing rack space requirements. This latest addition to the Artist ecosystem introduces a range of technical innovations entered on software-definable Universal Interface Cards (UIC). This entirely new type of interface card combines networking, mixing, and management, and can be configured to act as an AES67 or MADI subscriber card, or as an Artist fiber/router/processor card. Changing the connectivity type is as easy as reconfiguring the UIC with the click of a button in the Director configuration software.

The frame provides ten bays for UICs, with two being reserved solely for routing and networking UICs. The remaining eight bays can be equipped with UICs of various configurations to provide subscriber connectivity. The integral mixer on each subscriber card can be scaled from 8 to 128 ports per card and can access all 1,024 ports of the Artist backbone. In addition, four expansion slots are available for various GPIO or synchronisation applications.

Artist-1024 also introduces a new customer-friendly, flexible licensing scheme with frame-level licensing instead of connectivity-type licensing. Each node starts with a Virtual Artist Matrix (VAM) license, which includes a defined number of ports (16 to 1,024) that can be freely distributed across the node's subscriber cards. Besides these node-locked licenses, there are also flexible licenses that allow for a fast reconfiguration of the system by simply moving capacities between nodes.

Riedel's newest Artist node has been designed with redundancy at its core. By supporting multiple redundancy schemes, including N+1, NIC, and SMPTE 2022-7, it can provide an unprecedented degree of robustness and reliability. All control logic and data links within the frame are redundant, and additional security is provided by two load-sharing PSUs and a fan module with redundant fan units. The sum of these measures equals the most comprehensive comms safety net available on the market.

"System compatibility and the sustainability of client investments are of the utmost importance to us," said Thomas Riedel, President and CEO of Riedel Communications. "The Artist-1024 node will suit new clients looking to have a comprehensive and future-ready system today as well as those clients who have supported us for years and are now ready to take the step to IP infrastructures."