Pick Hit Award Chooses Sonarae

Out of the hundreds of new products introduced at NAB2008 in Las Vegas last month just 40 were selected by a panel of industry professionals for the Broadcast Engineering Pick Hit Award.
It has just been revealed that the new audio monitor system for non-linear edit suites from Graham-Patten, Sonarae, is in that select group.
Sonarae has up to eight AES/EBU pairs of inputs with complete input selection capabilities, one can select from single channels or accumulate channels into a stereo or mono mix-down format, while maintaining the level at the output at a constant value, or select individual stereo channels for easy access to multi-language audio tracks.
Operators can listen to individual left or right audio channels at the output or select various channel combinations; and choose 5.1, 6.1, and 7.1 surround sound stereo mix down along with set-up, learn, and clear functions to store custom stereo mix-down formats.
Len Dole, President of Graham-Patten parent company, the ISIS Group, was excited at the reception Sonarae received: "I believed in this product from the start. It was so clear to me that the industry wanted and needed it, and I'm gratified at the recognition."
Dole went on to connect Sonarae to an earlier ISIS product: "Several years ago we had to discontinue our analog audio selector, a popular product called FRED.
"Sonarae could be described as FRED for the digital age, and I'm happy we're able to offer it."
Sonarae is also gaining attention elsewhere. According to Bill Admans, Market Segment Director for Post Production Facilities & Services at Avid Technology: "Sonarae is perfectly designed to integrate into an Avid editorial suite and provide all of the audio monitoring scenarios you will ever need.
"It is ideally suited to post production facilities, rental companies and independent editing suites.
"Sonarae is an extremely affordable audio monitoring solution that comes from Graham Patten / ISIS Group, who are known for some of the best quality audio mixers in the editing business."
The Broadcast Engineering Pick Hit Awards are the longest-running and most prestigious technical awards in the industry. With a 24-year history, (the first Pick Hit Awards were conferred at NAB in 1984), it has become one of the most coveted technology award at NAB.
The judges are readers of Broadcast Engineering World Edition magazine and working professionals in the broadcast, post and network, and satellite industries. for products that promise to positively impact the intended user's everyday work or represent a substantial improvement over previous technology.
(BMcC)