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Printing
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Other Technologies and Products
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Note that in the process of redesigning the AMPx-S8 Series monitors,
we have rearranged the rear panels. Refer to Appendix A on page 67
for remapping information.
This chapter describes the front panel controls and the rear panel
connectors in detail. It also describes how to use the front panel user
interface for data display and system configuration. Configuration
procedures are covered in detail in Chapter 3 on page 23.
Unpack the AMPx-S8 Series monitor and inspect for any apparent physical
damage that may have occurred in transit. If the unit has been damaged,
contact Wohler customer support for assistance. (Wohler’s contact
information is on page ii of this document.)
In addition to the monitor, the package should contain:
•A CDROM containing the product’s user guide,
•A power cord, and
•A warranty card
Note:
We recommend you retain the shipping carton for future
use.
Safety
Important Safety Instructions
1.Read, keep, and follow all of these instructions; heed all warnings.
2.Do not use this equipment near water, rain or moisture.
3.Use only a dry cloth to clean the equipment.
4.Do not block any ventilation openings. Install only in accordance
with the instructions in Installation Recommendations on page 4.
5.Do not install near any heat source such as a radiator, heat register,
amplifier, or stove.
6.Do not attempt to plug the unit into a two-blade outlet (with only
By design, these monitors will only plug into a three-prong outlet for
your safety. If the plug does not fit into your outlet, contact an
electrician to replace the obsolete outlet.
Chapter 1Installation
FCC Compliance
7.Protect the power cord from being walked on or pinched,
particularly at plug’s source on the equipment and at the socket.
8.Use only the attachments/accessories specified by the
manufacturer.
9.Unplug the equipment during lightning storms or when unused
for long periods of time.
10.Use of a cart is neither recommended nor approved by Wohler.
11.Refer all servicing to qualified service personnel. Servicing will be
required under all of the following conditions:
•The equipment has been damaged in any way, such as when
the power-supply cord or plug is damaged.
•Objects have fallen onto the equipment; or the equipment has
been exposed to rain or moisture, or liquid has been spilled
onto the equipment.
•The equipment does not operate normally.
•The equipment has been dropped.
Safety Symbols
WARNING:
The symbol to the left warns of electric shock hazard inside the unit.
Disconnect the power cord before removing access panels when
installing upgrades. Only qualified service personnel are to operate the
equipment with covers removed, and are to exercise caution to avoid
personal injury.
FCC Compliance
This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for
a Class A digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC Rules. These
limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against harmful
interference when the equipment is operated in a commercial
environment. This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio
frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the
instruction manual, may cause harmful interference to radio
communications. Operation of this equipment in a residential area is
likely to cause harmful interference in which case the user will be
required to correct the interference at his own expense.
Installation Recommendations
Mounting
The unit is designed to install into a standard 19" rack mounted at ear
level for best high frequency response and visual observation of the
monitor screen. Please adhere to the following clearances:
ClearanceSurface
24” Front
3” Rear
2” Sides
1.75” Top and Bottom (if either radiates heat)
0” Top and Bottom (if no heat)
Heat Dissipation
The ambient temperature inside the mounting enclosure should not
exceed 40° Celsius (104° Fahrenheit). Adjacent devices can be rack
mounted (or stacked) in proximity to the unit if this temperature is not
exceeded. Otherwise, allow a 1RU (1.75”/44.45mm) space above and
below the unit for air circulation.
Important:
To reduce noise, the monitor does not have any fans. As a result, the
heat generated by the class D power amplifiers, power supplies, and
other components is vented by slots in the side of the unit. Therefore,
as a safety precaution, you must allow proper ventilation on both sides
of the unit.
Sympathetic Vibration
Sympathetic vibration from other equipment (cables, etc.,) in the rack
may be serious enough to interfere with the unit’s sound quality. The
use of thin card stock and/or felt or foam weather-stripping type
materials between adjacent vibrating surfaces, or tying up loose cables,
etc., may be required to stop vibrations external to the unit.
Mechanical Bracing
Even though the 2U models are fairly heavy, the chassis is securely
attached to the front panel. In addition, the chassis has mounting tabs
through which you attach it to the rack rail. This feature will reduce or
eliminate rear bracing requirements in many mobile/portable
applications. The weight of internal components is distributed fairly
evenly around the unit.
Connections and Cable Recommendations
We recommend that you limit the length of the cables that you use for
feeding HD-SDI signals sources to the HD-SDI inputs of the AMPx-E8
Series units and that you use a Belden 1694A cable (or equivalent).
Note:
The connections of all DB-25 connectors are compatible with
Tascam DB-25 to XLR cable assemblies. Consult the factory
for availability. All rear panel connectors are female except
for the XLR connectors.
Table 1–1Cable Length Limit Recommendations
Signal Type
SD300 984
HD150 492
3G2275
Electrical Interference
Be careful to apply proper input termination settings and avoid
mismatched cable types and other similar causes of undesired
reflections in digital signal systems. If severe enough, such reflections
can result in corruption of the digital data stream. As with any audio
equipment, maximum immunity from electrical interference requires
the use of shielded cable; however, satisfactory results can sometimes
be obtained without it. The internal circuitry ground is connected to the
chassis.
The unit comes with a standard 24VDC/3.0 A internal power supply
and connects an A/C mains power source (65W, 100 to 240 VAC, 50/
60Hz) through the IEC connector provided on the rear panel of the unit.
When the mains plug or appliance coupler is used as the disconnect
device, the disconnect device should remain operable.
Installation
Intial Setup
Power Up
1.Carefully install the monitor into a standard 19”-rack.
2.Connect all signal cables to and from associated equipment.
3.Connect the power cord from the monitor to A/C mains.
The AMPx-S8 Series monitors are factory-configured so that all settings
are non-volatile. When power to the unit is cycled (off/on), the unit will
restore itself so that each setting such as channel selection(s), input
type, and so on, are automatically restored to the unit’s previous
factory setting. However, you can custom configure the monitor to
automatically restore your configuration settings on power up. Refer to
Refer to the images in Figure 2–1 and Figure 2–2 on the next page.
In addition, on the AMP1s, the top LED segment of each bar graph
serves as the speaker assign LED for the respective channel.
•Speakers: The AMP2s features two mid-range speakers (left and
right) and one woofer speaker. The AMP1s have two woofers. All
models of the AMPx-S8 Series contain high performance
transducers driven by three power amplifiers. Two amplifier/
driver combinations handle midrange and high frequency
information in the left and right (stereo) speaker channels, while the
third channel reproduces and sums the left and right channel
information below the crossover point in the woofer (bass) speaker.
Note that the woofer channel is not a dedicated LFE (sub-woofer) or
center channel.
•Level Meters (1 through 8): Source channels 1 through 8 are
displayed through eight audio level meters, four on the left side;
four on the right side. These level meters, high-resolution LED bar
graph displays and feature a dynamic range of 66 dB with PPM dot
over VU bar ballistic characteristics.
•Headphones (1/4” Jack): Select the headphone audio sources as
you would for the internal speakers. When you plug in headphones
the speakers will mute.
•Volume (Rotary Knob): This control adjusts the loudness of the
audio reproduced by the internal speaker channels or connected
headphones.
•Balance (Rotary Knob): This control adjusts the volume balance
between the left and right speaker channels. Note that this control
attenuates the signal from the source, so that the left and right bass
frequencies (summed together and reproduced in the woofer
channel) will respond to balance adjustments in tandem with the
left and right speaker channels.
Top segment of
each level meter
acts as a speaker
assign indicator.
Speakers
Speaker Assign/ Presets
Meters/Speaker Assign LEDs
Speaker Assign
Headphones
Meters/Speaker AssignLEDs
Volume
LCD Screen
Balance
Brightness (R)
Pairs/Left Down
Left/Single/UpRight Down/Enter
Right/Escape
Brightness (L)
Mute
Phase/Function
Group/Setup
Input/Downmix
Chapter 2 System Overview
Front Panel Controls
•Level Meter Brightness (Potentiometers, Left and Right): Use a
small slot screwdriver to adjust the brightness of the bar graph
meters using these two recessed trim pot controls. The left control
adjusts the brightness of the left four LED bar graphs and the right
control adjusts the brightness of the right four bar graphs.
Clockwise rotation increases the brightness.
•Speaker Assign LEDs (1 through 8, Left and Right): These LEDs
•Speaker Assign/Preset Buttons (Speaker Assign, 1 through 8;
LCD Screen
The LCD screen displays various parameters and settings, and is also
used to configure/program the monitor. The features of the LCD
screen (shown in Figure 2–3 through ) include:
Note:
The AMP1s only have one brightness control.
indicate the speaker mix of selected channels. The speaker assign
LEDs are located above each of the 53-segment bar graphs.
Note:
In the AMP1s, the speaker assign LEDs are the top
segment of the meters.
Preset Buttons, 1 through 4): Pressing any of these buttons selects
the channels to be summed into either or both speaker channels, or
to create and recall presets when used in conjunction with the
FN
button. Refer to Chapter 4 on page 37 for more information about
presets.
10
•Mix Status: Displayed on the top right and top left corners of the
LCD screen, the
Mix Status indicates how the current input signal
is mixed to the internal speakers.
•Source Status: Displayed in the top center of the LCD screen, the
Source Status indicates the current signal type and current input
currently audible in the internal speakers. If a preset has been
recalled, this area displays the name of the preset until a monitoring
or input change is made.
•SDI Groups: Displayed in the bottom left and bottom right corners
of the LCD screen, these groups indicate the SDI channels that are
currently mixed to the internal speakers.
•Input Lock Status (Digital Inputs Only): Displayed in the center of
bottom line, the
Input Lock Status shows the lock status of the
selected digital input(s). If any input channel pairs are not locked,
then they will display as short dashes. Each dash (-) indicates a
position for displaying the channel pairs available for monitoring
from left to right: 1/2, 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8. The unit updates the Input
Lock Status
whenever it detects a signal change. See Figure 2–3
and below for an example.
Figure 2–3Status Display Example: Standard Input
Source - HD-SDI Input 1
User Interface
Multi-Mode Color Codes
Most of the user interface buttons are multi-functional. They affect the
unit differently depending on whether they are used alone or in
combination with another button. The monitor’s front panels have
color-coded legends to help identify the different functions of each
button:
•White indicates normal operation.
Table 2–1White Control Functionality
ButtonSetup ModeSingle-Channel ModePair Mode
Attaches the left
Left Up
Left Down
Selects the next option
for any given menu.
Selects the previous
option for any given
menu.
speaker to the next
higher-numbered
channel.
Attaches the left
speaker to the next
lower-numbered
channel.
•Analog In (DB-25-F): This connector accepts balanced, low
impedance, line level analog signals. See Figure 2–4 below for pinout information.
Figure 2–4Analog Input Connector Pin-Out
Chapter 2System Overview
Rear Panel Connectors
Input Connectors
•Power: Attach a standard IEC-320 power cord between this
connector and AC mains power.
•AES/PCM In (1 through 4, BNC-F): These connectors accept
unbalanced (75 ) PCM (AES/EBU) formatted signals. These inputs
appear as AES1 in the LCD screen.
If you are not connecting downstream equipment, then you should
terminate the selected input connector. Otherwise, unterminate
them.
•AES/PCM In (and Loop Out) (DB-25-F): This connector accepts
balanced (110 ) AES signals. Inputs are internally connected to the
loop-through outputs. These inputs are referred to as AES2 in the
LCD screen. If you are connecting downstream equipment to the
AES loop-through outputs of this connector, then you should
unterminate this connector. If you are not connecting downstream
equipment, then you should terminate them. Refer to Terminating/
Unterminating Inputs on page 35 for details.
Note:
The pin-out for this connector is compatible with
Tascam DB-25 to XLR cable assemblies. Contact your
Wohler sales representative for availability. (Wohler’s
contact information is on page ii of this document.)