QSC RAVE 160 User manual

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RAVE
USER MANUAL
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▼ RAVE 80 Digital Audio Router (8 AES3 outputs)
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▼ RAVE 88 Digital Audio Router (4 AES3 inputs + 4 AES3 outputs)
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▼ RAVE 160 Digital Audio Router (16 analog audio outputs)
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▼ RAVE 161 Digital Audio Router (16 analog audio inputs)
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▼ RAVE 188 Digital Audio Router (8 analog audio ins + 8 analog audio outs)
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Rev. A
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1
TableofContents
RAVE Digital Audio Router User Manual
Warning Notices................................................................................................................................................ 2
I. Introduction ................................................................................................................................................ 3
Glossary..........................................................................................................................................................4
How it works ..................................................................................................................................................5
II. Network Design......................................................................................................................................... 6
Network topology examples ......................................................................................................................... 7
Longer distance through fiber.......................................................................................................................8
Network limitations..................................................................................................................................... 10
III. Installation ...............................................................................................................................................12
Pre-Installation preparation: analog signal levels (RAVE 160, 161, and 188 only) .................................. 12
Rack mounting (all models) .........................................................................................................................14
IV. Connections.............................................................................................................................................. 14
Ethernet connection (all models) ................................................................................................................ 14
Analog audio connections ...........................................................................................................................14
Digital audio connections............................................................................................................................15
AC power .....................................................................................................................................................16
Sync output .................................................................................................................................................. 16
Slave input ................................................................................................................................................... 17
RS232 port ................................................................................................................................................... 17
V. Operation................................................................................................................................................... 18
Status indicators..........................................................................................................................................18
Channel signal indicators............................................................................................................................19
Routing......................................................................................................................................................... 20
VI. FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions....................................................................................................... 21
VII. Specifications.......................................................................................................................................... 23
VIII. Appendix ................................................................................................................................................... 24
IX. Address & Telephone Information ...................................................................................................... 25
© Copyright 1997 QSC Audio Products, Inc. All rights reserved.
“QSC” and the QSC logo are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
RAVE™ is a trademark of QSC Audio Products, Inc. CobraNet™ is a trademark of Peak Audio, Inc.

2
EXPLANATION OF GRAPHICAL
SYMBOLS
The lightning flash with arrowhead symbol,
within an equilateral triangle, is intended to
alert the user to the presence of uninsulated
dangerous voltage within the products
enclosure that may be of sufficient magnitude
to constitute a risk of electric shock to
humans.
The exclamation point within an equilateral
triangle is intended to alert the users to the
presence of important operating and main-
tenance (servicing) instructions in the
literature accompanying the product.
CAUTION: To reduce the risk of electric shock, do not remove
the cover. No user-serviceable parts inside. Refer servicing
to qualified service personnel.
WARNING: To prevent fire or electric shock, do not expose this
equipment to rain or moisture.
CAUTION
RISKOFELECTRICSHOCK
DONOTOPEN
ATTENTION: Pour eviter les risques de choc électrique, ne pas
enlever le courvercle. Aucun entretien de pièces intérieures
par lusager. Confier lentretien au personnel qualifié.
AVIS: Pour eviter les risques dincendie ou délectrocution,
nexposez pas cet article à la pluie ou a lhumidité.
AVIS
RISQUEDECHOCÉLECTRIQUE
NEPASOUVRIR
VORSICHT: Um das Risiko eines elektrischen Schlages zu
vermindern, Abdeckung nicht entfernen! Keine Benutzer
Wartungsteile im Innern. Wartung nur durch qualifiertes
Wartungspersonal.
WARNUNG: Zur vermeidung von Feuer oder elektrischen
Schlägen, das Gerät nicht mit Regen oder Feuchtigkeit in
Berührung bringen!
VORSICHT
GEFAHREINESELEKTRISCHEN
SCHLAGES.NICHTÖFFNEN!
SAFEGUARDS
Electrical energy can perform many useful functions.
This unit has been engineered and manufactured to
assure your personal safety. Improper use can result in
potential electrical shock or fire hazards. In order not to
defeat the safeguards, observe the following instruc-
tions for its installation, use and servicing.
PRECAUTIONS
Lénergieélectriquepeut remplir de nombreuses fonctions
utiles. Cet appariel a été conçu et réalisé pour assurer
une sécurité personnelle entiére. Une utilisation impropre
peut entraîner des risques délectrocution ou dincendie.
Dans le but de ne pas rendre inutiles les mesures de
sécurité, bien observer les instructions suivantes pour
linstallation, lutilisation et lentretien de lappareil.
EXPLICATION DES
SYMBOLES GRAPHIQUES
Le symbole éclair avec point de flèche à
lintrérieur dun triangle équilatéral est utilisé
pour alerter lutilisateur de la presence à
lintérieur du coffret de voltage dangereux
non isolé dampleur suffisante pour constituer
un risque delétrocution.
Le point dexclamation à lintérieur dun tri-
angle équilatéral est employé pour alerter les
utilisateurs de la présence dinstructions
importantes pour le fonctionnement et
lentretien (service) dans le livret dinstruction
accompagnant lappareil.
ERKLÄRUNG DER GRAPHISCHEN
SYMBOLE
Der Blitz nach unten zeigendem Pfeil in einem
gleichseitigen Dreieck weist den Benutzer auf
das Vorhandensein einer unisolierten,
gefährlichen Spannung im Gehäuse hin, die
stark sein kann, einer Person einen
elektrischen Schlag zu versetzen.
Das Ausrufzeichen in einem gleichseitigen
Dreieck weist den Benutzer auf wichtige
Betriebs- und Wartungs- vorschriften in den
beiliegenden Unterlagen des Gerätes hin.
DECLARATION OF CONFORMITY
forall RAVE models
We declare as our sole responsibility that this
product is in compliance with the EMC Direc-
tive 89/336/EEC and conforms to the require-
ments of the Harmonized Product Standards
EN55013(Product Emissions), and EN 55020
(Product Immunity).
FEDERAL
COMMUNICATIONS
COMMISSION(FCC)
INFORMATION
NOTE:Thisequipmenthasbeen
tested and found to comply
with the limits for a Class A
digitaldevice,pursuanttoPart
15 of the FCC Rules. These
limitsaredesignedtoprovide
reasonableprotectionagainst
harmfulinterferenceinacom-
mercial installation. This
equipment generates, uses,
andcanradiateradiofrequency
energyand,ifnotinstalledand
used in accordance with the
instructions,maycauseharm-
fulinterferencetoradiocom-
munications.Operationofthis
equipmentinaresidentialarea
is likely to cause harmful in-
terference,inwhichcasethe
userwillberequiredtocorrect
theinterference at his orher
ownexpense.

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I. Introduction
RAVE Digital Audio Router products provide a means of transporting audio signals over a data network. Using
common Fast Ethernet as the physical medium, a RAVE system has a maximum capacity of 64 channels on a
100baseTXnetwork. RAVEtransports theaudio signalsoverthenetworkina48kHz20-bit digitalformat. Each
unit has a female RJ-45 connector on its rear panel for connecting to a standard Ethernet twisted-pair cable.
Foreconomyandflexibility,youcanusestandardoff-the-shelfFastEthernetdevicessuchashubsandfiberoptic
media converters with your RAVE system.
YouneedatleasttwoRAVEdevices—onetosendandonetoreceive,ortwotobothsendandreceive—toroute
audio over an Ethernet. There are currently six RAVE models, with three basic send/receive configurations (16
channelssend, 16channelsreceive, or8 channelssend/8channels receive),witheitheranalogor digitalAES3
(often called AES/EBU) ins and outs. The six models are numbered as follows:
RAVE80 Digital Audio Router (8 AES3 outputs; 16 audio channels total)
RAVE81 Digital Audio Router (8 AES3 inputs; 16 audio channels total)
RAVE88 Digital Audio Router (4 AES3 inputs + 4 AES3 outputs; 8 audio channels total each way)
RAVE160 Digital Audio Router (16 analog audio outputs)
RAVE161 Digital Audio Router (16 analog audio inputs)
RAVE188 Digital Audio Router (8 analog audio inputs + 8 analog audio outputs)
A RAVE system handles routing in groups of 8 individual audio channels.
Front view of a RAVE 161; other models are simliar
Power LED Network channel
selector switches
(behind cover) Network status LEDs Audio signal level LEDs

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GLOSSARY
Below are some terms used in this manual that RAVE users should be familiar with.
AES3—A technological specification for inter-device conveyance of a dual-channel (stereo) digital audio
signal. Also called AES/EBU.
Crossover cable—A type of twisted-pair Ethernet patch cable, but somewhat analogous in function to a
null modem cable. Unlike a normal patch cable, the transmit and receive wire pairs are swapped at
oneend,permitting a directconnectionof two nodeswithout a hubinbetween. A crossovercableis
alsosuitableforcascadinghubsthatdon’thaveanavailableuplinkport.Italsohasnothingtodowith
an audio crossover.
Networkchannel—ARAVE networkgroup of eightaudiochannels, withachannel numberdesignatedby
a switch on the sending unit. Don’t confuse this term with actual audio channels. A RAVE network
multiplexeseightaudiochannelsontoasinglenetworkchannelandroutestheentirenetworkchannel
asawhole.AreceivingRAVEunitsettoaparticularnetworkchannelwilloutputalleightofthenetwork
channel’s audio signals.
Uplinkport—Aspecialportonahub,usedforcascadingtoanotherhub.Usuallyit’sofferedintandemwith
a normal port so you can use one or the other, but not both. For example, a 5-port hub with an uplink
allows you to connect to five nodes via the normal ports, or to four nodes via normal ports plus one
hub via the uplink port.
Rear views,
from top:
RAVE 160,
RAVE 188,
RAVE 161,
RAVE 80,
RAVE 88, and
RAVE 81.

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Therefore, the CobraNet™ technology used in a
RAVE system employs a regulated, deterministic
system of packet timing to ensure consistent and
reliable transmission without dropouts or glitches.
The RAVE devices on a common network will auto-
matically negotiate the time slots among them-
selves. For efficiency, the sample data from eight
audiochannelsaregroupedtogetherineachpacket.
RAVE units will synchronize themselves over the
network,and theyhaveBNC connectorson therear
panelsforsendingsyncsignals.Thisallowsthemto
synchronize external digital audio equipment to the
RAVE network.
HOW IT WORKS
Ethernet networks are most often used for computer systems; a typical application would be in an office with
servers, workstations, and shared printers. These devices use the Ethernet medium in an unregulated, non-
deterministic way. This means that they transmit data messages (called “packets”) only when necessary, and
thelengthofthemessagesmayvarydependingonthesendingdeviceandonthetypeandamountofdatabeing
sent.Whenithasamessagetosendonthenetwork,adevice,ornode,waitsuntilthereisnotraffic,thensends
it.Iftwoormorenodestrytosendmessagesatthesametime,acollisionoccurs;eachnodethenwaitsarandom
lengthof timebeforetrying again.In thistype ofapplication,reasonable latency(the lengthoftimefromwhen
the transmitting node has a message ready to send, to when the receiving node actually receives it) is not a
problem, since a second or two delay in the
transmission of a print job or an e-mail mes-
sage won’t have any noticeable effect.
Audiosignals(especiallymulti-channel),how-
ever, generally can’t tolerate a delay of even
a significant fraction of a second, or even
worse, a varying, unpredictable delay. This
would cause glitches, dropouts, noise, and
other nasty and undesirable artifacts in the
final audio signal.
Internal block diagram of a RAVE unit; chief difference among the different models is the
audio I/O (below)
RAVE 80: 8 AES3 outs RAVE 81: 8 AES3 ins RAVE 88: 4 AES3 ins + 4
AES3 outs
RAVE 160: 16 analog outs RAVE 161: 16 analog ins RAVE 188: 8 analog ins + 8
analog outs

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Channel routing
ARAVEnetwork handles routingingroups of eightaudio channels, andeachgroup of eighttransmittedon the
network makes up one network channel. Each RAVE device handles two network channels—two sent, two
received,oroneofeach.Forexample,aRAVE161unit,with16analogaudioinputs,representstwotransmitted
groups,andthustwoseparatenetworkchannels;onecomprisesaudiochannels1through8—theother,channels
9 through 16.
Similarly,aRAVE80,witheightAES3digitaloutputs,representstworeceivinggroups(eachAES3channelcarries
twoaudiochannels). Either one canbeconfigured to receive anynetworkchannel—even the sameone,if you
needed what would essentially be a digital “Y” cable.
A RAVE device that both sends and receives, such as the RAVE 188 (eight analog inputs and 8 analog outputs)
orRAVE 88(4 AES3inputs and4AES3outputs),transmitsonenetworkchanneland canreceive another.It can
receivethesamenetworkchannelthatittransmits,butonlyifitisconnectedtoahuboranotherunit,onavalid
network.
Behind a removable cover on the front panel of a RAVE unit are four hexadecimal rotary switches for selecting
the network channels of the device’s two groups. The two switches on the left set the address of the device’s
firstgroup(channels1through8ontheRAVE80,81, 160,and161;inputs1 through8ontheRAVE 88and188),
whilethetwoontherightsetthe addressofthedevice’ssecondgroup(channels8 through16on theRAVE80,
81,160,and161;outputs1through8ontheRAVE88and188).Detailedinstructionsonsettingnetworkchannel
numbers follow later in the Operation chapter.
II.NetworkDesign
ThereareseveralwaystoconfigureaRAVEnetwork,fromverysimpletorelativelycomplex.ThenumberofRAVE
unitsinthenetwork,wheretheyarelocated,andyourfutureexpansionplanswilldeterminewhatnettopology
wouldbebest.Thesametechniquesyouwoulduseindesigningaconventional100-MbpsFastEthernetwillassist
you in designing a RAVE network.
RAVEunitscanuseunshieldedtwistedpairwiring,butitmustbeatleastCategory5(orCAT-5,forshort)quality.
Anything less may cause unreliable operation of the network, if it runs at all. Fortunately, most new Ethernet
cable installations in buildings use Category 5 cable.

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Two nodes with a 100baseTX hub
Advantages:greaternetworksize—upto200meters(656feet);highreliability;readilyexpandable;uses
standard Ethernet patch cables
Disadvantages: higher cost
This network is similar to the previous one,
but with a hub in between, breaking up the
network into two segments which can each
be up to 100 meters long. Yes, there is the
addedexpenseof a hub, and youareadding
theslightpossibility ofa hub failure,but the
net media can be simple off-the-shelf patch
cables, and you can easily expand the net-
workbyconnectingadditionalnodestothehub.Astuteobserversand thosewhoreadaheadin themanualwill
notice that this network configuration is really just a star topology with only two nodes.
NETWORK TOPOLOGY EXAMPLES
Two nodes with a direct cable connection
Advantages: very low cost; very high reliability; simple to implement
Disadvantages: limitedto100 meters (328feet)total network size;no expandability; usesnon-standard
wiring of RJ-45 connectors on Ethernet cable
The simplest and most direct RAVE network
comprises two RAVE units connected by a
singlecrossovercable.Thisnetworkhasonly
onesegment,so the100-meterlimit applies
to the segment and thus to the entire net-
work.Therearenohardwarecostsotherthan
theRAVEunitsthemselvesandthecablefor
theinterconnection.Also,therearefewpotentialfailurepoints.However,thereisnowaytoconnectadditional
RAVEunitswithoutresortingtoaddingahub,andbecauseacrossovercableisn’tusuallyanoff-the-shelfitem,
you’ll probably have to wire it yourself.

8
Star topology
Advantages:greaternetworksize—upto200meters(656feet);highreliability;readilyexpandable;uses
standard Ethernet patch cables
Disadvantages: higher cost
Add nodes—i.e., RAVE units—to the previ-
ous net layout and you have the classic star
topology. This name comes from the hub
being at the center and the nodes radiating
outfromit likethepoints ofastar.Itdoesn’t
matterifthe nodes are actuallyrightnext to
one another while the hub is in another
room—it’s still a star topology. You can
connect as many RAVE units as there are ports on the hub.
Distributed star topology
Advantages: greater network size; high reliability; readily expandable; uses standard Ethernet patch
cables
Disadvantages: higher cost
WhatdoyoudowhenyouhavemoreRAVEunitsthanavailablehubports?Addmorehubs,ofcourse.MostFast
Ethernet hubs now are stackable, either through an uplink port that lets you connect an additional hub to one
alreadyinthenetwork,orthroughabackplaneconnection.Theresultingnetworktopolgyiscalledadistributed
star, because it is made up of interconnected multiple stars. The maximum UTP cable length from hub to hub,
or from hub to RAVE unit, is 100 meters (328 feet).
Theexampleshownonthefollowingpageusesthreehubs.ThemaximumsizeofthisparticularCobraNetnetwork
wouldbe400meters(1312feet),allowingtwo100-metercablerunsamongthethreehubs,plus100-metercable
runs on the end hubs.
Youcanexpandthedistancesevenfurtherbydaisy-chainingmorehubsandcablesegments.Therearetechnical
and practical limits to this strategy; see the section on network limitations for further information.
Star network topology
LONGER DISTANCE THROUGH FIBER
Sometimes a network may span long distances without any practical need for hubs distributed along the way.
The computer networking industry, on whom we’re already relying for an economical and rugged transport
medium, has an answer to this need also: fiber optics.

9
Datasignals sentoveroptical fiberdon’t degradeasmuch astheydoovercopper wiring,andthey areimmune
to induced interference from electromagnetic and RF sources, fluorescent lighting fixtures, etc. Consequently,
aFastEthernetfiberopticnetworksegment(100baseFX)canbeupto2kilometers(6560feet,or1.24miles)long,
twenty times longer than what is possible with CAT-5 UTP copper wire.
Largely due to increased economies of scale, fiber optic cable pricing has become more economical in recent
years,soeven62.5µmmultimodefiberisnolongerpainfullymoreexpensivethanCAT-5UTP.However,because
of the added cost of media conversion, it’s usually most cost-effective to use fiber only when distance or
electromagnetic conditions require it.
Distributed star network topology
Maximum system cable
span (e.g., furthest node-
to-hub + hub-to-hub +
hub-to-node):
400 meters (1312 feet)