1 Topic by jlklein

  • jlklein
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2013-10-14
  • Posts: 17

Topic: Mware equipment setup advice

Hey folks,
First post here, just joined after attending the MediaMatrix seminar in the D.C. area. I'm an AV Project Manager in the Gov't and have a good sized system running with Nware, managed by our in-house contractors but I do like to get my hands dirty along with them. I also serve as a volunteer tech director at my church, so like to apply what I learn on the job there as well when I can.

Along those lines, one of the folks I spoke to at the MM training has a large Mware hotel system so we got to talking about how I could use some ebay'd units of the previous generation of Mware stuff for routing networked audio around our church like I do at work. I'd love to use the Nware line, but it's pretty out of our church's price range. So, I was able to find a "lot" of six MM8802s ($130 shipped!) and am now looking at a couple of Mainframe 960nts, one with the RJ cards and one with the CN cards (1st Gen).

The gentleman I spoke to at the training said that I could use the MM8802s with a 960nt frame equipped with the CN versions of the DSP cards, however, everything I read in the Peavey datasheets and manuals seems to suggest that the CN cards only work with the CAB models. The MM8802s I bought appear only work with the RJ cards (50' limit) or the standard DB9-based DPS card (6' limit). If so, I might as well resell them as my plan was to have a BOB in various areas of the church campus interconnected with the mainframe over our church network via Cobranet.

So my questions are these:
1. Can the MM8802s be used with the MM-DSP-CN to build a Cobranet-based audio network around the 960nt?
2. What is the difference between the MM-DSP-CN and -CNII, and does this have any bearing on question 1?

Thanks for any help,
Jeff

Jeff Klein, DMC-E
AV Project Manager/DoD
Technical Director/Faith Baptist Church
Baltimore, Maryland

2 Reply by Fergy

  • Fergy
  • MM Tech Support
  • Offline
  • From: The Home Office--Meridian
  • Registered: 2007-08-15
  • Posts: 334

Re: Mware equipment setup advice

1).  No.  The 8802 is not an Ethernet product, and so would not work with CABs.  You MUST use CABs to do what you are wanting to do, and with the MainFrames, these would be the "legacy" CABs, the 8i, 8o, 16i, 16o and the AES CAB 16d.

2).  The DSP-CN is the first generation of CobraNet, and the CN II is, you guessed, the second generation of the design.  There were many improvements, but most were important for very large, multi-MainFrame systems, so I'll pass on the discussion of the details.  What is important is that CobraNet is a well defined, switched Ethernet protocol, and is not compatible with the 8802.

Before you move forward, it would be wise to do a search for CobraNet topics and posts here on the forum, as well as the help files both in NWare and MWare, to learn more about benefits and pitfalls of what you are planning.

Last, please remember the MainFrame/MiniFrame you are planning on buying is a computer, and probably an old computer to boot (pun intended).  You won't be able to install Vista or Win7 and expect it to run, so make sure the Frame includes the original install disks (or that you have a set available), so you can bring it back to life.

Fergy

Make it intuitive, never leave them guessing.

3 Reply by jlklein

  • jlklein
  • Member
  • Offline
  • Registered: 2013-10-14
  • Posts: 17

Re: Mware equipment setup advice

Fergy wrote:

1).  No.  The 8802 is not an Ethernet product, and so would not work with CABs.  You MUST use CABs to do what you are wanting to do, and with the MainFrames, these would be the "legacy" CABs, the 8i, 8o, 16i, 16o and the AES CAB 16d.

Thanks, Fergy, that's what I was afraid of. Maybe that's why this guy hasn't answered my follow up email when I asked him "are you sure?". I guess I'll have to offload these and look for something more appropriate. I still might get the 960nt to play around with, and do have a collection of earlier Windows OS's and components at my disposal. I'm rather familiar with the 16i/16o CABs as we've been using them at work with the N6's for the last 7 years or so, just need to get more up to speed on the actual software programming. If I can find a reasonably priced NION family product, even better.

Jeff

Jeff Klein, DMC-E
AV Project Manager/DoD
Technical Director/Faith Baptist Church
Baltimore, Maryland