Using Crest amplifiers in your design

NWare allows you to control and monitor Crest CKi and Ci series amplifiers. For detailed information on these amplifiers, refer to the Crest website.

Crest Audio offers two features to monitor system operation and help systems comply with safety regulations: Real Time Load Monitoring (RTLM) and Speaker Tone Sensing (STS). Both are available in addition to the monitoring systems built in to the amplifiers. RTLM is available via the NWare amplifier devices, which are described in the section Amplifiers in the NWare Device Reference. For detailed information on how both RTLM and STS work, see Monitoring Crest amplifiers.

By default, a check box called Live Taper is selected on the device properties of each amplifier device you add to your design. This feature is designed to make it easier to make fine adjustments at higher gain levels (by decreasing the rate at which the gain changes when it is near the maximum). You can clear this check box to disable this feature.

To start working with Crest amplifiers, complete one of the procedures following this section. It is assumed that the NioNode (or nControl node or nTouch 180 node), the amplifiers and the PC running NWare are all connected to the same network, as shown in the diagram below.

Notes:

• Before you use an amplifier with NWare, it is important to check that it is installed correctly and is running the latest firmware. If you need to upgrade the firmware, use the Crest NexSys software to do this.
• The Crest Ci amplifier can receive up to four eight channel bundles, but the current version of NWare only supports one eight channel bundle.
• You cannot control and monitor amplifiers by running NWare in emulation mode. You must deploy your project.
• If you are using a NioNode to host the project, control signals will be transferred from the NioNode to the amplifiers via the LAN port on the NioNode (and not the CobraNet port). This means you will need to configure a router to route the control signals from the control network to the CobraNet network, or use an nControl node to host the project and connect it to both the control network and the CobraNet network.
• When CobraNet and Ethernet devices share the same network, the use of managed switches is strongly recommended. CobraNet traffic can cause other traffic to be transferred very slowly, unless traffic management systems are in place, such as VLANs. For more information, refer to the section on NION use cases in the NION Hardware Manual.