New Product: Arvus H2-4D Atmos Renderer, Simultaneous 16 channel AES/Balanced Analog/Dante Output

[Kal Rubinson]

I'd buy one if I had a suitable TV but sadly mine is just a little too old to be able to do TrueHD through ARC.

There are other sources for it.

 

[apgood]

This is not a consumer device it's a low production run product targeted at the professional content creation market who need a way to do Quality Assurance on encoded Atmos and get the decoded channels back in to the studio. For the market it is aimed at it is extremely cheap, also for the market it is aimed at they don't want extra processing features they want it to do HDMI to discrete channels and that's it.

It does do decoding of all the major Dolby and DTS formats and rendering of Atmos and DTS:X

The initial production run has now started to show up in studios and the product appears to work as advertised. Studios are dumping the consumer level AVRs that they were forced to use until now and installing this thing instead.

I think they will sell some of these in to the domestic market and the custom home cinema install market in to places where you have TV or other device with sufficient inputs, eARC and a speaker system which is doing its own room correction and EQ.

I'd buy one if I had a suitable TV but sadly mine is just a little too old to be able to do TrueHD through ARC.

Don't really need to go via TV. For the purpose and market it is designed the would most likely be a video processor (e.g. Lumagen) or a HDMI switch that does the switching/splitting between sources and directing it to video and audio end devices. Same sort thing happen in many higher end home theater installations as well.

 

[No one you know]

For the market it is aimed at it is extremely cheap, also for the market it is aimed at they don't want extra processing features they want it to do HDMI to discrete channels and that's it.

Correct. This ticks a lot of boxes for me as I need something compact that can decode ATMOS from HDMI direct to AES 67. 1 RU is a game changer…I can literally build a 16 channel system in 4 rack spaces including power. I‘ve got room and speaker correction built into the amps.

 

[rhollan]

I've been watching this for a while. I do 7.1 via an HDMI to SDI to AES deembedder route.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

Correct. This ticks a lot of boxes for me as I need something compact that can decode ATMOS from HDMI direct to AES 67. 1 RU is a game changer…I can literally build a 16 channel system in 4 rack spaces including power. I‘ve got room and speaker correction built into the amps.

Yes and they recently added a volume control (via web interface) for those who need one. Will cover in upcoming review.

 

[rhollan]

So... it isn't vaporware?

 

[mumford]

Will cover in upcoming review.

Looking forward to it.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

So... it isn't vaporware?

Not unless I am hallucinating.

 

[rhollan]

Looking forward to your review. I am doing 7.1 digitally via an HDMI/SDI/AES3 route and it's a bit frankensteinish. I've been wanting a digital Atmos solution.

 

[mumford]

wholly molly. Guess what showed up in my email box just earlier. The price is right.




Announcing H1-D (H2-4D’s smaller sibling)

• HDMI to Dante / AES67 only.
• Small (similar formfactor to the Apple4K)
• Price well under USD3k including freight
• Performance and GUI will be identical to H2-4D.
• eARC / HDMI Pass-through will be supported.
• Samples ready for testing around April
• Aiming for the first Beta run to be completed December 2023.
• Given the rate of Atmos adoption across in the entire audio market, we can see that this unit could be a great seller.
• Further information to be released in coming newsletters.

 

[rhollan]

One thing I don't see are rack ears.

 

[Kal Rubinson]

One thing I don't see are rack ears.

I don't believe that little one is rack width.

 

[mumford]

audiosciencereview special edition 19" rack mount for the little guy?

 

[rhollan]

I don't believe that little one is rack width







I wouldn't expect it to be. But sometimes there are rack ears that manufactures provide (usually at $100 to $200 - a high profit item because so few want them). Since my digital Dirac Live processor is AES the larger unit might be best.

 

[dwkdnvr]

wholly molly. Guess what showed up in my email box just earlier. The price is right.




Announcing H1-D (H2-4D’s smaller sibling)

Oh, now THAT is interesting. Obviously still a bit niche requiring Dante/AES67, but it makes it a potentially viable alternative to a mass-market receiver or pre-pro. I'm not sure I'm actually in the market for something like this, but it will make me pay closer attention to see how it develops.

 

[mumford]

Oh, now THAT is interesting. Obviously still a bit niche requiring Dante/AES67, but it makes it a potentially viable alternative to a mass-market receiver or pre-pro. I'm not sure I'm actually in the market for something like this, but it will make me pay closer attention to see how it develops.

It is actually cheaper than an average pre-pro and then feeds its outputs into a converter to get digital into a pc/dsp/whatever, as one does not need to buy 2 pcs of equipment (a good pre pro and an adc). One can run dirac in a pc, if desired. Or just REW and do it the manly way. Add a 32 channel RME dac and one can cook something beating a Trinnov.

 

[tehas]

It is actually cheaper than an average pre-pro and then feeds its outputs into a converter to get digital into a pc/dsp/whatever, as one does not need to buy 2 pcs of equipment (a good pre pro and an adc). One can run dirac in a pc, if desired. Or just REW and do it the manly way. Add a 32 channel RME dac and one can cook something beating a Trinnov.

This would be spectacular if priced well. HDMI and proprietary codecs are all whats holding back an inexpensive computer based audio processor, which relative to AVRs offers infinite customization, power and control. With the downside of needing to tinker / put in more effort - but for me this is a plus
A dante virtual sound card is only ~50$ i believe, no need for converters or special inputs to the PC. Ethernet is great !
Subscribed to arvus' newsletter.
How does one get the beta program?

 

[chelgrian]

It is actually cheaper than an average pre-pro and then feeds its outputs into a converter to get digital into a pc/dsp/whatever, as one does not need to buy 2 pcs of equipment (a good pre pro and an adc). One can run dirac in a pc, if desired. Or just REW and do it the manly way. Add a 32 channel RME dac and one can cook something beating a Trinnov.

RME don't do an AES67 DAC. They are a MADI and AVB shop.

To get to analogue from the Arvus you'd need a Ferrofish A32 Pro Dante or Pulse 16 DX.

Other boxes that would work would be Focusrite RedNet A16R MK II or a Sonifex AVM-PA8.

The cheapest of these boxes is ~£2000

The problem with routing through a general purpose PC for room correction is the latency will not be constant which makes lip sync correction impossible.

For ASR purposes this new Arvus makes some sense combined with an AES based Genelec system. However unless Genelec can be pursuade to rev the 9301b interface unit with an AES67 input you still need to spend on a Sonifex AVN-PD8 to get from AES67 to AES3.

The price of that last unit has nearly doubled to over £2000 despite it having no DACs in it due to component shortages over the last few months.

 

[mumford]

There are 2 ways to make Dante/AES67 equipment coexists with AVB. Bi Amp makes an AVB/Dante switch (TC-5D) that acts as a Dante endpoint. So, one can connect an Arvus to TC-5D. TC-5D then converts Dante to AVB. AVB protocol uses Layer 2 switching, so it is a superior solution to Layer 3 switching. One may argue that it is BetaMax and Dante is VHS. Maybe. But, unlike VHS, one can use both in the same network, by having a right switch. Use a RME Digiface AVB interface to connect all the AVB equipment by RME and other manufactures.

The second way needs testing. But it should work. Use software Dante Via and Dante Controller on a PC. It can find and connect all Dante equipped devices on the network. So, the 16 channels of Avrus can be selected by the DSP software as inputs. Then, the same software can select RME TotalMix Fx as outputs.

No comment on lip sync correction, as testing is required. But, there is also delay on the video side, as Madvr tone mapping adds latency as well. So, correction is required, even without a pc doing dsp and crossover. Modern PC with many cores can crunch through many 96bit FIR filters, with many taps, in nano seconds. RME's TotalMix Fx is also very powerful. It can even be remotely controlled on an Ipad. My very strong guess is that it will work, and one will not notice any lip sync error.

 

[dwkdnvr]

The second way needs testing. But it should work. Use software Dante Via and Dante Controller on a PC. It can find and connect all Dante equipped devices on the network. So, the 16 channels of Avrus can be selected by the DSP software as inputs. Then, the same software can select RME TotalMix Fx as outputs.

No comment on lip sync correction, as testing is required. But, there is also delay on the video side, as Madvr tone mapping adds latency as well. So, correction is required, even without a pc doing dsp and crossover. RME's TotalMix Fx is very powerful. It can even be remotely controlled on an Ipad. My very strong guess is that it will work.

Yes, this is the 'obvious' low-ish way to handle this. Does make me wonder how clock sync/clock skew would be handled. Maybe I need to do some reading.