Magewell Pro Convert AES67

About this product

An AES67 network is only useful if your existing equipment can reach it. The Pro Convert AES67 is for installers and engineers who need to put an analogue mixer, a computer or a pair of powered speakers onto that network, or take audio off it, without replacing the equipment. It is a small audio converter that joins three kinds of audio together: analogue audio on ordinary sockets, USB audio to and from a computer, and audio carried over a network. AES67 is a standard for sending high-quality audio over Ethernet between mixers, amplifiers and other equipment from different makers. The unit is a multi-format IP audio converter and capture device, dedicated to audio, and it works in both directions at once.

What goes in

• Unbalanced analogue. One 3.5 mm TRS socket carrying 2 channels.
• Balanced analogue. One 4.4 mm TRRRS socket carrying 2 channels. Balanced connections reject interference better over long cables.
• USB audio. 4 channels at 24-bit / 48 kHz from a computer. The unit is a USB Audio Class (UAC) device, which means the computer sees it as a sound device.
• AES67. It receives 4 AES67 streams, each of 8 channels at 24-bit, multicast or unicast. These are compatible with SMPTE ST 2110-30, the audio part of the broadcast IP standard, so it suits broadcast facilities too.
• One other network stream. One 4-channel 16-bit stream using Icecast, SRT or NDI.

What comes out

• Unbalanced analogue. One 3.5 mm TRS socket, 2 channels.
• Balanced analogue. One 4.4 mm TRRRS socket, 2 channels.
• USB audio. 4 channels at 24-bit / 48 kHz to a computer, so you can record network audio in your usual software.
• AES67. It sends up to 8 AES67 streams, each of 8 channels at 24-bit, multicast (IGMPv2) or unicast.
• Other network streams. One 4-channel 16-bit audio stream, encoded for Icecast, SRT and NDI.

Routing, mixing and audio quality

• A virtual audio matrix lets any analogue or IP input channel be routed and mixed into any analogue, IP or USB output. You can set this up in the Web UI from a browser, with nothing to install.
• Sample rates of 96 / 48 / 44.1 kHz are supported, at 16-bit or 24-bit.
• Frequency response is 20 Hz to 20 kHz (±0.5 dB), dynamic range and signal-to-noise ratio are above 100 dB, and distortion is below 0.01% at +4 dBu.
• For AES67 timing the unit supports PTP (the network clock that AES67 devices share) as master or slave, so it fits a network with or without an existing clock. The receive buffer can be set from 0.125 ms to 64 ms in the Web UI, which lets you trade delay against tolerance of network jitter.

Connecting your equipment

• XLR equipment. The balanced connection is a 4.4 mm socket, and two breakout cables are supplied, 4.4 mm to dual XLR male and 4.4 mm to dual XLR female, so XLR equipment connects straight away.
• Network audio. AES67 is audio over the network. It is a different standard from AES3 (AES/EBU); the connections here are analogue, USB and network.
• Dante networks. This model is for AES67. For a Dante network, choose the Pro Convert Audio DX.
• Audio alongside video. This unit carries the audio. Video encoders are on the Pro Convert encoders page.

Power, control and size

• Power. Standard PoE (IEEE 802.3af) through the network cable, or 5 V through the USB 2.0 Type-B port from the supplied adapter (5 V / 2.1 A). Maximum consumption is about 5 W, so there is no mains socket to find where the unit sits.
• Control. Web UI in a browser, Magewell Control Hub for managing several units, and HTTP APIs for control systems.
• Size. 100.9 mm × 60.2 mm × 23.3 mm, small enough to sit behind a mixer or in a rack drawer. An L-bracket is supplied.
• Operating temperature. −10°C to 50°C.

Where it sits in the range

The Pro Convert Audio DX is the same size, with the same analogue and USB connections, but it uses Dante instead of AES67 and handles two 4-channel network streams over SRT, NDI, RTSP, RTMP or MPEG-TS. Choose by the audio network you already have: AES67 here, Dante there. Video encoders are on the Pro Convert encoders page.