Digigram debuts LX1616ES EtherSound PCI sound card

Digigram presents the LX1616ES PCI network sound card with DirectSound and ASIO drivers for the very first time at InfoComm 2008 in Las Vegas. Little sister to the proven LX6464ES sound card which can exchange simultaneously 64 channels from and 64 channels to an EtherSound network, the LX1616ES can transmit and receive up to sixteen EtherSound channels, thus connecting computer-based audio applications to a 100Mb/s EtherSound network via a single CAT5 cable. The LX1616ES is a suitable choice for direct-to-disk applications that don’t necessarily require as many as 64 channels, but still require maximum flexibility to play and/or record selected ES-100 audio channels using just a single CAT5 cable. A scaled-down version of the LX6464ES, LX1616ES offers an ideal starting point for price-sensitive applications, particularly since it can be upgraded on the fly from a 16/16 channel count to 32/32, 48/48 up to 64/64 through simple firmware updates. In a live sound environment, the combination of a PC equipped with an LX1616ES (or LX6464ES) soundcard and an EtherSound-enabled digital mixing console results in a powerful, high quality and extraordinarily cost-effective multitrack recorder. Entire shows can be recorded for mix-down at a later date, and musicians can be replaced by recordings for enormous time savings during sound-checks. The ability to record many channels from different locations makes these cards also an good solution for logging or surveillance applications, or indeed playback and announcements in multiroom venues such as hotels or conference centers. It is also a useful tool for multichannel audio delivery and distribution via standard Ethernet in broadcast installations.