LIO-8 Users Guide
137
AES Digital Audio
The LIO-8 supports 8 channels of digital audio over copper-based connections. The LIO-8 operates in sin-
gle-wire mode, providing 8 channels of digital audio at all sample rates. The LIO-8’s digital I/O connections
are made using industry standard Tascam/Digidesign pinout DB25 cables.
Wiring details for this connector can be found in the
appendix.
Digital audio interface options can be greatly expanded through the addition of a
.
Clock Sync
Clock sync is a serious consideration in any digital audio system.
If you are recording analog sources with LIO-8, you can simply use the unit’s high-quality internal clock
source to drive the converters. This is the easiest case to deal with.
If you need to interface with other devices digitally or ensure sample accurate sync with video sources, the
extensive clock synchronization capabilities of LIO-8 will prove to be more reliable (and better sounding)
than much higher priced alternatives.
There are three different ways to get external clock information into the unit:
1. Sending a word clock signal into the WC Input BNC.
2. Sending an AES signal into the Digital input.
The BNC word clock input port is a 75 Ohm terminated coaxial input. It should be driven by a 75 Ohm
source driver and interconnected with 75 Ohm coaxial cable. If you do not use proper cabling and source
drive, you will introduce reflections on the word clock cable which will propagate jitter into the recovered
word clock.
The AES recommended procedure for distributing clock is to use an AES clock signal. The AES clock signal
is an AES digital audio signal with no audio activity. The LIO-8 only uses the AES preambles for clock
recovery, so it is immune to data dependent jitter effects. This means you can reliably use the Digital Input
as a clock source with or without audio data.
MIDI
The LIO-8 offers MIDI input and output ports for direct connection of a control surface. These ports are
only active while MIOConsole3d is running; the LIO-8 cannot utilize a control surface in standalone oper-
ation. MIOConsole3d makes these ports available to other applications while it is running, but the MIDI
implementation is currently optimized for control use only- it is not recommended to use these ports for
connecting keyboards or other devices that require accurate timing.
SMPTE
The LIO-8 has SMPTE input and output ports dedicated for timecode use. The SMPTE input and output are
routed from the “SMPTE” category in the MIOConsole3d Source and Destination routing menus. Please
note that MIOConsole3d does not natively decode or encode MTC at this time; if you need to synchronise
to MTC, you will need third party software.
Power
One of LIO-8’s great strengths is the flexibility of its power system. The LIO-8 can be powered from any
DC source in the range of 14V to 28V as long as it provides 32 Watts of power. The DC inputs on the
LIO-8 are a 2.1mm coaxial power connector, center positive and a 4-pin XLR connector Pin 4 Hot. So if you
are powering the unit with a third party power source and it supplies 14V, the power source will have to
provide 2.3 amps of current. If you are powering the unit with 24V, the power source will have to provide
1.3 amps of current, and so on.
