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PC-AD2 Handbook

This handbook is for use with the following product: 

PC-AD2 2 Stereo Analogue I/O & 2 Stereo AES-3 I/O PCIe Half Height Sound Card 

AW10789A Stock Code: 30-333 

Revision 1.01, December 2016 

©Sonifex Ltd, 2016 

All Rights Reserved

Sonifex Ltd, 61, Station Road, Irthlingborough, 

Northants, NN9 5QE, England. 

Tel: +44 (0)1933 650 700 

Fax: +44 (0)1933 650 726 

Email: [email protected] 

Website: http://www.sonifex.co.uk

Information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a 

commitment on the part of the vendor. Sonifex Ltd shall not be liable for any loss or damage 

whatsoever arising from the use of information or any error contained in this manual.

No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic 

or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, information storage and retrieval systems, for any 

purpose other than the purchaser’s personal use, without the express written permission of Sonifex 

Ltd. Unless otherwise noted, all names of companies, products and persons contained herein are 

part of a completely fictitious adaptation and are designed solely to document the use of Sonifex 

product.

Made in the UK by

Summary of Contents for avn PC-AD2

Page 1: ...Manufacturers of audio video products for radio TV broadcasters PC AD2 2 Stereo Analogue I O 2 Stereo AES 3 I O PCIe Half Height Sound Card HANDBOOK ...

Page 2: ...esent a commitment on the part of the vendor Sonifex Ltd shall not be liable for any loss or damage whatsoever arising from the use of information or any error contained in this manual No part of this manual may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical including photocopying recording information storage and retrieval systems for any purpose other than the ...

Page 3: ...Operation 6 Audio Endpoints 6 Mixer API 6 Audio Engine 6 Windows Mono Recording Bug 7 Playback Endpoints 7 Recording Endpoints 8 Line Input 1 Microphone Operation 9 4 GPIO 11 5 Technical Specification For PC AD2 12 Figures Fig 1 1 PC AD2 With Small Bracket And Optional large Bracket 1 Fig 2 1 Device Manager Screen 4 Fig 2 2 PC AD2 Properties Configuration Screen 5 Fig 3 1 PC AD2 Line Output 1 Prop...

Page 4: ...ternet www sonifex co uk As standard Sonifex products are supplied with a 1 year back to base warranty If you register the product online you can increase your product warranty to 2 years and we can also keep you informed of any product design improvements or modifications To register your product please go online to www sonifex co uk register Register Online for an Extended 2 Year Warranty Produc...

Page 5: ...oduct has been registered at the Sonifex website when the Warranty Term is 24 months from the date of despatch the Contract means the quotation these Conditions of Sale and any other document incorporated in a contract between the Company and the Purchaser This is the entire Contract between the parties relating to the subject matter hereof and may not be changed or terminated except in writing in...

Page 6: ...uest and expense of the Purchaser the Company will test the Goods to ascertain performance levels and provide a report of the results of that test The report will be accurate at the time of the test to the best of the belief and knowledge of the Company and the Company accepts no liability in respect of its accuracy beyond that set out in Condition a f Subject to Condition e no representation cond...

Page 7: ...ed to look inside the unit always disconnect the mains supply before removing the equipment covers The cover is connected to earth by means of the fixing screws It is essential to maintain this earth ground connection to ensure a safe operating environment and provide electromagnetic shielding Voltage Setting Checks Ensure that the machine operating voltage is correct for your mains power supply b...

Page 8: ...003 along with the related Directive 2002 95 EC on Restrictions of the use of certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment RoHS The Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment Directive WEEE aims to minimise the impacts of electrical and electronic equipment on the environment during their life times and when they become waste All products manufactured by Sonifex Ltd have the ...

Page 9: ...1 PC AD2 Introduction 1 1 PC AD2 2 Stereo Analogue I O 2 Stereo AES 3 I O PCIe Half Height Sound Card Introduction Fig 1 1 PC AD2 With Small Bracket And Optional large Bracket ...

Page 10: ...iver to provide full sound card functionality on Windows 7 8 8 1 10 and Windows Server 2008 R2 2012 and 2012 R2 Many of the modern smaller PC systems only have space for half height PCIe cards the PC AD2 card has been designed with this in mind allowing a high channel count in a small format card The PC AD2 has two stereo analogue inputs the first of which can be used as a stereo mic or dual mono ...

Page 11: ...ed which is shared with analogue Line Input 1 endpoint The Windows mixer API is virtualised for each application providing just a mute and volume control for each endpoint and affecting only the audio going to and from that application The PC AD2 has two optically isolated general purpose inputs and outputs which are accessed through a programming API supplied with the driver package A demo progra...

Page 12: ...bottom of the screen should be enabled Your PC AD2 is now ready for use Configuration To change the configuration open Device Manager expand Sound video and game controllers then right click on PC AD2 select Properties and click on the Configuration tab There are four configuration settings for the PC AD2 these being Core Sampling Rate Analogue Maximum Level Analogue Input 1 type and Sync Source T...

Page 13: ...ate whether it is locked or unlocked and whether its source is internal or external When a sync source other than None is selected the source indicator will show external in green when it s locked to that source or internal in orange if it s unable to do so typically because the source sampling rate doesn t match the card s core sampling rate For each AES 3 input the received sampling rate frame l...

Page 14: ...click on the loudspeaker symbol selecting Playback devices or Recording devices then right click on the desired endpoint and select Set as Default Device The default device is remembered across reboots and should not need to be set again A default communications device can also be set for use by telephony applications Mixer API The legacy Windows mixer API is virtualised for each application provi...

Page 15: ...ed by a recording application Also be aware that for the same reason the stereo and mono mix endpoints for the same source can t be used simultaneously The Mono Mix endpoints should be used for communications applications such as Skype which open a mono capture stream Note that there are no Mono Mix endpoints associated with the mono microphone inputs when that mode is selected as these are inhere...

Page 16: ...ch are accessed by right clicking on the endpoint selecting Properties and clicking on the Levels tab The Listen option allows the input s audio to be routed by Windows to any audio output device on the PC The listen settings are preserved across reboots and take effect even if no user is logged in The AES 3 inputs have asynchronous sampling rate converters that convert the received streams to the...

Page 17: ...rding endpoints will change according to the mode selected see the earlier section for an explanation of audio endpoints A shared endpoint is automatically activated when an application starts recording from it with the other endpoint made unavailable The PC AD2 uses this mechanism to switch the microphone preamplifier and optional 48V phantom power on and off If only one or the other is ever goin...

Page 18: ...nt select Properties then click on the Custom tab Phantom power when selected applies 48V to the microphone input connections When the stereo microphone mode is selected phantom power is applied to both the left and right inputs while in dual mono microphone mode the phantom power on each input is independently settable The audio limiter automatically reduces the microphone gain if the recording l...

Page 19: ...D2GetGPI HANDLE CardHandle This returns the state of the two general purpose inputs in the least significant bits Set CardHandle to the handle returned from PCAD2Open void PCAD2SetGPO HANDLE CardHandle unsigned Outputs This sets the state of the two general purpose outputs from the least significant bits of Outputs Set CardHandle to the handle returned from PCAD2Open __int64 PCAD2GetHardwareID HAN...

Page 20: ...icrophone Phantom Power 48V software enabled Frequency Response Input 1Hz to 88kHz Output 1Hz to 88kHz 192kHz hardware sampling rate Digital Audio Interface 2 x AES 3 formerly known as AES EBU inputs outputs ŝŐŝƚĂů ŶƉƵƚ ŵƉĞĚĂŶĐĞ ϭϭϬɏ ƚƌĂŶƐĨŽƌŵĞƌ ĐŽƵƉůĞĚ Synchronisation Input 1 x AES 11 input synchronisation Output Sampling Rates 32kHz 44 1kHz 48kHz 88 2kHz 96kHz and 192kHz Input Sampling Rates 32k...

Page 21: ...Notes ...

Page 22: ...Notes ...

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Page 24: ...www sonifex co uk t 44 0 1933 650 700 f 44 0 1933 650 726 sales sonifex co uk ...

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