Sound Devices, specialists in audio and video products for broadcast and film production, is pleased to announce that its 970 64-track Dante- and MADI-equipped multi-track audio recorder has been nominated for a Cinema Audio Society (CAS) Technical Achievement Award in the Production category.
   

“We are grateful that such a prestigious industry organization has chosen to acknowledge us once again with a nomination for a CAS Technical Achievement Award,” says Matt Anderson, President of Sound Devices. “We continually look to advance our technology in order to better serve the art and science of sound in the motion picture and television industry. We couldn’t be happier that the 970, our first-ever dedicated rack-mount audio solution, is being recognized for doing so.”

Sound Devices’ 970 records 64 channels of monophonic or polyphonic 24-bit WAV files from any of its 144 available inputs, including 64 channels of Ethernet-based Dante, 64 channels of optical or coaxial MADI, eight channels of line-level analog and eight channels of AES digital. The half-rack, 2-U device simplifies any application requiring high-quality high-track-count audio recording, such as drama and reality productions, and live concert recording. The 970 records to any of four attached drives, two front-panel drive bays (behind the screen) and two rear-panel e-SATA-connected drives. Material can be recorded to multiple drives simultaneously or sequentially. With its built-in, rock-steady Ambient Recording Lockit time-code technology, the 970 is well-suited to operate as a master clock.

The 970 also features an embedded Web-based control panel for machine transport and setup control over Ethernet-based networks as well as file transfer over the data network with SMB. Users can perform file metadata editing of scene name, take name, notes, track names and reel folders before, during and after recording across all drives. In addition to RS-422 and GPIO control, the unit also allows for format conversion between analog, AES digital, MADI and Dante. Sound Devices’ 970 is designed with a large five-inch screen for metering of up to 64 tracks and for fast and intuitive menu control.

Additionally, Sound Devices 970 features the company’s proprietary PowerSafe™ technology, which has a built-in 10-second power reserve. In the event of a power loss, the unit continues to operate for up to 10 seconds to safely stop any file operation and then shuts down. This ensures that a complete power loss has no effect on the recording. The 970 also features FileSafe, which automatically detects and repairs corrupted file headers when drives are mounted. Should this occur when a drive is inadvertently removed during recording, the user can simply reinsert the drive and FileSafe will automatically repair the files.

The Cinema Audio Society was formed in 1964 to recognize outstanding sound mixing in film and television as well as technical achievement in production and post production. A blue-ribbon panel of CAS Members determined the nominees for the 51st Annual Cinema Audio Society Technical Achievement Awards. Winners will be announced February 14 during the CAS Awards ceremony at the Millennium Biltmore in Los Angeles.