Hear Technology PROHADAT ADAT Card for PRO Hub

Hear Technology PROHADAT ADAT Card for PRO Hub

The Hear Technology PROHADAT Hear Back PRO 16-channel ADAT Input/output Card is professionally designed capable of providing an industry standard method intended for sending and receiving 16 channels of digital audio. The ADAT card also comes offering backwards compatibility that comes along with the original 8-channel Hear Back system.

The ADAT protocol is a well established standard in the professional audio industry. ADAT is made using the similar physical TOS-Link optical connection that standard CD, DVD and Blu-ray players use. Although ADAT is using the similar fiber optic cables and connectors as these standard consumer electronics devices, the ADAT audio format is made different and incompatible. With ADAT, one single optical cable is carrying a 8 channels of digital audio that comes along with the digital synchronizing "clock" in one direction and possible to support sampling rates up to 48kHz.

The ADAT card is possible to be populated in Hear Back PRO Hub's card slot 1 or card slot 3. If the card is in slot 1, it will input ADAT by the time the input select switch on the front of the hub is selected to "A." Likewise, if the card is in slot 3, it will input ADAT during the time the input select switch is selected to "B." Do not populate the ADAT card in slots 2 or 4. These slots are reserved for analog input cards, analog output cards, and mixer network cards.

Inputs
16 channels of digital audio input are made connected to the card with the use of two ADAT optical cables. On our card, these are the bottom two connectors. The left connector is for Channels 1 - 8 and the right connector is for Channels 9 - 16. Note that the left connector for 1 - 8 must be used because our system is using this connection as the master clock source. Also, for avoiding the digital pops and clicks, the 9 - 16 connection must be clock synchronized with the1 - 8 connection. This is generally not an issue if both cables are connected to the same source.

The card is capable of supporting both 44.1kHz and 48kHz sampling rates. Although some manufacturers will support higher sampling rates at the cost of reducing the number of channels (a technique called SMUX), our card does not support SMUX.

Outputs
In addition to ADAT inputs, the card also comes along with 16 channels of ADAT outputs with the use of two ADAT optical cables. On our card, these are the top two connectors. The left connector is for Channels 1 - 8 and the right connector is for Channels 9 - 16. There are also two RJ45 connectors on the ADAT card labeled HearBus OUT 1 - 8 and 9 - 16.

These connections are designed for sending digital audio to an original 8-channel Hear Back Hub's HearBus IN port. Since there are two HearBus out connections on the ADAT card, two different original Hear Back Hubs are possible to be connected, each comes along with a separate set of 8 channels. This is made allowing both the Hear Back PRO and the original Hear Back systems to be used in conjunction along with each other.

During the time the ADAT card is used as an input to the Hear Back PRO system, the ADAT and HearBus output connectors are possible to be used for looping the digital audio out to an original Hear Back system or another ADAT device.

By the time a different input such as HBUS or another card such as an Analog, AES/EBU, Dante, or Waves SoundGrid card is selected as the input, the ADAT card will continue to output digital audio. It will automatically perform sampling rate conversion if the sampling rate is higher than 48kHz.

If the selected input is running at 88.2kHz or 176.4kHz, the ADAT card will down sample it to 44.1kHz. And if the selected input is running at 96kHz or 192kHz, the ADAT card will down sample it to 48kHz.

Note: The HearBus connections are not Ethernet and are not compatible with the Hear Back PRO HBUS or any Hear Back PRO equipment. HearBus connections are only for connecting to the original Hear Back system. Only the HBUS connections on the Hear Back PRO Hub are used for connecting to other Hear Back PRO Hubs.

• Simultaneously sends and receives 16 channels of digital audio
• Backwards compatible with the original 8-channel Hear Back system
• (2) optical ADAT TOS-Link inputs, (2) optical ADAT TOS-Link outputs, and (2) RJ45 HearBus outputs (for connecting to the original Hear Back system)
• Supports and automatically locks on to sampling rates of 44.1kHz and 48kHz
• Automatic sampling rate down-conversion is applied on the ADAT and HearBus outputs when the system is running at sampling rates over 48kHz
• (2) cards can be populated per Hub to allow A/B input switching between (2) banks of 16 channels
• Up to (4) cards can be populated to allow A/B input switching as well as a second set of dedicated ADAT outputs