QSC Audio RAVE 88, RAVE 81, RAVE 161, RAVE 160, RAVE 188, RAVE 80 I. Introduction, Network channel

I. Introduction

RAVE Digital Audio Router products provide a means of transporting audio signals over a data network. Using common Fast Ethernet as the physical medium, a RAVE system has a maximum capacity of 64 channels on a 100baseTX network. RAVE transports the audio signals over the network in a 48 kHz 20-bit digital format. Each unit has a female RJ-45 connector on its rear panel for connecting to a standard Ethernet twisted-pair cable. For economy and flexibility, you can use standard off-the-shelf Fast Ethernet devices such as hubs and fiber optic media converters with your RAVE system.

You need at least two RAVE devices—one to send and one to receive, or two to both send and receive—to route audio over an Ethernet. There are currently six RAVE models, with three basic send/receive configurations (16 channels send, 16 channels receive, or 8 channels send/8 channels receive), with either analog or digital AES3 (often called AES/EBU) ins and outs. The six models are numbered as follows:

RAVE 80	Digital Audio Router (8 AES3 outputs; 16 audio channels total)
RAVE 81	Digital Audio Router (8 AES3 inputs; 16 audio channels total)
RAVE 88	Digital Audio Router (4 AES3 inputs + 4 AES3 outputs; 8 audio channels total each way)
RAVE 160	Digital Audio Router (16 analog audio outputs)
RAVE 161	Digital Audio Router (16 analog audio inputs)
RAVE 188	Digital Audio Router (8 analog audio inputs + 8 analog audio outputs)

A RAVE system handles routing in groups of 8 individual audio channels.

Network channel

Power LED selector switches Network status LEDsAudio signal level LEDs (behind cover)

Front view of a RAVE 161; other models are simliar

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