Phoenix Audio Octopus - Manual (Page 3)

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Product Concept
The Octopus is designed for easy installation and setup
therefore the microphones are mixed automatically utilizing a
sophisticated Beamforming mixer algorithm. This means that
the Octopus will assess the signals picked up by all the
microphones, and decide, instantaneously, which one will take
part in the mixing and with what level of emphasis (weight). At
any point any number of microphones can take part in the
mixing, from a single microphone to all of them – the unit will
make the assessment automatically and will control the mixing
parameters. The user does not have to (and actually cannot)
control the process. The microphones that are selected to take
part in this automatic process are referred to in this document
as Matrix microphones
In addition to the Matrix microphones, the user can define up
to four unique input channels; each of them can be designated
as “Sound Reinforcement” (referred hereon as SR) or
“Auxiliary” (referred hereon as AUX). Both types of unique
channels will be summed with the Beamforming output; they
will also be summed with the incoming “far-end” signal and
played through the local speakers (the user can control the
level of local playback for each unique channel separately and
independent from the far-end playback level). These channels
can be used for local amplification of a podium microphone
(SR channel) or local amplification of a pre-recorded
presentation (AUX). The difference between these two types is
in the way the echo and feedback cancellers treat them.
Each Octopus unit can manage up to four input channels, but
is capable to connect to other Octopus units for an unlimited
expansion. For the expanded setup units are configured as
either Slaves or a Master. The Master communicates with the
conferencing unit (VoIP, Video Codec or Telephone) and
receives, into its microphone inputs, the output of Slave units.
Each of the Slaves can act as a lower hierarchy Master
(referred to as a mid-level Master) and as such receive into its
microphone inputs lower level Slaves. The Matrix microphones
are connected to the lowest level Slaves. The following
guidelines apply to the connection:
• A Master unit will be configured at the top of the chain;
it will be connected to the communication line. Its
inputs can be assigned as unique channels (SR or
AUX) or Slave’s output.
• The Slaves that are connected to this Master can be
used as mid-level Masters and be fed from lower level
Slaves. Note: anything referred to as a mid-level
Master in this document must be designated as a
Slave when running the Setup Wizard.
• All the inputs of a Slave unit are of similar nature. More
specifically – if one of the inputs is designated as
Slave’s output then all the inputs will be assigned the
same.
• The Matrix microphone will be connected to the lowest
level Slaves.
• When all the units are connected, the output of the
whole setup results in the automatic Beamforming
process of all the microphones + the SR channels +
the AUX channels.
This Layered Star expansion configuration is explained in
detail in the following chapters.