Grass Valley Sonata Series MADI 2010 - Manual (Page 31)

Sonata Series — Planning and Installation Manual 31
Section
2
Planning Guide
This planning guide serves as a very short tutorial on the MADI standard,
as well as to provide suggestions as to the various ways that the Sonata con-
verter can be used.
Quick Check List
The following is a short checklist and a summary of the planning section:
1. The MADI Standard.
2. Sample-Rate Conversion.
3. Reference Considerations.
4. Dolby E and Dolby Digital signals.
5. Stand-alone use.
6. Interfacing to Maestro
The MADI Standard
The MADI standard was originally developed to help recording studios
connect mixing consoles to multi-track tape machines. Since its inception,
it has been frequently used for audio-only applications. The Sonata product
provides the opportunity to put the MADI standard to good use in a video-
based application because it can be locked to both SD and HD video refer-
ence as well as being completely compatible with MADI devices usually
used in audio only applications.
The big advantage of using the MADI standard is that devices can provide
up to 64 channels of audio (usually arranged as 32 stereo pairs) on a single
coaxial cable. The data rate is 125 Mbit/sec, and the data stream is asyn-
chronous and not locked to any reference. The AES10 standard requires
operation up to 50 meters of cable (approximately 164 feet). Normally,
equalization to extend cable length is not employed, but a fiber-optic
version of the MADI signal is specified in the AES10 standard. The Sonata