Pre Purchase : Ultrastudio Pro audio metering questions

I posted these questions previously in the Post Production forum, but I'm guessing they would be more at home here in the Getting Started section (plus I didn't get any answers over there, so if at first you don't succeed ...)

I'm considering adding the UltraStudio Pro to our (PC based) edit suites and am interested to know some tech details regarding the front piece levels display. I think basically I just need to know if the metering is just some nice eye candy (and thats fine if that's all it is) or if its more technically accurate and configurable than that. For example: Is the audio metering channel switchable or a fixed 2 channel downmix display only? As far as I can tell, the audio meters do not appear to display any direct indication of the actual levels being monitored. Are the (green/orange, orange/red) threshold levels user definable or are they fixed? Is there any means to switch between a full scale display and reference scale display? And is it possible to switch between PPM, VU and True Peak display or is it strictly VU only.

Sorry for repeating the questions, and thanks for your time.
Andy Mees

Just bumping this up in the vain hope that if another 21 people view this thread then maybe one of them will be someone from Blackmagic Design who is both willing and able to help answer .... then again it's probably all hands to the wheel for IBC at the moment so heres wishing you luck at the show and I'll be back to bug you again after!

Cheers
Andy

Just in case anyone ever comes searching with the same question, I did eventually get round to sending these questions directly to my local Blackmagic office and they answered within about 10 minutes ... plus phoned me up half an hour later to discuss. Excellent support.

In a nutshell, at present the audio meters on the Ultrastudio Pro are purely there as a confidence check ie they are indicating only that audio is present, it's not an accurate level display.

Thanks again to the Blackmagic team in the Singapore office.
Cheers
Andy

Hi Andy, thanks for posting the answer to your own question; like you I have been searching for the same information. Unlike you however, my interest in the Mac-esque meter was post-purchase. The first thing I did upon un-boxing the USP was inspect the housing for level attenuators. After finding none I was hopeful there might be a software solution but of course no luck. Despite that, I still would have purchased the USP for various other reasons.

The Singapore technician mentioned that "at present" the meter is for audio confidence, did you receive any indication this might change?

...did you receive any indication this might change?

No, not at all. The line in question simply states that "As of now, it does not serve any audio reference or metering purposes." Hard to predict the future, but given that BMD have a single driver/software solution for all their I/O products these days, and as no other product has any meaningful levels display, I'm not especially hopeful of seeing it happen.

Never say never tho ... and in the meantime, it still serves its primary function well, plus its pretty
Andy