Blackmagic Forum

Hi all!

New to the forum. I'm a sound tech who uses the Ursa Pro Mini almost daily. I quite appreciate it's audio features, but I'm having an issue. The AES inputs on 2 separate Ursa Pro Minis are not working. They When "AES" is selected and when feeding digital audio via the correct cable, no signal is present. I am definitely selecting AES correctly in the audio tab as well as manually with the switch not he side. I'm wondering if there is something I'm missing or if there are firmware problems. (Im currently up to date on 4.9)

Thanks!

Blake

Good question, AES might not yet be supported on the Ursa Pro. I would contact BM Support directly and ask this question, this is a users forum, and I have not read about anyone trying timuse AES audio with thenUM Pro. This is a great audio feature, as yiu can add a small mixer like the SD MixPre D, and feed it’s two output channels via AES on one cable vs two, and keep the signals in digital domain.

Cheers

AES has been supported in the Pro since launch.

If you have checked the XLR input switches are set to AES and your two channels are set in the AUDIO menu for AES on channel 1 or 2 for each XLR then you should be getting level.

Please contact support about this with information on your exact setup as AES is working on the Pro on 4.9 software update.

Check your sample rate.

Our Ursa Mini Pro is happy receiving AES at 48kHz, but it just silently ignores anything it doesn't like (such as 96kHz AES coming from our Sound Devices).

Thanks for confirming AES is working Tim. But are yiu saying you on,y get one AES channel per XLR, as AES supports two channels on one XLR connector?
Cheers

You can assign AES 1 and 2 from XLR 1 or AES 1 and 2 from XLR 2 or one channel of each.

Only two channels total supported on the Pro or the Broadcast right now.

Thanks again Tim for the added info. Good to know this is available on the Broadcast Camera also.
Cheers

Thank you everyone for the replies. I appreciate it.

As it turns out, I had my sample rate at 44.1. Once I changed it to 48 the single was present when hardwired to my mixer. I am still not able to get signal via Zaxcom RX200, but I am now suspecting that perhaps the RX200 is faulty (its right audio channel is very quiet, so perhaps whatever has failed to cause that issue has also broken AES). I'm receiving a new unit tomorrow and will report back.

I've just heard from Zaxcom that the RX200 puts out 96KHZ digital audio. Tim, does this mean I simply can't use AES with the Zaxcom gear? (the RX200 does not allow you to change sample rates).

Please confirm or deny David's findings that the Ursa Mini Pro requires 48 KHZ when using AES.

thanks

Tim will need to confirm this, but the camera is probably locked at 48KHz, as 48KHz, is the normal pro video recording audio samo,I gotta Rate. CDs are 44.1, and 96Khz or higher, is primarily used by high end audio production facilities and doing digital audio masters, which are then down sampled and compressed for distribution.

NARA recommends recording or digitizing audio using an uncompressed lossless codec, such as WAV-PCM file, which NARA also recommends, that agencies should record the audio tracks of digital video recordings at 48KHz. So 48KHz at 24-bit has become the defacto standard for professional video audio recording at the present time.

Most cameras I have every used, have fixed audio sampling rate settings, some have the option for compress PCM or LPCM which uses A bitrate limit for LPCM audio based p, on DVD-Video, is also 6.144 Mbit/s, allowing 8 channels (7.1 surround) × 48 kHz × 16-bit per sample = 6,144 kbit/s.
Cheers

I appreciate the thoughts, Denny.

I'm heard from others the opposite sentiment: that many pro cameras have internal sample rate conversion.

I'm waiting to to get confirmation from black magic that the Ursa Pro indeed cannot accept 96khz. It'd be a bummer to not have the ability to use my Zaxcom digital wireless hop in AES mode, which is super useful.

Any further info, Tim?

Thanks all.

I agree, it would be a bummer. If the camera could down-sample the rate from 96KHz to 48, there would be a menu option to select this. Yes, while some the newer cameras can probably down sample the audio, but they are still only recording it at 48KHz.
Cheers