Monitoring equipment recommendation needed

Hello all,

I’m placing this in POST production due to hardware needs, but the workflow is Davinci Resolve, so I hope that’s ok.

I’ve been building a Dolby atoms studio for my video and audio hobby and I’m stuck at Monitoring.

I’ve got 2 Mac mini’s, one intel and one M1. The Intel run Davinci Resolve, with Audio Accellerator, Fairlight audio interface with the madi upgrade. The M1 has the Dolby Renderer with RME MadiFace XT.

BMD Audio accelerator MADI —> RME COAX/Opital converter —> RME MADIFace XT & RME M16 DA (channel 1-16 on Madi1).

Previously, before purchasing all the gear above, I would monitor 7.1.4 out via a DeckLink 12g extreme via HDMI, but in Davinci the DeckLink was the output device in i/o, now it’s the Fairlight audio interface.

So here’s the question. I’ve got 2 systems with audio out, Fairlight db25 and the RME M-16 DA (1/4 and/or db25), What’s the best way to monitor? Would chaining 4 Audio to SDI 4K (CONVMCAUDS4K) to an SDI to HDMI (CONVMBSH4K6G) into an HDMI port on Denon AVR (X6700H) be smart or dumb.

I’m trying to reuse a Denon AVR (passive speakers) rather than purchasing studio monitors, but maybe that’s a bad idea. Many ways to skin this, but would love to hear some pros and cons from some experts.

Thanks for any advice you can share.

Keep the monitoring configuration simple.

If using the native Atmos Renderer in Resolve Studio 17 monitor the internal Renderer via the Fairlight Audio Interface, and when using an RMU or DAPS/DAMS monitor the external Renderer directly.

Adding SDI and HDMI and multiple format conversions only complicates matters and introduces several potential points of failure. Simple is best.

Thanks Reynaud, the more and more I dig in the more I’m realizing your advice is the way to go. Keep it Simple.

Was just wondering if anyone came to a final solution? My planned build out is now very simple since the D renderer is tightly coupled in DRv18 is to go with the accelerator and piggy back card feeding into the RME 32/16DA and then out to the KRK's.

Its unfortunate that it is so difficult to find good end to end design examples. Since Fairlight is not Dante compatible it really misses out on how big Fairlight could utilized.