Yamaha Music Europe’s tenth annual system designer’s conference saw 120 delegates gather at the Valencia campus of Berklee College of Music to experience a cross-industry collaboration from Yamaha, Barco, Dolby and Unique Cinema Systems.

Hosted at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, the conference allowed audio professionals to meet and discuss the latest trends in technology and best practice prevalent around Europe. This year’s theme, ‘Multi-channel Audio for Entertainment and Professional Communication,’ incorporated multiple manufacturers for the first time, with companies including Barco, Dolby Laboratories, Nexo, Revolabs, Steinberg Media Group and Unique Cinema Systems joining Yamaha.

Attendees could visit three demonstration rooms hosting seminars featuring bespoke audio systems. One session dedicated to three-dimensional audio reproduction led by Barco, Dolby Laboratories, Unique Cinema Systems and Yamaha featured a lecture theatre set up supporting the Yamaha AFC3, Dolby Atmos and Barco’s IOSONO Immersive Sound specifications within a single, shared system.

The system comprised a 10m x 8m x 4m truss, featuring 56 Nexo and Yamaha loudspeakers and driven by networked Nexo and Yamaha power amplifiers. The Dante and MADI-based system was managed by a single Yamaha MRX7-D signal processor, which merged the three multi-channel inputs from a Yamaha AFC3 active field control processor, a Dolby Atmos RMU processor (controlled by Nuage Digital Audio Workstation) and an IOSONO core processor.

Another room, Studio 81, saw a full scale Dante network with switches, i/o racks, mixing consoles and DSP engines being demonstrated. It also featured a Disklavier grand piano integrated with Yamaha’s MusicCast wireless audio distribution system to.

Meanwhile, a full conference system was installed in Sala B (Hall B) to showcase multi-channel wired and wireless microphone systems, local PA for conferencing and distant communication using a combination of technologies, including automatic echo cancelling.

In addition to the three main demonstration rooms, a number of other topics – including applications of software-defined media, immersive audio solution concepts and design, 2.4GHz wireless microphone technologies and 2D/3D live sound limitations and perspectives – were up for discussion at the event in Aula Magistral hall.