At the recent NAB convention in Las Vegas (USA),
the first CopperLan licensee in the broadcast industry, Radio Systems Inc. of Logan New Jersey, was unveiling its new modular radio console system that uses the CopperLan technology to handle command and control while the audio streaming relies on Livewire, a technology from Axia Audio.

The new PLATFORM console includes multiple physical and virtual control surfaces, each controlling one or more audio engines. Given their high performance standards and long list of required features for connection and communication, Radio Systems found with CopperLan a ready-made comprehensive solution, dramatically reducing the integration effort.
Using CopperLan was also fulfilling the desire to provide openness and collaboration in system control, enabling the broadcast community to benefit from manufacturers and products that work well together.

The show was a very good opportunity for us to meet and discuss in details the implementation of CopperLan’s broadcast solutions.

We spent a fair share of time with manufacturers of outboard gear. Among them, those whose products rely on GPIO find network solutions, however appealing, unfortunately rather tedious to implement and maintain, given the usual associated software issues. It is precisely this stumbling block that gets removed with CopperLan’s software offering.
Not only do we maintain the CopperLan service on six different platform and OS variations, but we also provide universal Manager software that allows editing of any CopperLan compliant product, hence not mandating the supply of any computer application software.

Our single-chip drop-in Ethernet solution was equally found a valuable asset in product development as it provides the benefit of distributed intelligence even in simple controls, such as those found in radio turrets.

The remainder of our time at the show was devoted to companies that produce consoles and more complex systems. Since they are unavoidably confronted with challenging network and automation issues, they voiced their appreciation for our zero-configuration non-IP based protocol that eliminates the risk of interference/conflict with other network streams or potential hacking.
The VPN (virtual private network) capability was also praised as it allows instant maintenance calls or remote radio performance over the Internet.

For many, an element of surprise was the fact that CopperLan does not mandate the use of computers (a setup can indeed consist of hardware units only, and since there is no "master unit", there is no critical gear whose failure could jeopardize the entire system).

We believe this convention was a successful and rewarding event for CopperLan not only in the light of the many constructive meetings we had, but also because of the interesting requests, suggestions and feedback on behalf of the community.
This strengthens our belief that our ready-made solution will further instill inspiration in the design of innovative products.

The Frankfurt Musik Messe 2010 was from many aspects a special event for CopperLan.
After several years of development and quite a few beta versions of the SDK, at last we were able to issue a Release Candidate version.
We also made public the CopperLan Manager, a multi-platform application that allows viewing, connecting, editing, and storing settings for CopperLan setups.(freely available to download)

The display of actual commercial products using CopperLan was a source of great interest and excitement.
This is quite an achievement when one realizes that these were developed from a beta SDK. This tells a lot about the trust and enthusiasm of those companies towards our technology. They deserve our deepest thanks.

The dutch company Kiss-Box, specialized in installation equipment for show control, transport and interfacing had a 19" Octal MIDI to CopperLan rack mount unit.

Radio Systems (USA), a renowned provider of consoles and systems for the world of broadcast had a prototype of a modular mixing system with both hardware and software versions of its control units on display.
The whole system in its final configuration will premiere at the forthcoming NAB show in Las Vegas.
The demonstrations were carried out by inDSP, the company in charge of the product development of the system.

Ultimate Sound Bank (FR), is a software company known for its UVI sound engine being included into other companies synthesizers and sound players.
They were showing the forthcoming update of their UVI Workstation in its CopperLan capable version.

We will cover these products in more details when they are finalized and ready to go to market.

On the technology integration front, we had a Firewire audio system from ZP Engineering showcasing their know-how in integrating CopperLan control with audio streaming.

There are many other things brewing. The companies involved could not make it in time for the show.
Others developers just do not wish at this stage to publicly disclose their plans.

Besides these commercial announcements, we had a few more interesting items to demonstrate.
Thanks to the kind collaboration of Behringer who gave us one of their new flashy red UMX-250 controller keyboard, including code and schematics, we made it CopperLan.
Given our tight and busy schedule before the show, we weren't able to implement all the ideas we had in mind. Nevertheless, the instrument was able to play in true CopperLan way, with on-the-fly individual keys tuning, and doing step sequencing with gating dissociated from the melody steps, each running at its own pace.

Camille Troillard, the independent developer behind Osculator, "the" OSC swiss-knife software, wrote us a Wiimote to CopperLan application. This allows a number of Wiimotes to appear on a CopperLan network as controllers acting on sound generators. Think of the fun of playing free pitch to software as easy as to CV/Gate analog stuff, all through a unified network.
There were also the complete set of CopperLan to/from CV/Gate modules we had at the NAMM.
To round up the set we had USB devices, host, MIDI interfaces, a demo VST/CopperLan plugin, and many more applets, each demonstrating a particular aspect of the technology.

But this Frankfurt was not just about us doing our show, we went to meet manufacturers, and many we met!
Those fruitful meetings will no doubt lead to product announcements using CopperLan.

When music synthesis was not digital and even less virtual, all what cables were carrying was voltage. Were it audio or control, anything could be sent anywhere, and it is still the case with today’s descendants of the early modular behemoths.
It is interesting to note that both old and new can still talk to each other after half a century of technological leaps.

Over the years, digital electronics and computers have brought undeniable benefits to music creation.
Remains a puzzling question: why are there today more manufacturers of modular synths than when the genre was prevailing? Are our shiny computers and interfaces not supposed to have solved all the trouble of the past? You may argue about the intuitiveness and tactile feedback of real knobs (agreed), the sound character (it’s up to you to judge).

Whatever the reason, modular is still with us in this computer age. But you have to admit that modular and computers do not unite too well. In fact they live in two different worlds.
This is a pity, because many complex functions could be implemented in a computer more richly and cheaper than with cryptic mechanical switches (not to mention the missing benefit of a high-res screen).

The trouble is that computers and network switches usually lack CV jacks. Computers are not naturally meant to blend with patching cables.
Other limitations quickly spring to mind: why be limited to a single computer? Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to give old computers a second life as if they each were additional modules to your patchable racks? What about setting up an intricate device without having to struggle with its user interface as if you were trying to break the code of the enigma machine?

This entire preamble illustrates the current situation that is far from being satisfactory, and a status quo is not desirable.

Hopefully, more fun awaits around the corner. When the foundations of CopperLan were laid out, great care was taken to safeguard the freedom of controlling the music creation as with modular synths in the system definition: not only the possibility to carry the values that represent voltages but also a messaging vocabulary as flexible as a patch cable.
This is why, with CopperLan, you can send anything anywhere; the (free and continuous) pitch can be specified independently of any gating, the gating, triggering and retriggering being distinct actions. Functional blocks can be self-modulating under the control of a third party; yes, complete modular freedom!
Merging modular synths, networking and computers with CopperLan allows going well beyond what the separate constituents permit when taken separately.

Think of separating a module in two, so that part of it exist as a piece of hardware in a rack and its other half as a set of undulating waves on a computer display. Think of mathematical processes that you insert in your patch rack as easily as a cable.
Combining CV, MIDI, hardware, software, while decoupling the control and the result, as well as the need and the place, assigning to each part the best role in its domain. That’s what one would call modular.

How do you develop a new product that combines CopperLan with digital audio and maybe DSP? Where do you start?
Well, many questions may arise when facing a new world of possibilities.

To help you accelerate the adoption of CopperLan, independent advice is now available from two specialized subcontractors.
They have a proven track in the business and a know-how recently enriched by their knowledge of CopperLan implementations.

You can contact them directly: www.indsp.com, www.zpeng.com.

For design and counseling in products without digital audio links, you can contact ICT7, the company in charge of the CopperLan framework and SDK development: www.ict7.com

A few months ago we established a partnership with ZP Engineering to work on the integration of CopperLan in pro-audio links. We now have a demo platform based on their PicoDM3 Audio interface. We use it to demonstrate how a Firewire-based multichannel audio product can benefit from all CopperLan goodies.

Adding CopperLan to the PicoDM3 was done by ZP Engineering themselves, using our network plugin. This plugin approach allows the developers or proponents of a given connectivity to add CopperLan support to their system all on their own.
This is how standard or custom links can be easily integrated into the CopperLan fused pool of connectivity without having to modify/update the existing CopperLan Virtual Network code that runs on a computer.

By design, CopperLan is versatile enough to conform to any type of link (point-to-point, networked, master/slave) and we do not favor any one over any other.
This is why we continue to look at expanding CopperLan to other transports. The next developments are already under way.
First, we plan a small board that will add CopperLan capability to AES50 products (in this case, based on a ZP Engineering AES50 solution).
Secondly, we follow very closely the Ethernet AVB progresses towards standardization, and we should be able to make some announcement in 2010.

For more info about these specifications: www.aes50ta.org, www.avnu.org

This fall, we have finalized a set of demo hardware. So, instead of relying on off-the-shelf demo kits from chip vendors, we have our own set of circuit boards neatly boxed. There are networked MIDI, CV-in and out devices, an Ethernet to USB Host interface, and a control panel with LCD (the latter, to finalize).

It is time to show how CopperLan can fulfill the hardware needs of the MI and pro-audio businesses beyond the basic knob-turning setting change. It also gives us a good opportunity to conduct some performance measurements with “real” equipment. (more about these figures to follow).

This equipment is now part of our touring demo in addition to the various software applications. All the schematics and related code are available to manufacturers as a starting point for their own designs.

For quite a while, we've had good ties with the people at IRCAM. So far, the relationship was of a rather 'academic' type!
This is to say, they were waiting for us to deliver some hardware development platform in order to start the hard work.

Now that the hardware SDK is available, we should hear from them before too long.

We can’t wait to see the result coming out of this wedding of art and technology that the IRCAM is renowned for.