Sonifex RB-MTV1

Contribution Voice-over Monitor with Talkback

The RB-MTV1 contribution voice-over monitor is a 1U rack-mount designed to be used in voice-over booths, news booths, commentary locations, for continuity announcements and for any other similar applications where voice needs to be added to programme content and then monitored. Programme feeds, auxiliary feeds, and a talkback feed can be taken and monitored.

The RB-MTV1 has four inputs and two outputs. It has a mono microphone input on XLR with switched coarse gain and variable fine gain control using a multi-turn preset potentiometer to give an overall gain range from +20dB to +80dB. There is also a switched LF rumble filter, switched +48V phantom power and switched level limiting control. A rear-panel multi-turn preset potentiometer allows adjustment of the threshold at which the limiter begins to operate, from -8dBu to +26dBu. There is an indication of the limiter activity using a blue LED and the microphone level is monitored by a simple 5 LED meter.

You can set the meter to display the MIC signal activity in two ways:

1. Normal operation, where the meter turns off when TALK is pressed.
2. Permanent display of MIC activity, regardless of whether the TALK button is on or the MIC button is off.

There is a mono balanced TALKBACK input on XLR. There are two balanced XLR stereo inputs, CUE, and programme (PGM) each with a 10dB input gain switch to facilitate the use of unbalanced sources such as from PC audio cards, domestic CD players, etc.

You can mix and monitor MIC, TALKBACK, CUE, and PGM in front and rear headphone outputs with separate volume controls. To select which input goes to the headphones, use two sets of DIPswitches under the unit: one for left earpiece audio and one for right earpiece audio. For instance, you can send left and right PGM to the right earpiece and other signals to the left earpiece. Or, send TALK signal to the right earpiece and all other signals to both earpieces. In this way, you can configure the unit for your particular application on installation. If a presenter doesn’t like to hear themselves in their headphones when using the TALK button, there is also a DIP switch option to mute the mic signal to the headphones.

There are two mono balanced outputs. The processed microphone signal is fed to the two outputs when the latching front panel MIC button is active – the button illuminates when active.

The two main outputs can be independently switched to be at ‘Line’ or ‘Mic’ level outputs using rear panel push switches. Setting the output to a microphone level allows the unit to be inserted into the microphone channel of a mixer. There is an option to permanently enable the MIC button, even when remotely controlled, for occasions when you always want the MIC channel left open. Additionally, there is an option to mix the CUE input as a mono feed to the outputs permanently.

The front panel TALK button is a momentary push switch that routes the processed microphone signal to the “LAZY” TALK output, whilst disconnecting it from the main outputs, allowing the operator to talk to a colleague. This enables the unit to be used as a talkback intercom between two or more studios.

There is a rear panel remotes connector giving remote control of the two front panel MIC and TALK buttons and opto-isolated tallies of their status. A red LED on the front panel of the unit indicates when power is present.

 RB-MTV1 Block Diagram.