Industry Standards to Turn Everything On/Off

[Bill Fitzmaurice]

I didn't mention it before but there is another reason for not turning everything on at once. Every device has a high current surge at turn on, until the filter caps charge up. Individually it's not a concern, but with multiple devices it can be enough to pop the supply breaker. Since power amps have the highest current draw multiple power amps shouldn't be all powered up at the same time.

[mtglass]

Great point, thanks Bill. I'm think with digital routing of signals, that it changes the possibilities for Pro Audio. I'd like to move the ADC all the way onboard the instrument / microphone, and the DAC to the power amp. Keeping the signal digital as long as possible. Since that requires a network, there's lot of opportunity, and spare bandwidth, to do a lot of signalling on the same network infrastructure. My initial question about 12V triggers was dumb, because that would be a separate network. But if I have to tie everything together with ethernet anyhow, then might as well wake up all the audio appliances on the network as needed. One less thing for the sound guy to remember. This is currently done with a lot of proprietary protocols / technologies, so I'm hoping someone has insight into the standards groups to see if there's something applicable. If I brew something up from scratch, then it's not helpful as I see it, yet another standard that isn't interoperable.

[Old Mike]

Also check out https://neurochrome.com/

Tom is a very talented engineer, I have an occasional beer with him.

[Radian]

Do a search for “switched PDU” or “managed boot bar”. That’ll get the OP in the ballpark. Like Bruce was saying though, be ready to open ‘yer wallet a little for a new one. Finding something used should be a little more manageable.

[mtglass]

Thank you Old Mike and Radian. I'm not a talented engineer, but I am an engineer so it's very helpful to have other design to look at.

[Zippie]

At the expense of sounding like I’m repeating a comment Bruce made briefly, I’ll give some thought.

I’m a little out of the loop as far as the LAN wake up over network stuff. Might be better to ask in a IOT forum.

As far as audio equipment powering in stages:
What you sound like you are asking for in terms of delaying power on/off is a power sequencer.

Like Bruce mentioned they are popular in fixed installations and can be pricey.

Furman makes power strips and rack mounted conditioners and has an entire ecosystem based around relay controlled delayed power systems.

Functionally you start the delay sequence by flipping a switch at FOH. The system then runs power down in reverse starting with power amps, processing, on stage racks or wireless, finally working its way back to the FOH rig and console however you set it up.

Upon flipping the same switch to power things on it knows to work in forward sequence starting with FOH rig, wireless, on stage racks, processing and finally power amps. This can be programmed with varied time delays in between and also stacked in the event you don’t want all amps powering up at the same time as Bill mentioned.

I think the typical setup connects with a 4 pin euro block for most of the devices.

Looks like Sweetwater carries a lot of it.
Just look up Furman M-8s.
This rack mount power conditioner/sequencer can be sequenced and can also be daisy chained with other units.
$270ea.
It’s a multi outlet conditioner.
In the event of amps that may draw a full circuit there is a CN-15 single outlet that can be placed in the chain I believe to delay in sequence with the other things to allow larger equipment to be isolated and not stacked up.

It was very common for us to install them in theaters, churches, or school auditoriums for the ease of a one switch complete system power up or down to remove the complications of the sequence needing to be trained to multiple volunteers or students that would be responsible to fire things up or shut things down.

I think to make this useable to portable pro audio you would need to develop a quick connect system like using DMX 5 pin cable that can be pulled and rolled, then for each rack make an I/O patch panel to have quick connections to the euro block permanent terminals.

It’s not over Ethernet but it’s the function I think you are asking for. Unless you are just trying to develop something specific with the LAN wake up idea.

Hope this is helpful.
-Zip

[Bruce Weldy]

I came across something I hadn't seen before at a venue here in town. Looks like Furman has some remote on/off switches that are for being distributed around the room. Pretty expensive.

They are two outlet boxes. Especially good for situations with powered speakers.

[Zippie]

Definitely more useful for permanent install. Those in particular are nice when powered speakers are high on wall mounts or flying and you can’t get within arms reach of the cabinet.

[Bruce Weldy]

Definitely more useful for permanent install. Those in particular are nice when powered speakers are high on wall mounts or flying and you can’t get within arms reach of the cabinet.

That's what this venue was using them for. Of course they could have fixed all of their problems for no money....just moving the speakers to better locations. They ultimately did this, but swapped out all the passive speakers for QSCk12.2s (four of 'em) plus 4 of those remote Furman units. They spent thousands to upgrade just in order to hear announcements better. Not to mention that someone a while back sold them on a X32 rack mixer which nobody knows how to use and to control only one and sometimes, two mics. They could have used a small analog mixer and gotten much better results.

Another example of "just because you can doesn't mean you should." Pick the right tool for the job.

[Zippie]

+1!