Rane HAL1x Design Guide - Page 103

CHAPTER 3: Key Audio Design Features properties, simply double-click it or hover over its title bar and click the properties icon that appears in the upper right corner. As with the other internal Zone Processor blocks, this block is identical to the generic Paging Zone block. When should I include a Zone Processor block in my audio design and how many do I need? When to use a Zone Processor is a simple decision. Do you plan to use a Distributed Program Bus in your system? Are you also setting up paging? If the answer is yes to either of these questions, you should likely use one or more Zone Processor blocks! Although you could build your own zone processing functionality using individual processing blocks, why would you want to? Using a Zone Processor block saves you time and gives you automatic connections to your Distributed Program Bus and paging system. In fact, if you plan to use the Distributed Program Bus, the only way to actually include its channels in your system is via the Zone Processor (unless you're creating a room combine-see note below). NOTE: If you're designing a system for a room combine, you'll be using the Room Combine Processor block, which also includes an automatic connection to the Distributed Program Bus and the HAL paging system. In this situation, you would use the Room Processors (included in the Room Combine Processor block) instead of Zone Processors. See "About Room Combine" on page 122 for details. So how many Zone Processors do you need? As you are probably very experienced with configuring zone processing functionality, you know what constitutes a zone. But just in case you're wondering, here's a little refresher. A single Zone Processor can cover any area that has the following features: l Requires the same audio input l Requires the same relative volume for its inputs l Is a single paging zone As soon as an area's audio or paging needs differ from another area, that's your signal that you need a new Zone Processor. How do I create and configure a Zone Processor? Have we mentioned that the creation of a Zone Processor is an easy process?! To add a Zone Processor, you simply drag it from the DSP palette (the block is located in the Paging/Room Combine category) and drop it into your Processing Map. For the detailed procedure, see Creating a Zone Processor in the Halogen Help System. About Paging A key characteristic of the HAL System is its simplification of common audio design tasks-and the HAL paging system is a prime example. If you have designed paging systems before, you have likely encountered the matrix mixer mess that can occur when configuring multiple paging stations, paging zones, background music channels, routers, duckers, and so on. Well, you can say goodbye to that mess and hello to a much simpler approach. The HAL paging system saves you time by handling many aspects of your paging system for you-behind the scenes. In fact, when you use a Pager RAD for your paging station(s) in conjunction with HAL zone processing or paging zone blocks, you never have to wire an audio channel to get your paging system to work! You also never have to worry about configuring your page processing blocks in the wrong order, setting ducking priorities, or 99