The Delec Oratis is a no-compromise, fully-featured intercom system designed to meet the demanding requirements of world-class broadcasting organisations, live performance spaces, sports arenas and other major venues.
Subscriber panels have 16 destination keys, and are available as either 1U panels or free-standing desktop units, both with integral high-quality gooseneck mics. A 1U 16-key expander panel is also available. Each panel has four “layers”, giving a total of 64 destinations, and the keys are able to display 64 different colours and 18 characters of any language or alphabet. Any key may initiate a group or conference call to a pre-defined set of destinations. All aspects of each panel’s configuration is software-defined in IcconXP, and thus may be altered to suit different operational requirements. Each panel incorporates an internal 8 x 8 audio matrix, which allows the connection of additional headsets, loudspeakers, auxiliary inputs such as local suite feeds, etc. The setup of the local matrix is specific to the panel and is not overridden by a global system reconfiguration.
Oratis is based on a system of modular matrix router frames. These are available in various sizes, able to support from 56 to 248 ports. Ports may be added at any time in multiples of either 8, 64 or 128 by adding additional matrix cards at any time; additional frames may be added in the same manner. System architecture is extremely flexible, and larger systems - both in terms of numbers of subscribers and multiple locations - may be readily realised by interconnecting frames or groups of frames together via one or more R4000 fibre routers. The maximum capacity of Oratis is 4096 ports. A proprietary TDM buss handles data communications within each frame while frame-to-frame communications utilise Ethernet Layer2, generally over dedicated fibre connections. Standard industry IT network hardware may be employed for inter-site connections where direct fibre is not practical.
Matrix cards are available in several versions, to suit the method of audio connection being implemented. Most new installations will utilise AES3 for this purpose, but VOIP and analogue-plus-RS232 may be specified as alternatives to permit interfacing to existing or third-party systems. Standard matrix cards support 8 external ports, but single and dual MADI versions may also be specified, allowing 64 or 128 ports respectively per card.
Oratis is essentially a 100% non-blocking intercom system, but may be configured as partially blocking to suit multi-site requirements. This allows each location to operate largely autonomously and be managed and configured locally, while retaining full facility-wide non-blocking capability. Point-to-point, Group (one-to-many) and Conference (many-to-many) calls may be set up anywhere in the system, as required.
A high level of redundancy and resilience to partial failure is inherent in Oratis’s design. Instead of central processing, each matrix card has its own DSP allocation and runs independently of all other cards. Failure of a matrix card will affect only that card’s ports, the remainder of the system continuing to operate normally. In addition, as the configuration of each matrix card is downloaded to it at power-up, any card may be hot-swapped. All frames come with two independent PSUs as standard and all fibre interfaces are dual.
Audio distribution within the system is 24-bit at 48 kHz sample rate. The Oratis router may therefore be employed as a broadcaster’s main router or as a temporary backup router in the event of catastrophic failure or maintenance down-time, with no loss of audio quality.
An Oratis system is configured using Delec’s IcconXP software application. This uses a graphical interface, allowing rapid, simple, drag-and-drop system definition. IcconXP covers all aspects of a system’s configuration including subscriber panel setups, group assignments, logic definitions for control and signalisation functions, etc.