Original Omni design philosophy?

[Ru_C]

I picked up an Omni for the princely sum of £250 on eBay last month, in order to upgrade my home setup from the humble Focusrite 2i2

I know i'm 13 years late to this party, but what was the original idea with the 'control room' section?

It seems kind of wasted in a 19inch rack unit, where likely placement of it isn't likely to be convenient.

There is a mysterious 'remote' socket on the back, but seemingly no remote was ever made.

Various functions of the interface can be switched from within the Pro Tools hardware setup page, but Pro Tools can't control the preamps, despite them being fly-by-wire types.

Finally to add to the puzzle, my Artist Control (bought for £110 on ebay last month!), which came out the year before in 2009, also can't control the monitoring section, or the preamps etc, despite them both being AVID branded products from the same era.

I'm just curious if there was some kind of plan that got cancelled, that would have made it all connect better?

[tope d]

Originally Posted by Ru_C

I picked up an Omni for the princely sum of £250 on eBay last month, in order to upgrade my home setup from the humble Focusrite 2i2

I know i'm 13 years late to this party, but what was the original idea with the 'control room' section?

It seems kind of wasted in a 19inch rack unit, where likely placement of it isn't likely to be convenient.

There is a mysterious 'remote' socket on the back, but seemingly no remote was ever made.

Various functions of the interface can be switched from within the Pro Tools hardware setup page, but Pro Tools can't control the preamps, despite them being fly-by-wire types.

Finally to add to the puzzle, my Artist Control (bought for £110 on ebay last month!), which came out the year before in 2009, also can't control the monitoring section, or the preamps etc, despite them both being AVID branded products from the same era.

I'm just curious if there was some kind of plan that got cancelled, that would have made it all connect better?

Hi,

May we know what Eucon version is currently installed in your system?

Thank you

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by tope d

Hi,
May we know what Eucon version is currently installed in your system?

Unfortunately EUCON is irrelevant here as the Omni does not talk EUCON.

--

The dates here are not quite correct/relevent. The Artist Control was originally from Euphonix. Avid acquired Euphonix in 2010. It would have taken additional time past the acquisition to add EUCON control to the Omni, and significant hardware changes, and Avid was going though lots of pain, at the time and this was never done. I expect it was much more important for Avid to focus Eucon efforts on getting out professional consoles to replace the Icon series... where they would be able to turn some of that Euphonix acquisition cost into direct revenue.

The Omni was a pretty nice product for the intended market. The 19-inch rack mount works very well for many consoles that have a 19"-rack above the desk, in side wells or in a side cart etc. If you are working on a conventional flat/office desk or similar look for 1U, 2U, 3U etc. flat desktop enclosures that can sit under or next to your computer monitor, or a deskside maybe sloped front cart. Omni fans can be upgraded to quieter ones if needed.

[smurfyou]

The Remote port gave us all hope but it was never realized.

Your critiques were the same we had in 2010. The Omni seemed like it had good design ideals but it got crippled.

[Ru_C]

Originally Posted by tope d

Hi,

May we know what Eucon version is currently installed in your system?

Thank you

It's apparently

Version: 2023.11.0.121
Eucon Version 4.17.2.121

cheers

[Ru_C]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Unfortunately EUCON is irrelevant here as the Omni does not talk EUCON.

--

The dates here are not quite correct/relevent. The Artist Control was originally from Euphonix. Avid acquired Euphonix in 2010. It would have taken additional time past the acquisition to add EUCON control to the Omni, and significant hardware changes, and Avid was going though lots of pain, at the time and this was never done. I expect it was much more important for Avid to focus Eucon efforts on getting out professional consoles to replace the Icon series... where they would be able to turn some of that Euphonix acquisition cost into direct revenue.

The Omni was a pretty nice product for the intended market. The 19-inch rack mount works very well for many consoles that have a 19"-rack above the desk, in side wells or in a side cart etc. If you are working on a conventional flat/office desk or similar look for 1U, 2U, 3U etc. flat desktop enclosures that can sit under or next to your computer monitor, or a deskside maybe sloped front cart. Omni fans can be upgraded to quieter ones if needed.

Right, I just googled for the Sound-on-Sound reviews of them both, which were around the 2010 mark, & assumed (wrongly) they would be more integrated that they were...ah well, can't complain for the price.

I see what you mean, with one of those racks 'built into the desk' (more like a V.O or mastering setup) it could be more ergonomic...mine seems to have been blessed with silent fans, so I must have got lucky there!

[Ru_C]

Originally Posted by smurfyou

The Remote port gave us all hope but it was never realized.

Your critiques were the same we had in 2010. The Omni seemed like it had good design ideals but it got crippled.

Gotcha, I can't imagine paying full price for one! The converters + preamps are top notch, but especially in 2010, £2.5k was a grand too much i.m.h.o

[Ryan Young]

Originally Posted by Ru_C

Gotcha, I can't imagine paying full price for one! The converters + preamps are top notch, but especially in 2010, £2.5k was a grand too much i.m.h.o

The preamps are top notch UNTIL you plug/unplug your microphone with phantom power turned on. You will blow out the pre and as far as I know it's not repairable. I have 2 OMNIs like this.

[Tim R.]

Originally Posted by Ryan Young

The preamps are top notch UNTIL you plug/unplug your microphone with phantom power turned on. You will blow out the pre and as far as I know it's not repairable. I have 2 OMNIs like this.

Hmmm. I've had my OMNI for years, and plug/unplug with phantom on on a regular basis. Never had an issue. Never heard of this issue.

[K Roche]

Originally Posted by Ryan Young

The preamps are top notch UNTIL you plug/unplug your microphone with phantom power turned on. You will blow out the pre and as far as I know it's not repairable. I have 2 OMNIs like this.

Humm ? Never had that issue either what few times I may have done it ,,, but then of course hot plug/unplug goes against Studio SOP thinking/practice pretty much since the invention of condenser mics especially with the level turned up