Having led the uptake of FPGA technology on postproduction DAWs, Fairlight has launched its second-generation Crystal Core (CC-2) technology, claiming to it to be ‘the most powerful postproduction audio engine ever created’.

CC-2 supports 1000 playback channels, 100-plus output buses and 100 live inputs. CC-2 is fully compatible with the audio hardware currently operating with the company's established CC-1 engine.

‘Future proofing our technology has long been at the heart of our business philosophy,’ says Tino Fibaek, Fairlight Chief Technical Officer. ‘With the launch of CC-2, we have ensured that existing customers can easily upgrade without having to replace their current audio interfaces or control surfaces. This means they can extend the life of their original hardware investment, whilst benefiting from the increased capacity that CC-2 brings.’

The CC-2 engine uses a processor that is five times more powerful than the chip in its CC-1 engine. It also has four times the PCIe bandwidth, new dual-channel memory architecture, an onboard expansion slot and almost twice the Madi connectivity.

Extending Fairlight’s editing functionality, new v5 operating software sees the addition of Clipbender, an enhanced time compression and expansion feature allowing audio within a single clip to be aligned to picture, with multiple bend points and real-time, non-destructive processing. The software has advanced to a full 64-bit application, allowing unrestricted access to the power of Intel’s latest processors. The associated increase in memory and speed will accommodate more simultaneous plug-ins, more video formats and larger media files. When used in combination with CC-2, this platform delivers faster than real-time, offline mixdown.

Also developed as part of the new 64-bit architecture is a new video engine, using GPU acceleration for real-time video processing, offering support 4K video resolution and built-in HEVC decoding.

More: www.fairlight.com.au