Part of a major project designed to support remote teaching alongside classroom attendance, the University of Malaga has equipped large number of rooms digital automatic mixers to provide ‘bimodal teaching’, and to provide a contingency should face-to-face activity be threatened in the future.

Local A/V integrator Geniux assumed overall responsibility for the project, which saw a total of 38 Audio-Technica ATDM-0604a SmartMixers installed in the Faculty of Psychology, 19 in the Faculty of Medicine, 23 in the Faculty of Law, 11 in the Faculty of Architecture and 38 in the Social Studies and Commerce Complex.

In addition to the use of more than 100 A-T ATDM-0604a mixers, each of the classrooms now carries a wide variety of audiovisual media, including webcams and extensive connectivity to allow the further development of teaching modalities.

The ATDM-0604a offers six balanced inputs with switchable 48V phantom power, low-cut filter, phase inversion and four-band EQ. Input gain can be adjusted for each mic input and attenuation for the line inputs. Its acoustic echo cancellation system applies to all balanced inputs, and there is also an unbalanced stereo input.

Two balanced mono outputs and one unbalanced stereo output are available. Output routing controls allow each input to be routed to one or both mono outputs, or to the stereo output. Each output channel is equipped with adjustable level, 12-band parametric EQ with cut filter, compressor, limiter and eight-channel feedback suppressor.

‘We opted for the ATDM-0604a because it offered us – in a very compact format – everything we needed for this application: the right number of inputs and outputs for the classroom, USB interface that allows the class to be delivered using any computer; the teachers can use their laptops, using the audiovisual infrastructure of the classroom,’ says Geniux’s Jesús Calabria. ‘Most importantly, a very efficient echo cancellation system was required, allowing for extremely clear and clean audio. We looked at different options but only Audio-Technica offered us a very compact unit that fully met our needs. It was the optimum solution, with the price and features we needed.’

The ATDM-0604 features SmartMixer technology, which automatically mixes the channels in gate or sharing mode, ensuring high quality sound without introducing feedback, excessive ambient noise or comb filtering, which is essential for such an application.

‘Another advantage of using the ATDM-0604 is that it allows us to have a homogeneous solution for the entire university, greatly facilitating the maintenance of the system, the quick replacement of equipment, spare parts etc,’ Calabria adds. ‘In addition, the inclusion of the Web Remote functionality allows us to make all the adjustments and configurations from any computer or mobile device, simply and quickly.’

Thanks to the Web Remote interface, monitoring and control tools are accessible via the mixer’s front panel or from a PC or Mac computer, as well as from iOS or Android devices. Up to six different configurations can be stored as presets, allowing users to quickly switch from one configuration to another, adapting to any classroom requirement.