D21m System
6.3.15 D21m BLU LinkTM Card (,*),5033340

The D21m BLU Link card is a 32 x 32 interface between a Studer console
or router and the Soundweb London digital audio bus, informally known as
BLU Link. The card allows connection to a wide variety of Harman products
equipped with a BLU Link interface, such as BSS London BLU 800, dbx®
PMC or Crown® PIP-BLU interfaces amongst others.		 BLU Link is a low latency, fault tolerant digital audio bus of 256 channels
which gives a distance of 100m between compatible BLU Link enabled
devices using standard CAT5e cabling. To increase the distance between
devices the BSS Audio MC-1 fibre optic media converter can be used to spanover 10km using single mode fibre.
Additional information about the Soundweb London BLU Link digital audio
bus may be found on the BSS web site www.bssaudio.com* Supported Product family
VistaOnAirRoute 6000		

Max. Cat5e cable length
Sample Rate		
Power consumption
Operating temperature		PrimaryDantePort
Link/Speed LED

SecondaryDante
PortBNC

100 m
only 48 kHz supportedapprox. 5 W
0-40 °CDIPFlashSwitches Memory

Gigabit
EthernetSwitch(AVB)

Link/Speed LED

90from SW Version
V 5.1
V 6.1
V2.2.14 Patch 02

Brooklyn IIModule

Audio In

Audio In
Audio OutControl

Audio OutFPGAControl
Sync

Backplane		

Clock
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D21m System

S0123456

ON

Master/Slave SwitchON

6.3.15.1

12345678

S1

Configuring the BLU Link Card		 Before the BLU Link card .may be used, the switches that define master /slave status and channel assignment must be configured. These switches areaccessed by removing the card from its slot and looking at the top side of the‘dual-pcb’ section.		
Master / Slave switch

The master / slave switch determines the clock source for the BLU Linknetwork.
• When set as master (switch set IN) the BLU Link card clocks the networkfrom the consoles clock. There can only be one master BLU Link card inthe system.
• When any other device is set as the master, the BLU Link card needs tobe configured as slave (switch set OUT).		

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When operating in slave mode, provision must be made to clock the console
or router from the BLU Link network by connecting an external cable (supplied with the card), from the 9-pin DSub connector Wordclock out socketon the BLU Link card, to the BNC Wordclock IN socket of the SCoreLiveor Compact SCore. When this cable is connected, the green LOCK LED will91

D21m System
illuminate next to the Cores Wordclock in BNC socket. Failure to connect thesync cable in slave mode will result in occasional audio clicks.
Channel assign DIP switch S0

The channel assign switches dictate which group of channels on the BLU
Link network the card “listens” and “speaks” to.		 DIP switch S0 has six switches. The leftmost three switches (1-3) are used
to select the on-ramp bank (card speaks to BLU Link). The rightmost threeswitches (4-6) are used to select the off-ramp bank (card listens to BLU Link).
Channels not used by the BLU Link card are simply passed “through”.
DIP Switches

S0

Note

6.3.15.2

BLU Link network channel assign setting:
1
OFFOFF
OFFOFFONONONON

BLU Link On-Ramp (Outputs from console)
2
3 Selected Channels
OFF OFF 1-32
OFF ON 33-64
ON OFF 65-96
ON ON 97-128
OFF OFF 129-160
OFF ON 161-192
ON OFF 193-224
ON ON 225-256

4OFFOFFOFFOFFONONONONBLU Link Off-Ramp (Inputs to console)
5
6 Selected Channels
OFF OFF 1-32
OFF ON 33-64
ON OFF 65-96
ON ON 97-128
OFF OFF 129-160
OFF ON 161-192
ON OFF 193-224
ON ON 225-256

Whenever the On Ramp and Off Ramp selections match, no audio is extracted
from BLU Link, but instead the audio being sent out of the card will be loopedback and will appear on the BLU Link input channels.

Channel count setup		 The BLU Link card uses 32 in and 32 out channels by default, but can be
restricted to use less input or output channels if required. For example, if onlyoutput channels are required on the BLU Link card, the input channels can be
set to 0, to maximise the number of input channels available for other cards.
DIP Switch

S1

DIP switch for D21m channel count setting:
192

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

Number of Channels

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6.3.15.3

OFFOFF
ON
OFF-

OFF
ON
OFF
OFF---OFF
OFF
OFF
ON

OFFOFFONOFF-

0 inputs
8 inputs
16 inputs
32 inputs
OFF 0 outputs
ON 8 outputs
OFF 16 outputs
OFF 32 outputs (factory default)

Sync Setup				
Connector Pin Assignment

Solder/Crimp View
(or Socket View)

6.3.15.4

OFFOFFOFFON-not used

not used

D21m SystemP1

9561

The card is shipped with a short Wordclock sync cable (9-pin D to BNC) for
connection to the console’s Wordclock input when the console has to slaveto the BLU link network (In the case of a card installed in a stagebox, anextension BNC cable may be required, depending on relative location of local
rack and stagebox).
Please also verify that the cards master / slave switch is in the correct position(described on previous page).
Wordclock Out (9-pin D-type, female)Pin495
8SignalWordclock Out (TTL)
Signal GND
Chassis GND
Chassis GND

BLU Link LED indicators

Each BLU Link port features two LED’s which are indicating the status:		
• Yellow LED : lights when the port is ‘alive’ indicating the card has booted
and ready for use.
• Green LED : lights when it is connected correctly to another BLU Linkdevice.

6.3.15.5

Connecting BLU Link devices		 BLU Link devices interconnect using standard Cat5e UTP Ethernet cable.
Connections must be made from the OUT of one device to the IN of the nextdevice.		 Redundancy is achieved by linking the OUT of the last device into the IN of
the first device.

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