Object-Based 3D Audio Engine Platform
Acoustic Reality for Spaces with High Standards
SARA II — Touring & Redundancy
A touring-ready hardware of the Astro Rendering Platform — designed for live events and installations where redundancy and road-proven operation are required.
Important Notice: We are currently reworking the SARA II Engine hardware.
During this transition phase, SARA II units may be available with significantly extended delivery times.
The full Astro Rendering Platform is available via the Black Engine. Please contact info@astroaudio.eu for details.
Black Engine — Installation & Player
Full Astro Rendering Platform capabilities in an installation-focused hardware — ideal for permanent installations and dedicated object-based playback (Player) applications.
One platform. Two hardware form factors. Choose the form factor that matches your deployment — touring / redundancy or permanent installation / Player.
Consulting-First System Design
Consulting-first, quality-driven: Every room has its own acoustic reality. We start by defining spatial goals, integration requirements and operational workflows — so the result is not just immersive, but accurate, reliable, and consistently great-sounding.
To harness the potential of object-based 3D sound within the live entertainment industries, the highest standards must be met. Astro Spatial Audio has responded accordingly by walking away from limited FPGA-based signal processing. Instead, SARA II relies on a Linux-based CPU design, delivering huge benefits in terms of power, scalability and upgradability.
Even with full CPU processing, latency can be guaranteed to be below 5ms. Control couldn’t be simpler with browser-based access to an intuitive GUI, and simultaneous control from multiple devices, ranging from mixing consoles and DAWs to tablets and phones running either Android or iOS. The front panel of each SARA II boasts a 2.8″ TFT LCD colour touchscreen with a number of different control options.
Developed and manufactured in Europe, the SARA II Premium Rendering Engine occupies just 3U of a standard rack and the Black Engine 4RU, both offering up to 128 MADI configurable audio network pathways at 48kHz/24bit resolution. All paths are assignable to at least 32 audio input channels that can be rendered to up to 128 independently processed sound source outputs.
To ensure reliability, the SARA II rack-and-road-ready engine hosts several on-board redundancy options, while systems can be linked as required to form massive immersive experiences across vast spaces. Use of the Open Sound Control (OSC) protocol delivers interoperability with third party systems.
Key Features
| SARA II | Black Engine | |
| Minimum 32 configurable audio objects | X | X |
| Up to 128 output channels | X | X |
| Madi or DANTE™ I/O | X | X |
| Web-browser based control | X | X |
| Low noise cooling | X | X |
| Redundancy options | X (power redundancy optional) | X (power redundancy optional) |
| Robust rack-mount housing | 3RU | 4RU |
| 2.8″ TFT interactive touchscreen | X | – |
System diagram
Typical 3D Spatial Audio Live Application
