Core Nano

What it works with

For checking fit before you specify. Every figure below is taken from the published specification of the product named.

The first question is whether anything in the room is analog

The published analog I/O on this Core is none — the specification lists networked endpoints in its place. A room with a legacy wireless microphone receiver, a program-audio feed off a PC line output, or a contact closure driving a screen has nothing on this box to land on. Core 8 Flex is the same processor with that problem solved: 8 analog Flex channels on board, 8 x 8 GPIO and 2 x RS-232, with +48 VDC phantom at 10 mA per input and converters at 24-bit, 48 kHz. Both publish 64 x 64 Q-LAN / AES67, 8 AEC processors, up to 2 VoIP instances, 12 x 12 WAN channels and up to 32 network peripherals — so the choice between them is the analog question and almost nothing else. This Core does publish 2 RS-232 ports of its own.

Thirty-two peripherals is a budget, and a real room spends it

Every networked endpoint counts against the published ceiling of 32. In a typical build that is the microphones, the loudspeakers, the camera, the touch controller and the amplifier if there is one: four NM-T1 table microphones, eight NL-C4 ceiling loudspeakers, an NC-110 camera and a TSC-101 touch controller is fourteen of them before anything is added. Count the schedule against 32 at design time, not at commissioning.

The Core does not power the endpoints — the switch does

Its published network specification is two gigabit ports, assignable to VoIP, control, audio or redundancy. No PoE output appears there, so the power budget belongs to the switch — and the endpoints do not all ask for the same class. The NM-T1 publishes PoE Type 1 Class 2, under 6.5 W. The NL-C4 publishes PoE+ Type 2 Class 4; the NL-P4 pendant publishes Class 4 on either type, rated 12 W on PoE and 24 W on PoE+. The TSC-101 publishes PoE+ Class 4 on a single gigabit RJ45. Cabling for the loudspeakers is Cat5e or better.

Whether an amplifier is in the design at all

If the loudspeakers are NL Series there is no amplifier: the NL-C4 and NL-P4 each take one Cat5e run and carry their own amplification over PoE. Where passive speakers are already in the ceiling, or the consultant has specified them, the CX-Q 2K4 comes back into the design — and it is itself one of the 32 peripherals, native to Q-LAN for transport, control and monitoring.

Dante is 8 x 8 before anyone takes it to 32 x 32

The published figure is 8 x 8 included, to 32 x 32. If the room has to meet an existing Dante estate at more than eight channels each way, that uplift is a line item, and it is worth settling while the design is open rather than on site.

Echo cancellation is per zone, and a divisible room spends more of it

Eight AEC processors are published. A single room uses one. A room that divides into two or three, or one with separate far-end zones, uses one each — which is the reason the figure is on the datasheet at all.

The softcodec path, the USB limits, and the rack

USB audio bridging is 8 x 8 at 16-bit, 48 kHz. USB device hosting is one USB headset or speakerphone on USB-A — one, not a hub of them. Recording is 4 channels in and 16 channels out against a media drive of about 16 GB. The unit is 1U half-width at 11.3 x 8.7 x 1.7 in (286.5 x 220 x 43.7 mm) and 3.6 lb, so two sit side by side in a single rack unit; published draw is 40 W typical and 110 BTU/hr on an internal supply, rated 0 - 50 °C and 5 - 85% RH non-condensing. Management is Q-SYS Reflect, whose basic tier is published at no cost for one location.

Which of these decides the box depends on what the room already has in it. See the rooms we build.