Glensound Beatrice D4 is a four channel desktop intercom designed for broadcast, theatre and professional audio applications. It was designed to be very easy to use for the operator and simple to set up for the technician. It includes the basic functionality required for small intercom systems and none of the complex installation requirements associated with larger systems.
On the rear of the unit a bi-directional headset connection is available as either a 4-pin male XLR plug (Beatrice D4/4M) or 5-pin female XLR socket (Beatrice D4/5F). The bi-directional connection is located next to a 6.35mm jack headphone output. A 3-pin XLR female socket for gooseneck microphone is located on the top panel of the intercom. Depending upon how the Dante network has been routed the incoming audio circuits and outgoing circuits can be different locations. The rear also has an RJ45 Neutrik EtherCON for network connection to a PoE switch. This connection can also power the unit and passes audio across a single network cable. There is an internal switch mode power supply on an IEC socket for when PoE is not available.
A ‘clear’ microphone amplifier, designed for communication purposes, is fitted which also has the benefit of a compressor limiter circuit to help keep levels and intelligibility consistent even when the operator gets overly excited. 12V Phantom power is available and can be turned on off as required.
The headphone amplifier allows either low or high impedance headphones to be used, and automatically adjusts the output level to match the impedance of headphones in use. The headphone amplifier is stereo and sources can be panned to left or right ears as desired. The headphone amplifier can also drive mono earpieces from its stereo output ‘without any performance issues’.
The front panel features a single rotary encoder for adjusting the overall level in the headphones, individual incoming channel level, and the pan position of each input. There is a single push button for each of the four channels. The function of each button can be configured based on the way the user wishes to work: momentary (channel is only active whilst button is held down), latching (a single press locks or unlocks the button), intelligent (short tap locks and a long press is momentary), or always on (holding button mutes the channel like a cough switch). A double tap of any talk button will send a call signal on that channel.
Four yellow LEDs indicate a channel is receiving a call signal - this will also be heard in the headphones, and this allows the user to see which channel is calling. There are also four red presence LEDs which will indicated which channels are receiving a signal.
A ‘high quality’ microphone amplifier, designed for communication purposes, is fitted with a compressor limiter circuit to help keep levels and intelligibility consistent even when the operator gets overly excited. This microphone amp has two microphone sources, either the inbuilt front panel mounted electret capsule which provides good voice intelligibility from normal working distances, or a balanced XLR input for connecting external gooseneck microphones. 12V phantom power is also available and can be turned on/off as required. There is large magnet Visatron speaker positioned on the top panel for communication.
To make setup of the unit intuitive a display is provided on the top panel. This display provides a simple menu system for setting up such items as: Button Configuration Input Type (Mic Line), Microphone Gain, Phantom Power On/Off, Sidetone Level (own voice in own headphones), Partyline/IFB/Loop-through Mode, Mixing Cutting of Partyline when User Speaks. Each channel can therefore be set separately to be in a separate party line mode if required.
Included items: 2m RJ45 plug to plug cable
Variants
Beatrice D4/4M |
3-pin XLR female socket /6.35mm Jack/4-Pin XLR male plug |
Beatrice D4/5F |
3-pin XLR female socket/6.35mm Jack/5-Pin XLR female socket |
Audio sample frequency: 48kHz. Mic gain: 60 to 20dB. Phantom power: 12V. EIN: -110dB. Headphone impedance: 32-1000 ohms. Band pass filter: 50Hz to 15kHz. PoE: 48V. Power consumption: 8 watts. Dimensions (WxLxH): 214 x 172 x 41mm. Weight: 1.1kg.
Dante Ultimo chipset. Audinate recommended not to use more than 10x Ultimo devices on a single network, unless there is a Broadway or Brooklyn device also on the network. As an Ultimo device, the Beatrice B4 can receive 4 incoming audio channels each at 48kHz. However this chipset can only receive these four audio channels from a maximum of two network locations.