Avionics News November 2013 - 56

PS Engineering's PAR200

AUDIO PANELS IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Continued from page 55

ground contacts and other aircraft.
These systems eventually also provided a convenient channel for routing the intercom audio and audio from
a marker-beacon receiver - two onceseparate pieces of avionics gear destined
to be integrated into future audio-control
panels.
This integration capped the development of audio panels for some time - until
inventive startups like PS Engineering
reinvented the intercom and integrated
it into its new and innovative products.
Soft muting was here, the feature
that swiftly mutes music or other audio
when a transmission or other voice traffic
breaks the squelch on the selected radio.
The best units also served as fail-safe
devices that leave them still capable of
delivering their core audio-channel function, even after a malfunction.
External Influences:
The Quest for Compact
When Eric Persson and Mark Scheuer
first collaborated on an innovative new
portable general aviation aircraft intercom back in 1985, many aircraft lacked
any intercom; similarly, many with
only basic radios lacked an audio panel
while the deepest audio panels installed
a marker-beacon receiver adjacent to
switching circuits.
Their new company, PS Engineering,
took hold in part because its then-new

Jupiter Avionics' JA95-001 audio controller

avionics news

november

2013

portable Aerocom intercom worked well,
as did the PM1000 panel-mounted intercom that followed.
The duo decided next that audio panels held significant room for improvement, so PS Engineering did just that. In
a little more than two decades, the company won patents for its IntelliVox voiceactuation intercom circuitry, its soft-mute
and other functions brought to the fore by
this highly focused avionics maker.
Today, the creativity of PS Engineering
products is well-known and reflects the
broad scope an entire industry enveloped
in audio-control and switching systems
that broadly embraced the digital revolution in electronics and software-driven
controls.
But this little specialty company
inspired significant competition from
many corners, most of them larger companies boasting more resources and larger research and development budgets.
Units from Avidyne, Becker, Garmin,
Honeywell's BendixKing division,
Northern Airborne Technologies and, of
course, PS Engineering, offer enough
variety to find something suitable for
most budgets.
The Scope Expands
Among today's more-common features in audio panels are those wellestablished functions, such as intercom,

transmitter- and transceiver- and receiveraudio management, Bluetooth interfaces
for phones, satellite phones and music
players to the extent that many offerings
provide stereo intercom circuitry for up
to six, split systems that let passengers
control what input they hear while the
flight crew controls pilot and co-pilot
access separately and jointly - up to and
including split transceiver control and
crew isolation from the passengers.
It all depends on, as usual, what the
pilot needs.
Let's look briefly at the range of products from the major players.
Avidyne
Avidyne's full-spectrum avionics line
includes the AMX240, which the company noted represents state-of-the-art audio
management, while being designed to
make flying simpler. The AMX240 features dual-radio monitoring capability to
allow crew to listen to standby frequencies on the IFD-Series VHF radios with
automatic muting when active frequency
is in use. A dedicated replay button provides a "say again" function that repeats
previous ATC communications, and a
dedicated split button allows the pilot to
transmit on comm 1 while the co-pilot
transmits on comm 2.
Rounding out the AMX-240's features are three transmitter inputs, nine
receiver inputs, two inputs for stereo
music, five unswitched inputs and a
high-fidelity stereo intercom system for
six. The package also supports a public
address function through a remote speaker, plus Bluetooth interfaces for both
music and full-duplex cellphone use. For
more information, visit www.avidyne.
com/products/amx240/index.asp.
Becker Avionics
Becker's audio-control units lean

http://www.avidyne.com/products/amx240/index.asp http://www.avidyne.com/products/amx240/index.asp

Avionics News November 2013

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News November 2013