RTW TouchControl 5 - Audio Over IP Monitor Controller and Meter

Meet TouchControl 5, a Dante® based AoIP monitor controller with metering. Built on RTW's long and proud legacy of making broadcast-ready monitor controllers, it features a 5” intuitive touchscreen and a small footprint that preserves valuable space at your desktop. It even features RTW standard precision metering, including SPL, measured using the built-in microphone.

Features:

• Immersive table-top monitor controller and meter with 5-inch touch display and 32 Dante®-channels, with support for stereo- surround and -immersive speaker formats including 5.1 and 7.1.4
• Comprehensive monitor control feature set with speaker calibration, SPL measurement, bass management and up to 4 sources/destinations
• RTW precision metering with customizable bargraphs and support for international loudness standards
• Toolbox with independently routable leveling and talkback
• Customizable view pages
• Built-in microphone preamp with +48 V phantom power
• Built-in calibrated microphone for talkback and SPL measurement
• Powerful headphone output: 1/4 inch Headphone output with the option of monitoring a user-defined downmix
• Analog speaker output: 3.5mm speaker output with the option of monitoring a user defined downmix
• Easy setup with web-based user interface
• Power supply via Power Over Ethernet (IEEE 802.3af compliant)
• Sample rate up to 96 kHz
• Lockable operation mode: Fool-proof setup with access only to relevant controls. Prevents unintentional operation during showtime

Plugged In
TouchControl 5 is born and raised as a network device. Therefore, it does not need many connections to the outside world, which is how RTW has been able to build a device with a very small footprint. The network port not only provides the audio channels, 32 in and 32 out, but also includes power. On top of that, you’ll also find a pristine 24 bit/96 kHz IO section.

Up Front
On the front of TouchControl 5, the integrated microphone feeds the SPL measurement, and it can also be used for talkback. The 5” touchscreen is user configurable, as is the pushable rotary knob.

Surround Control Engine. Tried, Tested and Approved.
Tried, tested, and approved by many broadcast engineers around the world, you find the very same monitor control engine that you might know from RTW's legacy surround monitor controllers.

The list is long, but let’s emphasize downmix, DSP-powered speaker calibration (using the internal microphone OR manual set), SPL readout, 4 input sources, speaker set selection (up to 4), solo, cut, swap, phase, mono, dim, mute and test tone generator.

The source compare feature lets you toggle between sources for easy comparison and lets you set individual delays for each of the sources.

On the output side, you can set up four speaker sets and easily switch between them or you can listen to your work with your favorite headphones using the headphones output.

Controls and meters on your monitor page
The SPL meter shows the measured sound pressure level in your room, and you can show SPL either as a bar graph or as a number – or both.

The downmix instrument outputs your surround or immersive mix in stereo and mono. The downmixed signal can be monitored on speakers or phones or sent to any destination in your audio network. Each speaker can be muted or soloed, and you can invert polarity. The talkback feature lets you talk to speakers or any destination in your Dante network.

LF Boost lets you boost your LFE channels with 10 dB and Surr. Att. attenuates the surround channels with 3dB.

Stereo, Surround, Immersive
With support for up to 32 Dante® channels in and out, TouchControl 5 can handle channel formats from stereo to 22.2. Among the many supported formats you will find 5.1 and 7.1 surround as well as 7.1.4 and 9.1.6 immersive.

Speaker Calibration
The speakers in your setup can be calibrated with regards to level, delay and EQ. The support for measurement microphones, the built-in test tone generator and the live-input SPL meter is the optimal tool combination for calibrating your speaker levels to ensure they are perfectly aligned.

Each speaker has a DSP section for ultimate control. You can set individual delay, gain and polarity, and a 4-band EQ is available for each speaker in your setup.

Calibrated speaker levels can easily be recalled by the press of a knob.

Bass Management
Up to two LFE channels with adjustable crossover frequencies can be adapted to your requirements using the bass management. Full-range speakers and smaller speakers can be finely tuned to each other and operated in the same system, while LP filters for bass-controlled speakers, all-pass filters for other speakers and an additional SUB output channel for formats without LFE is also available.

Loudness, SPL and LRA
For many years, RTW has taken part of forming the international loudness standards in ITU and EBU. Loudness is key to us, so in TouchControl 5 we have implemented the full loudness engine known from our high end broadcast meters.
TouchControl 5 supports all international loudness standards such as EBU R128, ITU-R BS.1770-4/1771-1, ATSC A/85, ARIB, OP-59, AGCOM, CALM, LEQ(M), TASA and SAWA.

The Toolbox
The Fader instrument allows level control of any Dante® channel in your network, and you can freely configure each fader to control the number of channels you wish. More faders can be combined, so you can control multiple groups of channels, and if you do so, levels are controlled relatively, using TouchControl 5's knob.

TouchControl 5's touch screen can of course also be used to control each fader, and you can create up to 4 faders each controlling single channels, stereo-, surround- or immersive formats.

Toolbox instruments also include a Talkback feature that lets you talk to any audio channel in you network. Talkback sources include the built-in mic, the external XLR input or any audio network channels.

Design Your Own View Pages
TouchControl 5 lets you design your own view pages. For each instrument you can decide on size, ratio and placement, and several instruments can be rotated to fit your needs. Buttons can be placed anywhere on the screen, those that are placed in the side bar are avaiable across view pages. Say you want your input selector to be avilable also on the metering page - just place it in the side bar.

Extensive Routing
The Routing page lets you route your audio channels to and from TouchControl 5. With support for 32 Dante® channels plus the physical I/Os, there is a lot of possibilities. For instance you could use the same channels for monitor control and metering, or split them so metering is independent from monitor control.

RTW Metering
As you know, metering plays a significant role in any RTW device, and so it does in the TouchControl 5. The PPM metering engine is taken from our high-end TouchMonitor meters, and you get a wealth of ways to tailor your own metering experience, including scales, color settings and more. True Peak metering is of course part of the metering story, as well as VU and ‘British PPM’.

Easy Setup with Web-based Interface
Being a true network device, the setup of TouchControl 5 is done through the network, using a standard web browser. This is where you make the overall settings, manage presets, handle licenses and more. You can also control the access to the device, including limiting operation to only certain features, avoiding un-intentional use during showtime.