Brand New Feature

A new firmware update for the AquaControl DSP family, the AQZ32, AQM1208, and AQM408, adds automatic device discovery across the product line.

A new “Other Devices” tab on the dashboard lets every AquaControl unit on the network detect and list the others automatically. No manual configuration, no hunting for IP addresses. Just open the dashboard and see what’s connected.

How It Works

Any installations of AQZ32, AQM1208, and AQM408 units find and list one another using network broadcast. Discovered devices appear by name, so you can jump directly to any unit with a single click, right from the device you’re already working in.

Useful During Setup and Troubleshooting, Too

Because the discovery process uses network broadcast, it can surface devices with invalid or incorrect IP settings and show you exactly what they’re configured to. That makes it a practical tool for diagnosing network issues during commissioning or return visits.

Nothing Changes with What You Already Use

The new “Other Devices” view runs alongside all the other standard AquaControl connection methods. It’s an additional way to find and connect to your devices, not a replacement for the workflow you already know.

Now in AquaControl Portal 2.0, Too

In addition to the on-device firmware update, AquaControl Portal 2.0 can now discover other AquaControl units on your local network, right from the Windows PC application. Scan the network, see what’s connected, and jump straight to any unit.

If your device firmware isn’t up to date, or discovery isn’t working as expected, see the AquaControl connection guide here.

Download the Latest Device Firmware

Download AquaControl Portal

Dan Szaba, VP of Engineering

Since 1994, Dan Szaba has helped shape the technology behind Ashly Audio. As Vice President of Engineering, he leads a team focused on designing reliable, intuitive, and great-sounding audio products while remaining hands-on with circuit, software, and system design.

Dan’s interest in engineering began early. As a child, he took apart nearly every electronic device he could find to understand how it worked. His interest in music naturally drew him toward audio equipment, loudspeaker design, radio circuits, computers, and software. That curiosity led him to study Computer Engineering. While in college, he worked part-time installing and maintaining AV equipment across campus. After noticing Ashly products in auditoriums and lecture halls, he mailed his résumé to the address printed on the back of one of them. Three decades later, he is still helping Ashly move forward.

Solving Real-World Audio Challenges

Dan describes his role as both collaborative and highly technical. “I work with a group of amazingly smart engineers who love to design the most reliable and great-sounding audio equipment,” he says. His team works across DSP algorithms, amplifier and hardware design, embedded software, and user experience.

“We start by listening, which lets us understand the pain points in the system, and then we come up with circuits or software features to solve them.”

Among Ashly’s current technologies, Dan is especially enthusiastic about the latest amplifier platform used in the MA Series and the AquaControl DSP platform.

A Lifelong Connection to Music

Dan’s passion for audio also has deep personal roots. Some of his earliest memories involve singing with his mother while she played acoustic guitar, sometimes using microphones connected to a home hi-fi system. “That got me hooked on music and sound reinforcement,” he says.

Outside of work, Dan enjoys playing music, designing gear, hiking, gardening, and spending time with family and friends. His musical tastes lean toward hard rock and metal, though his go-to artist changes with his mood. After 32 years at Ashly, the people remain one of the most meaningful parts of the job. “We have an amazing team of people who are passionate about the products we make,” Dan says.

“If you’re passionate about making the world sound better, then go for it.”

Quick Facts

• Favorite genre: Hard rock & metal
• Early bird or night owl: Night owl
• Coffee or tea: Both
• Mac or PC: Linux
• Analog or digital: Both
• Headphones or speakers: Speakers

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The Riverboat Louis Armstrong, a 2,500-passenger New Orleans entertainment vessel, needed six independent event spaces across four decks — from weddings to concerts to background music — all controllable without professional training. SOUNd CHeK Music’s Chris Brown built the system around Ashly PEMA ne24.24M16X8 and PEMA8250-series amplifiers plus KLR-series amps, driving 425 speaker devices, all managed from an iPad. ‘Ashly products are incredibly intuitive and versatile,’ Brown said. ‘It sounds great everywhere.’

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Ashly Audio Drives Unique Multizone System At New York Church

First Presbyterian Church of Ithaca, NY solved a nearly six-second reverb and a 177-speaker distribution challenge with three Ashly PEMA 8250.70 amplifiers, routed into 24 independently controllable zones through Ashly’s Protea software. Integrator George Gleason of George’s Pro Sound Company called it ‘absolutely clean and simple to develop something that was really quite complicated.’

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WEBSTER, New York, March 17, 2021 — The Stissing Mountain Junior/Senior High School is like many combined schoolhouses in rural America – part educational facility, part community meeting space, and often the most well-equipped location in town to host a live performance. Stissing Mountain easily checks all three capabilities for Pine Plains, New York, home to around 2,500 residents.

To ensure its facilities meet the community’s varied needs, the Pine Planes Central School District recently upgraded its AV capabilities utilizing a core of Ashly Audio amplification and control solutions.

“When you have a space that is truly the preeminent meeting and performance hall for a community, your primary concerns need to be that the system works well and is extremely intuitive to control,” said Thomas DePace of Advance Sound Company – the firm that integrated the new system. “What we found in Ashly Audio was a system that confidently checks those boxes and brings with it a ton of flexibility.”

In total, DePace integrated an Ashly NE24.24M with a Protea DSP Audio Matrix Processor providing 12 inputs and 12 outputs, an Ashly NE24.24M with a Protea DSP Audio Matrix Processor with four inputs and four outputs, an Ashly NXE1.52 Network Power Amplifier providing 2 x 1,500 Watts @2 Ohms, an Ashly NXE8004 Network Power Amplifier delivering 4 x 800 Watts @2 Ohms and an Ashly NE8800MM Network Enabled Protea DSP offering eight inputs and eight outputs with two 4-channel Mic Cards.

“We’re using that full array of Ashly amplification to power multiple Danley speakers throughout the facility,” DePace said. “Everything from larger speakers across the main auditorium to monitors and stage fills. The Ashly setup also has a very nice way in which it allows for mixing the system. The NE8800MM, for example, is providing all of the auto-mixing. It’s a decent amount of gear, and yet it’s all tied together with the perfect control: the Ashly FR-8.”

The FR-8 is one component in Ashly’s line of control offerings that looks to elegantly streamline control for those who don’t have a background in live production. The FR-8 is an Ethernet device that provides fader-based remote-level control for NE products with DSP capabilities. The FR-8 controls up to eight user assigned inputs, outputs, or mixer outputs and can command multiple Ashly product lines.

“We were able to set it up so perfectly that I have no doubt that when the principal or custodian need to use the system it will be very easy for them to do so,” DePace said. “When your customer is a small or medium-sized organization, having that confidence is a huge benefit.”

The system DePace integrated also highlights Ashly’s interoperability. Components from Crestron, Christie, Panasonic, Allen & Heath, Sennheiser, and Danley also run throughout the integration.

“To use all of these manufacturers and recognize the core of it – from power to control – is Ashly is really impressive,” DePace said. “Honestly, this is the first time we used Ashly Audio solutions. After hearing and seeing how well it turned out, we know we’ll be using many more in the future.”

WEBSTER, New York, Nov. 18, 2020 — Sligh Middle Magnet School in Tampa, Florida has an audio system worthy of a superstar performance thanks to professional wrestler Thaddeus Bullard’s charitable organization, the Bullard Family Foundation.

Bullard’s foundation supports programs that provide opportunities to those in struggling communities to achieve more than what statistics might imply of them. His website states that he avoided the reach of statistics because teachers and local leaders took an interest in his success and “his community began investing in him.”

Now it’s Bullard who is investing in the community, and a critical part of that outreach sees him supporting schools. Thus, thanks to funding from The Bullard Family Foundation, Sligh Middle Magnet School – a premier Medical Studies and Explorations program in Hillsborough County Public Schools – now has one of the most impressive audio setups in the Tampa area located in its gymnasium. And at the heart of the installation is Ashly Audio.

“The school district’s budgeting doesn’t ordinarily allow for this caliber of sound system in public middle school athletic facilities,” said Joey Donovan, Vice President of Audio at Donovan Audio Designs (pro audio division of ACCI). “But Thaddeus’s vision for this gymnasium included its use for performing arts, dances and other social events, appearances by his celebrity friends – Dave Bautista is a frequent visitor – and speeches. When I pointed out to him that it was a gym, and it wasn’t acoustically feasible to use it for such demanding uses, he asked me what it would take to make it work. Ultimately, we installed more than four times the normal amount of acoustical treatment you would normally find in a gymnasium in order to accommodate a high-performance sound reinforcement system in the space.”

The system relies on five Ashly Audio KLR-5000 High Performance Power Amplifiers and one KLR-2000 High Performance Amplifier to power the custom Ramsdell Pro Audio stereo line array loudspeaker system. The KLR Series is a high-efficiency, high-power amplifier offering that is an ideal choice for high-output speaker systems, line arrays, dual 18” subwoofers and much more. The KLR line is also versatile, as each unit provides a 3-position gain switch for both channels, a 3-position mode switch (bridged, stereo or parallel mono) and a 3-position 12dB/oct HPF switch (30Hz, 50Hz or off).

The system also makes use of the Ashly Audio Protēa ne24.24m Series DSP Matrix Processor, which uses modular expansion cards to provide up to 24-channels of audio matrixing and processing. Each input and output expansion card has an individual DSP processor. Matrixing allows you to route any input to any output and control individual levels once they have been assigned. Donovan called the ne24.24m “the absolute brains of the system.”

Further, Ashly Audio neWR-5 Programmable Multi-Function Network Decora Wall Remotes were installed to offer an intuitive level of control to those at the school. The neWR-5 offers integrators flexibility in what settings are offered to the end user, ensuring they control only what is necessary to effectively use the system.

“It’s designed to be as easy as possible,” Donovan said. “You can go in there, grab a microphone, and with one press of the control panel your system has come to life.”

“At the start of this there was a discussion of what it would take to really make a gym sound amazing,” Donovan said. “And with the support from the Bullard Family Foundation we were able to do what was needed to make that happen. You can see by what we put in there which brands we trust at this level, and Ashly is obviously incredibly important in that equation.”