Astral ARX32 Quick Start Guide

Updated
Astral ARX32 front rear panels.png

16 to 32-Channel, HexVersity Rack Mount Receiver with SpectraBand and NexLink Technology

 

Download Quick Start Guide v2.00

 

Astral ARX32 Quick Start Guide 

For further detailed information please refer to the complete user guide.

ARX32 front panel diagram.png
Front Panel
ARX32 rear panel diagram.png
Rear Panel
  1. Connect AC power source (Rear Panel 14) and/or DC power supply (Rear Panel 12). 
  2. Connect suitable 50 ohm passive, bias-powered, or smart antennas to the BNC ports (Rear Panel 7). 
  3. Connect 2.4 GHz male SMA antennas to both front SMA female connections (Front Panel 1 & 3) or both rear panel SMA female connections (Rear Panel 1). 
  4. Connect required rear panel audio outputs (Analog, AES, MADI, and/or Dante) from Astral ARX32 to external devices. 
  5. Connect headphones to the front panel 3.5 mm or ¼" headphone output (Front Panel 7). 
  6. Power Up. Press the front panel triangle button (Front Panel 4) to power up.  When Astral ARX32 is powered up, press the triangle button to cycle between the RX View and Main menu. When in a menu or submenu, the triangle button exits to the menu above. ARX32 16RX view.png
  7. Press the triangle button to display the Main Menu.
  8. Tap the System icon to enter the System menu.
  9. Ensure Country is set to the country of operation. The Country setting determines which RF frequencies are legally unrestricted and available for selection in the Astral ARX32. 
  10. From the Main Menu, select the Network icon to access the Network menu.  In OLED 3, assign the network ports for Dante, Control, or Dante + Control.  In OLED 5 configure the networking parameters for Dante.  In OLED 6 configure the networking parameters for network Control.
    Note: When making Dante network changes (Astral ARX32 Name, Port Configuration, IP addresses, etc.), it is necessary to either reboot the Astral ARX32 or Restart Dante. 
  11. Connect your computer or smart device to the RJ45 port on the rear of the Astral ARX32 (Rear Panel 10) that is assigned to support the “control” protocol.  Confirm the computer or smart device is in the same subnet as the Astral ARX32’ Control IP.  Direct a web browser (preferably Google Chrome) to the assigned Control IP address displayed on OLED 5.  All remaining steps from this quick start guide can now be completed from the front panel of the Astral ARX32 or from the web application.
  12. From the Main Menu, select the Audio menu.  From the audio menu, the user can assign the audio channels to the audio outputs.
  13. From the Main menu, select NexLink icon.  From the NexLink menu on OLED 2, select Local NexLink Antennas to either front or rear depending on how the antennas are connected to the Astral ARX32.  Note: If using external NexLink host (Astral Outpost) please refer to user manual for additional information and setup instructions.
  14. From the Main Menu, select the RF icon to access the RF menu.
  15. From OLED 2 in the RF menu, select the desired antenna mode.  For more information on antenna mode options, please refer to Antenna Modes section of the Astral ARX32 manual. 
  16. If the antennas require bias-power, tap the A and B antenna set icons in the RF menu to display A and B antenna settings respectively and set both their Power (Bias) settings to On.

  17. Pair and NexLink Astral transmitters. Pairing is a process that adds Astral transmitters to the Astral ARX32 TX List. The TX List is an inventory of available transmitters that can be selected for wireless remote-control (via NexLink) and assigned to receiver channels. 

    Note: A10-TX transmitters cannot be paired or controlled via NexLink with the Astral ARX16/Astral ARX8 or Astral ARX32.  To tune an A10-TX, manually set the RF freq, Modulation & Privacy of the Astral ARX32 receive channel to the same as the A10-TX. 

    From the Main Menu, tap the TX List icon.

    tx list.png

    To pair an Astral transmitter, ensure it has batteries installed and sufficiently charged, then connect its USB-C port to the Astral ARX32 USB-A or USB-C ports. The Astral transmitter will appear in the TX List after a few seconds. The Astral ARX32 will then automatically establish a NexLink connection between the transmitter and the next available receiver channel. This can take up to a minute or so. Once connection is established, the NexLink RSSI icon is displayed in the TX List > NexLink column. Repeat the preceding steps for all TX required to operate with your given Astral series receiver. 

  18. Enter the TX List by tapping the TX List icon in the Main Menu.  

  19. From the Main Menu, select RTSA.  Use the scan mode to display the entire or any segment of SpectraBand’s 169 MHz – 1525 MHz capability to find the cleanest operating spectrum.  Select the Scan soft key in OLED 8. 

    Note: Scan mode uses all active antenna inputs to scan the selected spectrum. Changing to Scan mode stops audio on all channels. 

  20. Tap ‘Scan Width’ at the top of OLED 7 to display the Scan Width popup. Enter a Start and End frequency or reset to the default 470-616 MHz setting.  When entering scan mode, the last selected range is shown.  After the scan is completed, the spectrum scan will be displayed with the overlayed Filter Range(s) of the Tuning Band(s).  You may select RTSA to exit scan mode. 
  21. Tap the AutoAssign icon from the Main Menu. If multiple Tuning Bands are active, the multi-band RTSA view displays each Filter Range for each active Tuning Band.  The AutoAssign All popup appears in OLED 8. If only one Tuning Band is active, the individual (expanded) RTSA displays the Filter Range for the active Tuning Band.  From the multi-band RTSA, tap a Tuning Band’s expand icon (<-->) to display its individual Filter Range for the selected Tuning Band RTSA.  You may also change the Filter Range of the Tuning Bands by selecting the Tuning Band.  Note: Changing the Filter Range for a Tuning Band will stop audio on all channels in that Tuning Band.
  22. From the multi-band RTSA, tap OK to start the AutoAssign process. OLED 8 will show ‘Analyzing’. Once complete, “X out of X active channels successfully assigned. OK” is displayed. 
  23. The AutoAssign process will stop all audio on ALL channels.  After a number of seconds, a popup message appears showing the number of frequencies that have been assigned to channels. If clean frequencies are not found for all the active channels, the popup asks whether to assign the remaining channels to less quiet frequencies. Select OK to continue. If clean frequencies are not found for those remaining active channels after the second attempt, a third and final attempt is offered.
  24. Power on the Astral Series transmitters and the frequencies are automatically sent to the Astral series transmitter via NexLink. 

Congratulations!  Setup is complete.