For many companies, Heli-Expo is the ideal venue to debut new products, and this year that includes Knoxville, Tennessee-based PS Engineering (Booth 5605), which has unveiled the PAC45D, the latest in its lineup of audio controllers.
Tailored for the special mission community, which needs to monitor multiple radio inputs simultaneously during operations, the unit utilizes the company’s MultiTalker True Dimensional 3D Sound technology, which it exclusively licenses from the U.S. Air Force and can allow the pilot and co-pilot to customize their audio inputs through a dual control head.
The PAC45D’s MultiTalker audio processing enables pilots to monitor up to five different radio interfaces, and easily distinguish conversations that are important at any instant. By taking advantage of the stereo output, the system processor can assign each radio a different “location” in a pilot's hearing ranges. Think of it as sitting in the center of a room and having surround-sound audio come from nine separate locations around you, and you can understand the system’s use.
“What the Air Force did is they calculated, using sound systems, where the most effective locations in your hearing are, where the brain can focus on, and they came up with nine unique locations,” said company founder and president Mark Scheurer. “The most important locations are at the 10 o’clock and the 2 o’clock positions, that’s what they decided.” Using the dual controls of the PAC45D, both the pilot and co-pilot can select from among the nine audio positions, assigning each radio depending on importance or preference.
The all-digital audio control hub can be attached to the panel unit or remotely mounted. In either case, audio connections do not need to be routed around the aircraft, with one central location to simplify installation. The front panel nomenclature is fully customizable, lending itself to the specification mission avionics, while a built-in audio alert system provides three audio alerts in addition to the existing aircraft alert system. A Bluetooth connection allows it to interface a cellphone into the audio system as well.