Axient® Digital PSM Channel Licenses
Axient® Digital PSM includes an innovative WMAS transmission mode that we’ve named “multichannel wideband.” With multichannel wideband transmission, a single radio, also commonly referred to as an RF carrier frequency, can deliver up to four (4) stereo audio channels. With both narrowband and multichannel wideband, you can also access the Spatial Diversity feature, which delivers a whole new level of antenna diversity performance driven by advanced digital wireless technology that only Shure can deliver.
This means that with ADTQ and ADTD transmitters, the “Q” for quad and the “D” dual no longer refers to the number of stereo audio channels, but rather the number of radios. As a result, the ADTQ quad transmitter with its four radios supports up to 16 stereo audio channels, while the ADTD dual transmitter supports up to eight channels with its two radios.
Developing the hardware, software, and business infrastructure to support the full vision of multichannel wideband (WMAS) is a serious undertaking. And, we didn’t want our customers to have to wait longer than they needed to enjoy the many other benefits of Axient Digital PSM. In the fall of 2024, we launched Axient Digital PSM with the first iteration of multichannel wideband with just a single active radio alongside other valuable transmission mode options like narrowband and Analog FM.
This summer, we are taking another major step towards completing the vision for WMAS and multichannel wideband for Axient Digital PSM. With new firmware now available through the Shure Update Utility or ShureCloud, operational presets with expanded multichannel wideband options are now available.
Note: Channel licenses are sold separately from Axient Digital hardware and required to unlock the additional stereo audio channels. These channel licenses are still in development and are expected to be available later this year.
With the availability of the new firmware, users can now preview the new operational presets and learn more about what new configurations will be possible in the future.
Benefits of Channel Expansion for Axient® Digital PSM
Users will see many benefits from the addition of Channel Expansion. Following are the two major advantages of channel expansion for Axient Digital PSM:
- Cost Savings of Some Axient Digital PSM Configurations
- Flexibility to Manage Your Perpetual Channel Licenses As Needed
Cost Savings of Some Axient Digital PSM Configurations
The first advantage is that channel expansion can potentially reduce the cost of the total multichannel Axient Digital PSM hardware configuration for customers that don’t need access to the highest RF output power to maximize total physical coverage.
Channel expansion for Axient Digital PSM is enabled on the transmit side, and all transmitters operate with a fixed amount of RF output power driven by the power amplifier section. When multichannel wideband was previously limited to a single radio, that radio was able to take advantage of all the power amplification resources per transmitter. With channel expansion, each multichannel wideband radio now must equally share the same power amplifier section resulting in lower RF output power, which affects distance performance.
There are also operational presets available to balance half the channel expansion with spatial diversity to achieve a good balance of extended channel count and sufficient coverage. This type of configuration can provide significant value as a compact, high-density wireless in-ear monitoring solution.
At the same time, there may be less challenging environments like houses of worship or isolated broadcast studios where neither spatial diversity nor higher RF output power is necessary. In these environments, all you would need for a successful Axient Digital PSM configuration would be a single transmitter device, the additional required channel expansion licenses, and the relative number of transmit antennas patched directly from the transmitter’s RF outputs.
Flexibility to Manage Your Perpetual Channel Licenses As Needed
Axient Digital PSM channel licenses are perpetual, not subscription licenses. Once purchased, not only do you own them outright, you manage them based on your needs via your ShureCloud account. You can add and activate channel licenses to an Axient Digital PSM transmitter easily and/or you can transfer channel licenses from one Axient Digital PSM transmitter to another. They’re yours! Use them as needed.
For example, if a single site eventually needed eight channels instead of four channels, and the coverage requirements for those eight channels were not extreme, it would be convenient to simply purchase, add, and activate additional channel expansion licenses instead of needing to purchase additional hardware.
Similarly speaking, if for example, you own two Axient Digital PSM transmitters and 12 channels of channel licenses, you can add six channel licenses to each or four to one and eight to the other. You can also deactivate channel licenses from one Axient Digital PSM transmitter and activate in the another. Again, your Axient Digital PSM channel licenses give you an incredible amount of flexibility to maximize your in-ear monitoring setups.
Are Axient Digital PSM Channel Licenses and ANX4 Channel Licenses Different?
Shure is launching channel expansion for two different product lines, the Axient Digital PSM Wireless In-Ear Monitoring System and the ANX4 Scalable Wireless Microphone Receiver. In both cases, these are perpetual licenses which the user owns outright, not subscription-based licenses.
With ANX4, adding or reducing the number of active channels on the device (purchasing and activating on an ANX4) does not require any changes to the RF circuitry, making the act of adding and removing channels as seamless as it gets and performance is not affected.
With Axient Digital PSM, operational presets that enable larger channel counts require changes to the various RF sections of the transmitter device. You can think of it like changing the entire plumbing system of a building. This means more pre-planning is required when it comes to channel expansion for Axient Digital PSM.
For example, enabling operational presets with channel expansion on an Axient Digital PSM transmitter can change which RF outputs are active, which means keeping track of how your Axient Digital PSM system is wired together across selected operational presets is critical for successful operation.
Lastly, as mentioned earlier, an Axient Digital PSM transmitter with maximized channel count may not deliver the same amount of coverage in comparison. This is something to be aware of then designing an Axient Digital PSM configuration with a higher density channel count.
Important Considerations for Channel Expansion
With channel expansion, careful consideration is required when it comes to connecting to external combiners. As mentioned earlier, the new operational presets with greater channel count density will have less RF output power due to shared power amplification resources. This also means less available RF output power to compensate for combiner level loss when connected to Shure combiners like the new AD8C 8-port combiner and the new AD221 2-way combiner/splitter. When extending the channel count for Axient Digital PSM, minimizing or eliminating external combiners is recommended for optimized performance in most situations.
For example, when using the ADTQ transmitter with 16 stereo audio channels (four-channel wideband, four frequencies), You may want to consider using two AD221 devices to consolidate four antennas to two antennas instead of using the AD8C 8-port combiner to consolidate to a single transmit antenna. This helps minimize combiner level loss.
In some cases, you may want to consider the addition of more transmit antennas instead of using external combiners, altogether. The idea of more transmit antennas may seem inconvenient for some, which is understandable. However, consider that the financial cost of more transmit antennas is a lot less expensive in comparison to more transmitter and combiner devices.
Also, keep in mind that the choice for rear inputs (analog/AES3) will be limited beyond the initial channel count. The beginning channels are capable of Dante/AES67 and the selectable Analog/AES3 rear inputs, but higher index channels will be limited to Dante/AES67 and AES3, and then even higher index channels will be limited to Dante/AES67 only.
Availability of Channel Licenses
Axient Digital PSM channel expansion licenses can be purchased through existing authorized dealers (or at Shure.com/adpsm).
After the purchase order is complete, you will receive an email confirming license details and how to create a ShureCloud login, where you’ll manage your channel licenses. From your ShureCloud account, you can claim your device (ADTQ and/or ADTD, in this situation) and then activate channel licenses to the respective claimed device(s).
A ShureCloud login is necessary to activate channel licenses on a claimed device.
Conclusion
Axient® Digital PSM is the most advanced wireless system that Shure has ever developed and brought to market. Its capabilities have been tested and retested, but we’re excited to learn more and develop more as customers adopt and use it on the largest stages, biggest arenas, and the most demanding tours (and elsewhere) on the planet. Though not the perfect fit for all, perpetual licenses that add channel count to the quad (ADTQ) and dual (ADTD) transmitters – and the incredible flexibility to manage them across your inventory – is going to be a great addition for many users and situations. WMAS is an exciting area of focus for Shure and Axient Digital PSM is delivering a great deal of options for in-ear monitoring at the very highest levels of performance.
