Minimum iPad Requirements For Avantis?

[BradWalkerParticipant]

We have an Avantis running 1.20 currently (will be updating to 1.21 this week), a GX4816 on stage with a couple of DX168 in drive racks and for I/O on each side of the stage.

We have an iPad we’ve used to mix monitors on SQ mixers very successfully, and set up the Avantis with the same hardware. A dedicated Ubiquiti Amplifi wireless router connected directly to the Avantis, with two mesh antenna on the stage, all on their own little network that the iPad connects to. The Amplifi setup app on an iPhone shows good RF signal, and we’ve not experienced any loss of connection to the mixer.

The iPad we’re using is a 6th generation MRJP2LL/A Running iOS 15.5 with 128 GB RAM.

I realize the iOS is a little bit behind, but it runs SQ MixPad software with no glitches. The problem we experienced at an event a couple weeks ago was what I can best describe as processor overload, where the Avantis MixPad 1.20 app just became really sluggish and appeared to “freeze” for a while. It was a busy mix, with a combination of 5 wedge mixes and 5 stereo IEM mixes, and my monitor guy’s inability to responsively control the mixes produced some frustration at key moments during soundcheck.

Questions:
1. Is this an iPad processing power issue, or are other iPad users experiencing sluggishness?

2. If there is a recommended “minimum” requirement for Avantis different than SQ or Qu because of the sheer amount of data being crunched?

3. Is an older iPad okay if it’s just used for Avantis OneMix?

4. Should my main monitor guy be running Director on a laptop (not ideal)?

Thanks in advance for any insight!
Brad

[BrianParticipant]

I don’t know the answer regarding the iPad questions, but I will throw in my thoughts……

You certainly can use the Director software. The Avantis architecture is different from DLive’s “mixrack” architecture and this means there are some important differences when using Director. The main differences are that you can only have one instance of Avantis Director running (so you can’t run one for FOH and one for monitors), and the console fader layers/layout will be the same as the Avantis it is connected to. I was hoping that you could create a set of unique layers/layouts just for Avantis Director, but you cannot. You do have independent control using Director – meaning you can pull up different screens or fader banks on the software and those changes are not reflected on the actual console. But the fader bank layouts are going to be the same on both the console and the Director software.

You might try the third party app Mixing Station Pro for the Avantis. I like this app a lot more than the OEM iPad apps for several reasons. First, they work across more platforms – iOS, Android, Windows, etc. Second, it offers more functionality than the OEM iPad apps do. Third, it is easily customizable so you could create layouts specifically designed for monitor use that would probably work much better than the iPad apps. I use a very old Android tablet (a Lenovo Tab 2 A10-70 which was released in 2015) and it works just fine. It never appears sluggish using the Mixing Station app. (Using other apps yes, but never Mixing Station).

I hope that helps!

[BradWalkerParticipant]

Hi Brian,

Thanks for the suggest on Mixing Station, I just checked it out. I’ve heard of it before, but the first time I saw it, it seemed much more clunky than what I just looked at.

I also just heard from one of the bands we’re mixing this coming weekend who have even older iPads, and the Avantis apps won’t even load on their devices. They’re basically demanding I provide them all iPads or wedges :rolleyes: I can understand that on one level, but they were all gung-ho about “Yeah, we’ll just use our iPads!” and only now try to load the apps I gave them the links for 2 months ago…

[BradWalkerParticipant]

Any other thoughts would be much appreciated! I’d still like to know how much horsepower is required by Avantis MixPad and OneMix…

[Alex A&HKeymaster]

Hi @bradwalker,

1. Is this an iPad processing power issue, or are other iPad users experiencing sluggishness?

This may be network related, as the only requirement for both apps is iPadOS 12.1 or later. All iPads supporting this OS should work fine with the app. Freezing and slow behaviour may indicate that the communication between the app and the mixer has an issue.

[BradWalkerParticipant]

Hi Alex,

Thanks for the confirmation about the minimum iOS version needed.

I suppose anything’s possible regarding network issues, but we hoped to eliminate that from the list of potential issues by using decent Ubiquity hardware, creating a dedicated mixer-only wifi network that included two mesh points. It’s a hidden SSID, so concert guests don’t try connecting to it, and we had only 2 connections to the mixer.

I was wondering if there’s an incremental processing power requirement taxing the iPad, dependent on how many channels are active and how many DEEP plugs are in use?
I guess another way to ask the question would be, “Beyond the minimum iPad requirement, is a beefier model needed to handle busier mixes? We were running ~ 48 inputs and over 20 outs.

We’ll keep an eye on it this coming weekend with a bit smaller rig, and a little more time to monitor things.

Thanks!
Brad

[ChrisParticipant]

I don’t know what the throughput requirements are for the apps in question (I’m sure throughput requirements increased with the release of RTA) and I have used the Amplifi setup with multiple mesh points without issue but it very well could be an issue with the way the network is configured. Since you are close to the mesh points, I would first check that you are using the 5G connection as opposed to 2.4G. Second, I would remove all unnecessary apps on the iPad and disable all unnecessary services. Check out the Youtube channel “Payette Forward”. As a nuclear option you could factory reset the iPad and then go back and disable services.

Only other thing I can think of is maybe changing the password on your network just in case???

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