Connections

Local Inputs

Mono mic/line (XLR female) – These are numbered and accept balanced mic or line level signal. Gain, Pad and 48v Phantom Power are controlled digitally.

Talkback (XLR female) – Identical to mono mic/line inputs. Intended for communication from the desk position but can also be used as an additional input.

ST1, ST2 (1/4” TRS jack) – Labelled as stereo pairs, these can also be used as mono line level balanced inputs.

ST3 (TRS Mini jack) – Located on the surface of the SQ, this can be used with a line level source, such as a portable media player, laptop, tablet or smartphone, using a standard stereo mini jack cable.

Local Outputs

Mono line (XLR male) – Line level outputs for sending mixes or direct outputs. These are numbered, and fully assignable. With default settings, the LR mix is sent to 11&12, as labelled.

A/B mono line (1/4” TRS jack) – Two assignable line level outputs, presented on balanced jack sockets for convenience.

AES digital (XLR male) – Stereo digital output clocked to SQ. For connection to equipment with a digital input.

Headphone (1/4” TRS jack) – Located on the surface of the SQ, with dedicated level control. Fed from the PAFL bus.

SLink

Digital multichannel audio (etherCON) – For expanding the SQ using Allen & Heath Everything I/O range of expanders. Mode automatically switches between dSnake/ME, DX and gigaACE/GX protocols.

ⓘ SLink does not support multiple protocols on a single connection.

ⓘ Check SLink Connections to see supported configurations for the current firmware.

USB

SQ-Drive – Located on the surface of the SQ. Can be used to connect USB ‘pen/stick’ drives, or portable HDD’s or SSD’s. Used for storing and recalling data, firmware updates and stereo or multitrack audio recording and playback.

USB-B – For connection to a Windows or Mac computer, in order to use the built-in 32x32 audio and MIDI interface.

ⓘ See the SQ-Drive and USB-B section for more information.

Network

This is used to connect the SQ to a wireless router, access point, local area network or directly to a device, allowing the SQ to transmit and receive control data. For use with Allen & Heath SQ apps, and for MIDI over TCP/IP.

I/O Port

For the connection of SQ option cards, allowing expansion and connectivity using Allen & Heath (SLink) or third-party protocols (including Dante, Waves and MADI).

ⓘ See www.allen-heath.com for all available option cards.

Footswitch

Connect a single or dual, momentary or latching footswitch, and use to control functions such as mutes, tap tempo or scene changes.

ⓘ See the Setup section for more information.

Patching

I/O patching allows input processing channels to be fed from any input socket, and for any output socket to be fed from any direct, mix or FX output. It’s also possible to route signals around the system without any channel processing.

There are two ways to patch input sockets to input processing channels, either in the Preamp section of the channel processing screen, or in the I/O screen. For patching multiple input channels, it is easiest to use the I/O patching screen, which is also used for all output patching.

Press the ‘I/O’ screen key to display the patching matrix. This is a grid of patching blocks where each block is a crosspoint representing a connection.

Patching

• Touch one of the tabs on the far left then select one of the following:

‘Inputs’ > ‘Input Channel’ = Patch input sockets from the top to input channels of the SQ on the left for mixing.
‘Inputs’ > ‘Mix Ext In’ = Patch input sockets from the top, directly into a mix of the SQ on the left (without any processing, level or mute control).
‘Outputs’ > ‘Direct Outs’ = Patch from the direct outputs of input channels on the left to any output socket at the top.
‘Outputs’ > ‘Mix Outs’ = Patch from mix outputs of the SQ on the left (LR, Aux, Group, Matrix), to any output socket at the top.
‘Outputs’ > ‘Rack FX’ = Patch from FX return channels in the SQ (the ‘wet’ FX signal) on the left to any output socket at the top.
‘Outputs’ > ‘Listen Out’ = Patch from PAFL, talkback and Listen outputs in the SQ on the left to any output socket at the top.
‘Tie Lines’ = Patch directly from any input socket on the left to any output socket at the top (without any processing, level or mute control).

• When patching inputs, the input sockets are displayed at the top of the matrix and the destination channel (in the SQ) is displayed to the left.

• When patching outputs, the source (from the SQ) is displayed at the left of the matrix, and the output sockets are displayed at the top.

• When patching Tie Lines, input sources are shown on the left and output destinations are shown at the top.

• Touch and drag the grid on-screen to see more input and output channels.

• Touch the ‘SLink‘ or ‘I/O Port‘ tab multiple times to display channels 1-32, 33-64, 65-96 or 97-128. There are four marks on each tab to show which screen is currently displayed.

Patching a Source to a Destination –

• Touch the ‘Patch’ button on the screen at the top left of the patching matrix to enable patching.

• Touch a patching block on the matrix to make or delete a patch.

• Available patching blocks are grey and are filled light grey when patched.

• Currently unavailable patching blocks are dark grey and striped light grey when patched.

• Input or Output sockets that are currently in use are dark grey (including if they are being used by insert points). Sockets that are not in use are light grey.

ⓘ The Patch switch will be turned off automatically whenever leaving the I/O screen. It can be disabled entirely in the Surface Prefs screen.

ⓘ All patching to a currently disconnected device will become active once the device is connected.

Sequential Patching –

For quick sequential patching (also known as ‘block’, ‘one-to-one’ or ‘diagonal patching’)

• Touch and hold the first available (unpatched) patching block you wish to patch to until the touchscreen rotary illuminates.

• Turn the touchscreen rotary increase or decrease the number of channels you wish to patch; these are displayed as blue patching blocks.

• Remove finger from screen to apply patching.

ⓘ It is not possible to delete patches sequentially, so the starting patching block must be currently unpatched.

Input Channel Patch Libraries –

Pressing the ‘Library’ key on the surface when the ‘Input Channel’ tab under ‘Inputs’ is active will display the IP Channel Patch Libraries.

These can be used to store and recall input channel patching for different setups and provide a quick method of switching the entire input patch for virtual soundcheck.

For quick setup, factory presets for one-to-one patching from each input type are provided.

ⓘ Input libraries store and recall all input patching, not just the currently selected source.

Local Sockets

The local input and output options in the I/O screen match the analogue input and output socket labels on the SQ.

SLink Sockets

The SLink port is compatible with dSnake, DX and gigaACE/GX protocols. It switches between these protocol modes, so different protocols over a single connection are not supported.

The current mode is shown on the tab in blue text unless nothing is connected, in which case ‘Not Connected’ is displayed.

Check SLink Connections for the full list of supported configurations.

Touch the tab multiple times to display channels 1-32, 33-64, 65-96 or 97-128. There are four marks on each tab to show which screen is currently displayed.

ME Systems

ME-U, ME-1 and ME-500 units use the dSnake protocol, and can either be connected directly, connected to the monitor or expander ports of an AR2412 or AB168 or connected to the DX2/ME port of a GX4816.

The ME patching is applied to any SLink port that is running the dSnake protocol, which could be the SLink port, an SLink option card, or both at the same time. The ‘SLink’ and/or ‘I/O Port’ text on the ‘ME’ tab are displayed in white when patching is active on either port.

ⓘ ME-U and ME-1 units can accept 40 total channels, ME-500 units accept 16 mono or stereo channels.

ⓘ Stereo channels are set on the SQ in Mixer Config settings and should be patched to odd/even channel pairs when using ME-500 units.

ⓘ ME-500 units automatically assign the first 16 stereo or mono sources they receive to the 16 available keys.

USB-B and SQ-Drive Channels

USB inputs and outputs can either be used by the USB-B connection or SQ-Drive.

To view or change USB mode, press the ‘Setup’ key, then touch the ‘Audio’ tab followed by the ‘USB’ tab.

See the SQ-Drive and USB-B section for more information on streaming and recording audio.

I/O Port Channels

The I/O Port is for patching to and from SQ option cards fitted in the I/O Port.

The current option card protocol is shown on the tab in blue text unless nothing is connected, in which case ‘Not Connected’ is displayed.

ⓘ Touch the tab multiple times to display channels 1-32, 33-64, 65-96 or 97-128. There are four marks on each tab to show which screen is currently displayed.

ⓘ Note that when patching to an option card such as Dante or Waves, you are patching the SQ to the option card. Further patching between devices is usually then required.

Tie Lines

Tie lines are used to patch connections directly from any input socket to any output socket without using any of the channel processing, mixing or level control in the core.

They are different from input direct outputs, which come from the 48 input processing channels and can include processing.

All possible input sockets are displayed on the left and all possible output sockets are displayed at the top.

Tie lines allow you to pass audio directly from any available input source to one or multiple outputs and have many applications including:

• Sending unprocessed (post socket analogue preamp) audio whilst simultaneously sending processed audio from a input direct out (such as when multitrack recording and using a ME personal monitoring system at the same time).

• Setting up digital splits for front of house and monitor or broadcast setups.

• Sending an ambient microphone (not required in any mix) to USB or option card for recording without using up an input channel.

ⓘ To protect preamp settings for sockets not assigned to input channels on scene changes, block ‘Tie Line Only Preamps’ in Global or Scene recall filters.

Socket Control

Touching a socket number at the top of the patching matrix opens the socket control pop-up with the following options for connected local or expander sockets.

Analogue input = 48V, Pad and Gain

AES input = SRC Bypass option

All output sockets = Polarity (invert)

AES output = Output Sample Rate