Getting Started with Nexia

Five flavors

The Nexia platform consists of five different products, each one designed around a particular use scenario:

• Nexia CS - Conferencing scenarios with local audio only
  
  
   
• Nexia PM - Multi-media presentations requiring both microphone and program audio
  
  
   
• Nexia SP - Speaker processing for line inputs feeding a large number of discrete outputs
  
  
   
• Nexia TC - Teleconferencing with both far end and local audio
  
  
   
• Nexia VC - Videoconferencing with both far end and local audio
  
  

Each of these systems features network-friendly open architecture, allowing you to design the system that suits your particular needs.

Getting started

In order to communicate with your Nexia device, you will first need to download and install the Nexia software. This is freely available on our website and can be found under Discontinued downloads. The current version is Nexia Software V3.3.

(If your device was purchased prior to July, 2013, you will also want to download the most recent version of firmware, available at the same link. You can use the following instructions for Updating Firmware on an Audia/Nexia, but you may want to return to this guide after learning how to connect to your system.)

The Nexia device will need to be powered on and connected to the same subnet as your computer in order for the two to communicate. The factory default IP address for a Nexia device is 192.168.1.101. Therefore, if the Nexia is brand new or has not been modified, you should be able to communicate with it by connecting your computer to the same network and setting the computer's IP address to 192.168.1.x (where x = any number 1-254, except 101).

If you're unsure of your Nexia's IP address, you can use either of these two methods to discover it:
 
Finding and Changing an Audia/Nexia IP Address via RS-232
Finding an Audia/Nexia IP Address via Ethernet

We also have a step by step guide to getting connected: Troubleshooting: Connecting to an Audia or Nexia

Once you are on the same subnet, take a moment to watch the following videos. These will guide you through the process of connecting to your Nexia, retrieving its system configuration file, and updating or sending a new configuration file to the device.

Setting Network Discovery Options

Connecting to a Nexia Device

Sending or Updating a Configuration File to the Nexia

Building a configuration file from scratch

You are not limited to the default configuration file! Nexia software allows for open-architecture system design. The video below will guide you through building a Nexia configuration file from scratch:

Part 1:

Part 2:

 

Further understanding

There are many elements -- physical, acoustical, digital, and otherwise -- that come into play when designing a modern sound system. For our purposes, two of the most critical elements to understand are having good gain structure and, for teleconferencing applications, cancelling acoustic echoes.

To that end, we highly recommend that you spend some time familiarizing yourself with the following two articles. Understanding these concepts can not only save you some frustration when designing a sound system, but also time, effort, and, ultimately, money.

Gain Structure
Acoustic Echo Cancellation​​