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Perfect for contractors and anyone who needs a system with powerful low end, the StudioLive 18sAI active PA subwoofer features a powered 18-inch, ferrite driver that will deliver the bottom you need with an accuracy usually found only in studio monitors.

The StudioLive™ 18sAI’s Active Integration 32-bit, 96 kHz DSP gives these groundbreaking new subwoofers studio-monitor accuracy and delivers wireless and wired control of all setup, tuning, and monitoring functions, using free SL Room Control software for Mac®, Windows®, and iPad®.

Although it is designed to complement the full-range StudioLive AI speakers, the StudioLive 18sAI is flexible enough to work with other powered loudspeakers. An adjustable (0, 2, or 4 feet) alignment delay allows the subwoofer to be placed in different positions relative to a full-range speaker system and correctly combine with them. When used with a StudioLive 312AI, 315AI, or 328AI, the StudioLive 18sAI forms a true four-way system.

How low can you get?

With the StudioLive 18sAI, you can get pretty darned low! And it delivers those low frequencies with plenty of muscle, thanks to its 1,000 watt (bridged), Class D power amplifier.

Connections are straightforward, with stereo line inputs (XLR/¼-inch combo) and full-range, switchable stereo/summed-mono line outputs (XLR).

The lightweight plywood enclosure includes ergonomic side handles, an integrated pole insert, and interlocking stacking provisions for use with a full-range system such as those in the StudioLive AI series. Options include a mountable Sub Dolly and pull-tested Sub Pole to mount a full-range system atop the 18sAI.

These features are important but what makes the StudioLive 18sAI special is its amazing accuracy and control features—the result of PreSonus Active Integration technology.

The future is Active Integration

Products that sense each other, interact and work together via wireless and wired communication, feature 32-bit floating-point DSP and seamlessly integrated software, and run on CPUs far more powerful than competitors’ current audio products—PreSonus has realized this dream with its new Active Integration technology.

Active Integration incorporates communications, wireless networking, and huge amounts of DSP into a specialized, custom chip. Essentially, we’ve put a computer into these speakers, with enough processing power to handle not only the specialized algorithms for tuning the system to near-perfection but also providing extensive remote control over system performance, the variable low-pass filter, and much more.

As with the full-range StudioLive AI-series systems, the StudioLive 18sAI offers the benefits of Active Integration, including remote control—including wireless control—over output level, user-adjustable contours, and more and uses 32-bit floating point DSP for the variable crossover, dynamic limiting, and excursion limiting.

PreSonus Active Integration products employ cutting-edge OMAP™ 5 multi-core ARM 2GHz Cortex-A processors — a whole computer on a chip. These 32-bit, 96 kHz multi-stream CPUs include an operating system, wireless and 100 Mb Ethernet communications, USB 2.0 and 1.1, and lavish amounts of 532 MHz LPDDR2 SD RAM.

StudioLive AI series are the first live-sound speakers to employ Active Integration but the technology also is at the heart of the new StudioLive 32.4.2AI digital mixer and will be an essential technology in an entire ecosystem of PreSonus products in the future.

Since StudioLive AI speakers have more DSP than a rack-mounted speaker-management system, you don’t need any external processing devices. It’s all built in, including a variable low-pass filter, a delay, and a limiter, all of which can be controlled wirelessly.

Furthermore, the networking and communications features make Active Integration products incredible convenient to use.

You’re in control—here, there, and everywhere

Every Active Integration product—including StudioLive AI-series speakers—includes both wired and wireless communications. The included USB Wi-Fi LAN adapter enables wireless networking. Wired communications are provided via an installed option card with an Ethercon port that connects to your Ethernet-based LAN network.

The master control center resides in SL Room Control, a rich, easy-to-use, system-configuration software application for Mac®, Windows®, and iPad  that offers individual or group control of all StudioLive AI-series speakers on the network. SL Room Control gives you control over most onboard controls and lets you monitor key performance indicators.

Thanks to Active Integration, all of your StudioLive AI speakers—including satellite systems—are networked and operate as a truly integrated system. A Network Setup Wizard automatically detects each speaker and allows you to quickly connect to your wired or wireless network. Once connected, you can create, edit, save, recall, and share speaker-setup parameters.

You have control over maximum SPL/output level, a variable low-pass filter, mute, speaker delay, and signal polarity.

Operation modes allow you to choose between optimized settings for different applications. Normal mode is for live front-of-house applications, Extended LF mode provides an enhanced sub-bass frequency, and User mode lets you create a custom preset.

You also can monitor performance contouring, dynamic limiting, and excursion limiting, as well as checking real-time temperature and clipping.

With SL Room Control, you can full configure, tune, and monitor networked StudioLive AI PA speakers from anywhere in the venue. You can even visually display the room layout on a laptop or iPad!

For more information on SL Room Control, click here.

The divine interface

Active Integration doesn’t stop at remote control. Swap out your StudioLive loudspeaker’s Ethercon control card for the StudioLive Dante upgrade, and you can ditch those analog cables.

Audinate’s Dante technology is a combination of software, hardware, and network protocols designed to transfer many channels of uncompressed, low-latency digital audio over relatively long distances and to multiple locations, using a standard Ethernet network.

Dante is intended to build and improve upon previous Ethernet-audio technologies (e.g., CobraNet and EtherSound), including the ability to pass through network routers, native gigabit support, higher channel count, lower latency, and automatic configuration.