Kali Audio SM5 Control Panel User Guide

: July 8, 2024
: KALI

Kali Control Panel
User Guide

Audio SM5 Control Panel

Kali Control Panel is a Windows and MacOS application that allows users to control calibration and workflow parameters for our Santa Monica line of speakers. The newest version of the application can be found at kaliaudio.com /santa-monica-how-to

Online Mode vs. Offline Mode

To get started in Kali Control Panel, you’ll first need to decide whether you’re going to use the application in online mode, meaning that you’re running a network cable to each speaker in your system, or offline mode, meaning that you’ll program the speakers
one at a time using a USB thumb drive.
Online mode is a great choice for large setups, especially immersive setups with overhead speakers, as some speakers might be out of reach for programming. Online mode also allows you to program “scenes,” which are full- configuration parameters that you can change at the press of a button. This can be useful if you’d like to switch the tuning profile of your system; for example you could save one scene as “Flat” and another scene as “Dolby Curve.” The tuning switch will
happen for all speakers, and takes about 5 seconds to load.
Other features, like mute, solo, and locate, are only available in online mode.
Offline mode is a good choice for simpler setups where you don’t need to change tunings, especially stereo speakers. Offline mode will allow you to load multiple tunings that are recallable using the DIP switches on the back of the speaker, so if you’ve got speakers that might be used in multiple rooms in a facility, you can load a preset for each of those locations.

8 Parametric EQs	Online Mode	Offline Mode
Delay	Yes	Yes
Trim	Yes	Yes
Save	Yes	Yes
Presets	Yes	Yes
Dim	Yes	No
Mute	Yes	No
Solo	Yes	No
Locate	Yes	No
Scenes	Yes	No
Name Speakers	Yes	No
Connection	RJ45 (Ethernet)	USB Thumb Drive

Configuring Online Mode
For online mode, you will need to connect each speaker in your system to your network via an ethernet cable. Your cimputer running Kali Control Panel must be connected to that same network.
Connecting one end of an ethernet cable to your computer, and the other end to a Santa Monica speaker, will not work.
The recommended configuration is to connect each of your speakers to a network switch, and then connect that switch to your modem or wireless router. You may also connect one or more speakers directly to your modem or wireless router.

Configuring Offline Mode
For offline mode, you will need a high-quality USB thumb drive that is formatted for FAT32. Your SM-5 shipped with such a thumb drive, so it’s a good idea to keep that one handy. The speaker uses .keq files for programming, and .bin files for firmware update. Whenever you’re saving a file to the USB drive to load into the speaker, you’ll need to confirm that there is ONLY one .keq file or one .bin file on the USB drive. Having more than one file on the drive will result in an unsuccessful load.

Configurations

Once you’ve decided whether to use online or offline mode, it’s time to define your system’s configuration. Use the dropdown menu to find whichever system best matches yours.
Two important things to note:

As of now, there are not Kali subwoofers that can communicate with Kali Control Panel, so you can ignore the
LFE channel.
The number of speakers in your system must match the number of speakers in the configuration, minus the
LFE channel. So if you choose “Stereo,” you must have 2 speakers in your system. If you choose 5.1, you must have 5 speakers in your system, etc.

If your configuration doesn’t match one of the configurations in the drop-down menu, use the “custom” configuration.

Custom Configuration
In a custom configuration, you may add as many speakers to the configuration as you like, using the button in the lower right corner. Once a new speaker is created, double click it to rename it for it’s position in your configuration (“Left”, “Right”, “Center”, etc.)
If you have more speakers in your configuration than you would like, simply right click a speaker and select “Delete Custom Speaker”
Once it’s named, drag it to the appropriate position in the configuration.

Naming Configurations

Once you’ve gotten your configuration together, double click the name of the configuration (“New Config” by default) to name it. You can name it whatever you like.

Speaker Discovery

In online mode, click “Discover” to search for speakers on the network. You may have to click more than once for every speaker to show up, or if a speaker drops off the network.

Location

Once a speaker is selected in the discovery area, use the locate ( ) button to determine which speaker it is in your configuration.
The locate button will cause the blue LED on the front of the speaker to flash for 10 seconds.

Speaker Naming

Once a speaker is selected in the discovery area, use the name tag ( ) button to rename it. In order to tell which speaker is which, you can use the location feature.

Assigning Speakers to Positions

With a speaker named, click it and drag it into a position in the configuration. In the configuration, the upper right corner of an assigned speaker will show a green dot. At the same time, a checkmark will appear to the left the speaker’s name in the discovery area.
Repeat this process for every speaker in your configuration.

Mute/Solo/Dim Functions

Mute will mute the selected speaker(s). A muted speaker will have a red outline. To mute more than one speaker at once, select each and check the box next to “Mute” in turn.
Solo will mute every speaker except for the selected speaker. A solo’d speaker will have a yellow outline. To solo more than one speaker at once, select each and check the box next to “Solo” in turn.
Dim will reduce the output level of all speakers in the system by 20 dB. Blue outlines will appear around all speakers when dim is applied.

Standby Mode

Check the box next to “Standby” to enable standby mode. A timer will appear to tell you how many hours and minutes the speaker needs to be idle in order to go into standby. If you wish to change this amount of time, you can click the timer, and a window will appear that allows you to adjust the time before standby.
You can also manually put the speaker into standby mode by double-tapping the Kali logo above the woofer. To take it out of standby, either play signal, or press and hold the Kali logo until the LED turns blue.
The LED will be orange while the speaker is in standby mode.

EQ Panel Button

Press the “EQ” button to minimize and maximize the EQ panel.

EQ Panel

The EQ panel displays the EQ for the selected speaker. To edit EQs, you can click anywhere on the Frequency/Amplitude chart to create a new EQ. Once an EQ is created, you can drag it to adjust the parameters.

Individual EQs

Individual EQs are displayed with their parameters below the frequency/amplitude chart. For each EQ, you can change the type of EQ that the speaker will process. By default, they are each peaking EQs.
To fine tune EQ parameters, edit the values in the fields for each EQ. From top to bottom, those values are the frequency of the EQ, the amplitude, and the Q.

Download EQs

EQs can also be created using Room EQ Wizard (REW,) a freeware room-tuning program. To load .keq files created in REW, or in another instance of Kali Control Panel, click the download ( )button. This will open a finder window, where you can locate a .keq file to load.
Instructions for building .keq files in REW can be found at kaliaudio.com /santa-monica-how-to

EQ Preset

Each speaker can save up to 8 presets. These presets correspond to the boundary EQs that come loaded onto the speaker by default. Presets are saved in the speaker, and do not require KCP to access. Turning DIP Switch 4 up on the back of the speaker will switch from Kali’s boundary EQs to your user- defined presets. See page [PAGE] of the user’s manual for a full explanation of which DIP switch positions correspond to which preset numbers.
To rename these presets, you can click the name of the preset in the dropdown menu, or use the rename ( ) button.

Clear EQs

Use the broom ( ) button to clear the EQs in the current preset. There is no way to undo this action, so it may be a good idea to save the file before clearing EQs.

Delays and Trims

Click the clock ( ) or faders ( ) icon to open the delays and trims panel. You may enter a value up to 12ms for delay, or use the slider to adjust this value. You’ll see that the corresponding distance, in both imperial and metric units, changes in the fields to the right.
You may enter a value between -12 dB and +6 dB for trim. Note that the trim has a resolution of 0.5 dB, so smaller increments will be rounded.
You may also use the slider to adjust the trim value. By default, when the speakers are connected via online mode, Kali Control Panel will override the trim setting on the speaker, and the trim knob will not be functional.

Scenes

Scenes allow you to adjust all parameters in a configuration at the press of a button. This can be useful if you want to A/B between two differnt tuning standards, or adjust the calibration for a different listening position/application, like a client who may be seated outside the mix position. Unlike presets, scenes are saved to the KCP Configuration file, so you’ll need to be networked in order to recall them.
By default, when you start a configuration, you will be in Scene 1. You can change this scene’s name by clicking it’s name under the name of the configuration.
To start a new scene, hit “Save New.” This will automatically populate the next available scene. After making your desired changes, rename the scene. Now you can switch between the two scenes using the radio buttons in the scenes area.

New, Load, and Save

Use the new document ( ) button to start a new configuration. Use the open file ( ) button to load a previously saved configuration file. Use the disk ( ) button to save the current configuration. A configuration will save all the associated scenes you’ve made.

Upload Tunings

In online mode, tunings are automatically sent to the speakers as soon as you make them. There is no need to upload tunings. As long as you have DIP switch 4 up on the back of the speaker, the speaker will continue to process whatever tunings you build.
In offline mode, you need to upload the tunings into the speakers. As in online mode, DIP Switch 4 needs to be up in order vOnce you’ve built your configration, use the upload ( ) button to start this process.
The first step will be to insert a blank USB thumb drive that is formatted for FAT32. Your SM-5 shipped with a thumb drive, and Kali recommends using that one. If you don’t have that one available, use a high-quality USB-A thumb drive. It is important that nothing at all is on this thumb drive.
KCP will walk you through the steps of saving one of the EQs to the thumb drive, then inserting that thumb drive into your speaker to load the tuning(s). When the speaker has successfully taken the tuning, the LED will flash cyan (light blue) and then return to its normal solid dark blue color.
KCP will direct you to insert the thumb drive back into your computer. It will overwrite the previous file with the file for the next speaker.
Follow this process until all speakers in your system have successfully had tuning loaded in.