unsplash.com; Filip Barna
As a specifier you probably know this better than anyone: digital audio consoles have become the mainstay of mixing these days. And as they progressed in technology and grew in popularity so did their counterpart Audio over Ethernet (AoE). In dealing with your church clients, it’s important to impart a bit of background information, though. Because knowledge that is second nature to you is likely not to some of them.
When talking Ethernet, it’s important to know that not all things “Ethernet” are created the same. It's important for church techs to consider and learn about the different protocols, called layers.
Layer lingo
- Layer 1 is the most basic - it utilizes the same Ethernet cabling, but clients can think of it as more point-to-point or a closed system, not living with other Ethernet traffic. Aviom’s proprietary A-Net protocol is a classic example of this.
- Layer 2 starts adding some complexity to the mix and allowing the audio and data to play together. CobraNet is a perfect example of this. It was developed in the 1990s by Peak Audio and is considered the first successful implementation of AoE by the industry.
- Layer 3 is where the magic starts happening. This layer builds on the previous two layers and allows for increased bandwidth and higher reliability.
AoE options
While there are a few versions of AoE out there, like A-Net and CobraNet, there are many contenders. Some are still playing an active role, and others gave it their best shot and ultimately were overshadowed. You know this, but your church clients may not.
A few AoE notables still thriving:
- EtherSound - Developed in 2001 by Digigram. It is designed to live alone on a dedicated network of its own VLAN. Ethersound provides a two-way communication platform when wired in a daisy chain topology and is popular because of its low latency. Digigram licenses this protocol to many known audio manufacturers, such as Digico, Yamaha, and Allen and Heath.
- AVB - Audio Video Bridging was developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) in 2011 as a means of creating an AoE standard. This is a highly reliable protocol that can live among a network with other traffic on it. By using select AVB switches, a portion of available bandwidth is reserved for AVB traffic. Unfortunately, AVB never really took off in the live sound world, with many manufacturers going with their proprietary protocols or licensing with Dante.
- Dante - Developed by Audinate in 2006, Dante is an AoE protocol that can live on existing network infrastructures. Dante offers several benefits to the end user over other protocols mentioned such as its “Virtual Soundcard” that allows any PC or Mac with the company’s software on it to transmit audio over a connected network line. It also offers automatic configuration via Dante Discovery and Bonjour, making it an easy set up for end users.
