It would be hard to find a better investment in your church's future than a sound network plan. In addition to the considerable benefits to the operation of your other ministries, the quantum advances in production gear and its growing dependence on AV-over-IP technology make an efficient network plan a must for churches that are growing through their streaming and online campuses. Bringing in an IT professional with experience in AV-over-IP would be money well spent, but there's a lot you can do on your own to plan your church's network, and some good resources available to you.
Learn more here.
“We’re happy to help church teams design AV networks,” notes John Henkel, director of SMB Product Marketing at NETGEAR, industry leader in professional AV-over-IP networking equipment. As an example, his company offers a Top Ten Tips for AV over IP Network Design drafted by its Pro AV Design Team with years of experience building networks. Paramount among the Top Ten Tips is to be sure that churches know that designing a network for AV production and pro audio is not just about creating a bigger and faster office network.
The right gear is key
Unlike a standard IP Switch, like what your computers connect to at the office, switches built for AV-over-IP offer more, not least of which are profiles for common audio and video protocols that allow church teams to quickly assign profiles to ports for special uses like Dante AV, AES67, and AVB audio configurations, or video profiles for NDI, Crestron NVX, AMX SVSI, and Extron NAV. You won’t find features like these and the processing power to handle them on “office type” switches, but you will find them on professional AV-compliant switches like NETGEAR’s AV Line of M4250 switches. These switches are built for 1Gigabit AV over IP installations and designed for easy integration with traditional rack-mounted AV equipment. The M4250 switches and others in its class offer the benefits of being pre-configured for out-of-the-box functionality and are managed via a smart, web-based interface that allows you to configure the network for your specific applications.
Unlike a standard IP Switch, switches built for AV-over-IP offer profiles for common audio and video protocols that allow church teams to quickly assign profiles to ports for special uses like Dante AV, AES67, and AVB audio configurations, or video profiles for Crestron NVX, AMX SVSI, and Extron NAV.
In addition to knowing that the switches you need will be approved for AV use, NETGEAR professionals remind network designers that one of their first tasks in any project is to nail down the requirements. What is important for your applications: Is quality king? Can some latency be tolerated? Answers to these questions will help determine the type of encoders/decoders you will need which, in turn, will determine the speed of the switch and uplink ports needed. Next steps include doing the math to be sure you will have the properly sized uplinks in place for your system. Then, further guarantee your success by building in some headroom, and make proper use of VLANs and QOS in your AV network design.
Get the training you need
If you are completely new to network design or need to dig deeper into the terms and technology, there are organizations that have stepped up to help, like the SDVoE (Software Defined Video over Ethernet) Alliance. It is a nonprofit consortium of technology providers who are collaborating to further standardize the adoption of Ethernet to transport AV signals in professional AV environments. The SDVoE Academy is a great resource for learning the skills that will help you take advantage of the latest AV signal management technology. You’ll find self-paced lessons and case studies that cover all aspects of video and networking basics and critical system design considerations. There’s even a track that leads to SDVoE Design Partner certification, and best of all it’s free.
NETGEAR's Academy, similarly offers free courses that can educate you and your church team on AV-over-IP basics, but also offers a deeper look into NETGEAR Network Management that includes both wired- and wireless-networking, as well as an operational look at remote cloud management. An additional important benefit of NETGEAR’s Academy are its connections to the wealth of information contained in NETGEAR’s Online Community and their support and download center.
NETGEAR’s Academy offers free courses that can educate church teams on AV-over-IP basics, but also offers a deeper look into NETGEAR Network Management that includes both wired- and wireless-networking, as well as an operational look at remote cloud management.
Video tutorials and online training are also available from Audinate, the company that invented Dante, a network protocol that can send video or hundreds of channels of audio over economic Ethernet cables with digital fidelity. Dante is powerful because it allows all connections to be managed with software, making routes fast, readable, and reliable. Plus, because all devices can share the same network, signals can be sent between any devices no matter where they are located on a network, without the need for additional wiring. Dante systems are easily expanded by just plugging devices into an available network jack, exactly as one might add a printer to a network.
You are not alone
Of course, there is much more to designing an AV-over-IP network than a short article can cover, but remember that the resources mentioned here are there to support you and invest in your success. “I really want to make sure people know that they are not alone,” says NETGEAR’s Henkel. “We understand that when churches are exploring their options for network design, it’s not just about the equipment, but about the relationship.” To back that up, NETGEAR offers a free service to help church network designers choose the right switch, design the network, and then install/deploy it. “ProAVDesign@netgear.com is an email that goes to our team of AV-trained systems engineers who will help with designing any size network,” he offers.
It applies to churches of all sizes: Your investment in great audio and video gear offers the potential to take your ministry to the next level, but you can't realize its full potential without the reliable connectivity provided by an efficient network designed to support AV.
