Audio networking

In audio and broadcast engineering, Audio networking is the use of a network to distribute real-time digital audio. Audio Networking replaces bulky snake cables or audio-specific installed low-voltage wiring with standard network structured cabling in a facility. Audio Networking provides a reliable backbone for any audio application, such as for large-scale sound reinforcement in stadiums, airports and convention centers, multiple studios or stages.

While Audio Networking bears a resemblance to voice over IP (VoIP) and audio contribution over IP (ACIP), Audio Networking is intended for high-fidelity, low-latency professional audio. Because of the fidelity and latency constraints, Audio Networking systems generally do not utilize audio data compression. Audio Networking systems use a much higher bit rate (typically 1 Mbit/s per channel) and much lower latency (typically less than 10 milliseconds) than VoIP. Audio Networking requires a high-performance network. Performance requirements may be met through use of a dedicated local area network (LAN) or virtual LAN (VLAN), overprovisioning or quality of service features.

Some Audio Networking systems use proprietary protocols (at the lower OSI layers) which create Ethernet frames that are transmitted directly onto the Ethernet (layer 2) for efficiency and reduced overhead. The word clock may be provided by broadcast packets.