Professional AoIP for Broadcast
The SSL network bridge link MADI to AoIP systems
Today’s standard industrial IT infrastructure has already overtaken the technology of AES/EBU, MADI and TDM routers in terms of performance, cost and flexibility. The rate of development of IT systems, fuelled as it is by a multi-billion dollar industry many times the size of the broadcast industry, is certain to widen this gap in the future. Over the next few years IT infrastructure will replace current broadcast infrastructure, delivering additional flexibility, better scalability and significantly lower costs.
Audio over IP (AoIP) has been embraced by the installed sound, live and radio industries. Much has been learnt from this but larger broadcast applications bring additional constraints, especially channel count, synchronisation and latency. Audio systems engineers will need to learn how to set up, configure and manage IT networks; IT specialists will have to understand why and when audio networks need to be separate. Education will be key.
As with previous transitions, audio, with its lower data rates, will be a pathfinder for developments that will follow in the video domain. IT is already widely used in broadcast for file transfer, but SMPTE 2022-6 (high data rate streamed video over IP), which was published in 2012, is evidence that SDI will eventually be replaced. Central to consider- ations about audio or video over IP is the value that metadata brings to systems. Concepts such as discoverability and automatic configuration are key to delivering powerful workflow benefits.
In this paper we describe our vision for the future of Audio over IP for professional broadcast applications, explain which technologies we are using, discuss the advantages and challenges associated with AoIP and demystify the jargon.
AES 67 provides comprehensive interoperability recommendations, essential since several standards have emerged including Audinate's Dante and AVB.
AoIP sees applications in remote production and I/O everywhere. It allows traditional TDM systems to be replaced or supplanted by IP routers and switches. The paper looks at topographies.
Glossary
The white paper includes a glossary of basic network terms, and covers a brief history of audio routing and the evolution of audio over IP.
Tom Knowles is product manager - broadcast systems at Solid State Logic
You might also like...
Building Software Defined Infrastructure: Asynchronous & Synchronous Media Processing
One of the key challenges of building software defined infrastructure is moving to a fundamentally synchronous media like video to an asynchronous architecture.
Monitoring & Compliance In Broadcast: Monitoring Cloud Infrastructure
If we take cloud infrastructures to their extreme, that is, their physical locality is unknown to us, then monitoring them becomes a whole new ball game, especially as dispersed teams use them for production.
Phil Rhodes Image Capture NAB 2025 Show Floor Report
Our resident image capture expert Phil Rhodes offers up his own personal impressions of the technology he encountered walking the halls at the 2025 NAB Show.
Building Hybrid IP Systems
It is easy to assume that the industry is inevitably and rapidly making the move to all-IP infrastructures to leverage IP’s flexibility and scalability, but the reality is often a bit more complex.
Microphones: Part 9 - The Science Of Stereo Capture & Reproduction
Here we look at the science of using a matched pair of microphones positioned as a coincident pair to capture stereo sound images.