The Audio Networking Jigsaw

What you need to know as an IT professional

For those of us in IT or the networking business, the term ‘audio networking’ most likely brings to mind IP telephony, plus Skype, Webex, Zoom and all the other voice-enabled software out there. This isn’t surprising given the focus on unified comms and collaboration over the past few years – and the pain it often caused in the days before Gigabit Ethernet!

But audio networking actually emerged from the AV (audiovisual) world. The term was coined to describe how sound engineers are increasingly shifting to a more network-centric approach when connecting audio equipment together. Rather than using miles of traditional cabling, the idea is that sound equipment such as microphones, mixers, amplifiers, speakers, recording devices, and so on, is simply plugged into Ethernet, allowing connections to be defined and configured virtually in software.

The big question though is what impact this potentially has on the corporate network infrastructure and the team responsible for operating and supporting it. How much should you worry about security and quality of service, for example?

When faced with an unfamiliar set of protocols and end-points, the natural reaction is to throw up the barriers. In this paper, however, we look at why this natural defensive stance is neither sustainable nor appropriate, and why it makes sense to embrace audio networking as a legitimate part of the corporate infrastructure – provided, of course, that it’s done in the right way.

Download the paper to read more ….

Content Contributors: Dale Vile & Tony Lock

Dale Vile

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Dale is a co-founder of Freeform Dynamics, and today runs the company. As part of this, he oversees the organisation’s industry coverage and research agenda, which tracks technology trends and developments, along with IT-related buying behaviour among mainstream enterprises, SMBs and public sector organisations.