In today’s world, technology is a part of everyday life. It’s the main mode of communication, but not many people know that audio visual integration plays a big part in this necessity. Whether you’re doing an event or a live performance, you rely on this modern technology to make things work smoothly and efficiently.
Audio visual integration is the blending of technologies related to hearing and sight into a unified whole. It’s the process of coordinating speakers, microphones, projectors, video displays, control panels, video conferencing software, and other technologies into a functioning solution.
The essence of audio visual integration is to coordinate technologies relating to hearing and sight into a functioning and unified whole. Milan or Dante are most commonly used for audio visual integration. Both have strong system foundations built by the design and engineering teams who understand the technologies they are implementing and partner with AV integrators.
AoIP, Dante, and Milan defined
Audio over Internet Protocol (AoIP) has very naturally taken its place as the standard means of transmitting audio around a building or open space, or both. But it has options, and decisions to be made, just like the loudspeakers at the end of the chain. What’s not clear yet is how the struggle for market share between the two main protocols – Dante and Audio-Video-Bridging (AVB) – will be affected by one’s attempt to integrate video and the other’s adoption of much more defined ‘plug-and-play’ parameters.
Dante (developed and supported by Audinate) stands for Digital Audio Network Through Ethernet and, in a nutshell, that’s what it’s all about. Instead of a bulky snake, a Dante network moves digital audio over hundreds of feet (and more) using svelte Cat 5e cables or fiber-optic cables. An Audinate module which allows the transport of video along with audio on the same network using the same tools.
Milan is actually a recently launched refinement of AVB, with Ethernet-proof enhancements.
Milan offers the technical benefits of the IEEE AVB open-standards approach, such as time synchronization and guaranteed quality of service, as well as risk-free coexistence of control and media data on one network.
Networking is critical to development of improved sound for both live and broadcast performances. It drastically reduces cabling requirements, putting hundreds of channels onto a few category-type wires, thereby reducing costs and complexity. Networked audio also helps facilities become more flexible for other uses.
One main difference is that Milan is IEEE compliant, whereas Dante is not – while Dante is proprietary, and Milan is not. If you buy AVnu-certified products, they are just as plug-and-play among themselves as Dante products are.
What is IEEE compliance? IEEE standards provide the bricks and mortar for a globally level playing field for innovation; protect public safety, health, and wellbeing; and contribute to a more sustainable future.
Milan & Dante both transform audio and video connectivity. Dante replaces all of those connections with a computer network, effortlessly sending video or hundreds of channels of audio over slender Ethernet cables with perfect digital fidelity. All connections are now managed with software, making routes fast, readable and reliable.
The Dante AV Module is codec-agnostic, providing for a choice of codecs while getting all the benefits of the Dante’s easy-to-use software and API for unified control of video and audio. The Dante AV Module provides complete interoperability with all Dante video and audio devices.
The Dante AV Module is a hardware solution for interfacing video and audio with 1 Gbps Network, delivered as a compact, castellated circuit board. The Dante AV Module is codec-agnostic, providing for a choice of codecs while getting all the benefits of the Dante’s easy-to-use software and API for unified control of video and audio. The Dante AV Module provides complete interoperability with all Dante video and audio devices.
The optional Dante AV Product Design Suite is a complete, turnkey AV-over-IP endpoint product design which incorporates the Dante AV Module. It consists of a comprehensive set of documents and software to deliver complete, fully interoperable AV products quickly and reliably. It includes schematics and even a complete bill of materials so you can begin creating your next product right away.
The Dante AV Product Design Suite incorporates an implementation of the popular JPEG2000 codec, which delivers visually perfect results at 4K60 with low latency. Products designed with the Suite may be configured to encode or decode via simple software selection. The Dante AV Product Design can be easily customized to suit an OEM’s specific requirements and provide competitive differentiation. Dante AV transmits audio and video as separate essences. So, and audio mixer can receive just the audio, and a projector could receive just the video.
In Dante Via, a destination is any hardware device or software application that can receive audio from the computer / network system. Dedicated network infrastructure is not required. Dante-enabled devices can happily co-exist on an existing converged data network. Dante is the de facto standard for digital audio networking, and distributes hundreds of uncompressed, multi-channel digital audio via standard Ethernet networks, with near-zero latency and perfect synchronization. Dante allows audio, control, and all other data to coexist effectively on the same network. Simply connect your Dante enabled devices to an Ethernet switch, using Cat5e or Cat 6 Ethernet cable, and then connect your computer to the same switch. If you have only one Dante-enabled device to connect to your computer, you may eliminate the switch and simply connect the two with a Cat5e or Cat6 Ethernet cable.
Milan inherits all the benefits of AVB technology. The main advantages are deterministic behavior (reserved AV streams); improved reliability; optimum synchronization and hassle-free network setup, as no special settings, such as QoS, need to be set within the switches to ensure delivery.
Of special value in converged networks (networks that are shared between several subsystems such as audio, IT/data and video), is no further need to isolate the subsystems in order to guarantee congestion free operation.
As an open solution, Milan offers investment security, but provides room integration with each manufacturer’s products and subsystems. This renders the networking part of a system ‘transparent’ to the user, enabling them to focus on delivering the best audio experience to the audience.
Milan’s networks can run flexible media clocking and seamless redundancy. Two parallel networks can be deployed for protection against failure of network components like cables and switches. Advanced media clocking schemes can be defined by the user, so that several subsystems can be clocked independently at either the same or different sampling rates, while still sharing the same network infrastructure.
Live sound audio & video is one of the most challenging jobs in the industry. The network cannot fail, and often must be deployed in a matter of days or even hours. There can’t be any guesswork when there is so much on the line. In touring systems, live-sound installations, and projects across the globe, Systems must be proven to make live sound & video networks more reliable, easier to operate, and faster to deploy. The future is bright for amazing integrations, I look forward to seeing what’s around the corner.