[LAD] More thoughts on AES67

[Len Ovens]

On Mon, 6 Oct 2014, Reuben Martin wrote:

> On Saturday, October 04, 2014 03:37:10 PM Len Ovens wrote:
>
> The AES67 looks to provide gateway nodes for the various systems. It has some

It sounds like every box will be usable as a gateway and that it would be 
possible not to use a gateway but just use the audio where needed. 
However, I think you are right that a gateway style of use is what will 
happen. Most AoIP boxes that I have read about seem to support many more 
streams than they have HW I/O.

> inherent limitations, but for for the scope of Linux Audio I think it will be
> sufficient for what most people would want to do with it.

I think the limitations may actually be a good thing for Linux. As with 
most things, Linux tends to react to what is out there. AES67 would give 
Linux audio a way forward in Audio IF for (semi)pro audio HW. USB has 
improved a great deal, but seems to suffer some of it's own limitations. 
It seems that Most AoIP boxes will allow working with a web IF to control 
all routing, internal dsp, mixing etc. Many of them also seem to deal with 
MIDI over IP as a control mechanism too (though the MIDIoIP is not always 
anything standard) some of them having MIDI ports just for that.

It is not the perfect solution, but it sounds way better than the current 
ALSA solutions where just being able to see the I/O ports means it is 
supported. Very few offer even routing.

>> extra support which costs money. The aes67 document does suggest some of
>> the discovery types available:
>>
>> Bonjour
>> SAP
>> Axia Discovery Protocol
>> Wheatstone WheatnetIP Discovery Protocol
>
> Bonjour is just the apple branding of zeroconf. It's not really attached to
> apple. I think it would offer the most robust solution. In my experience SAP is
> very slow to propagate. There's also SLP which almost nobody uses anymore. As
> well as UPnP / SSDP, which I hate, but would integrate well with HTML based
> control messaging.

>From a Linux POV, using whatever HW someone else has already built, This 
does not matter in the end. Something will end up getting used and Linux 
will have to deal with it at that time. On the other hand, most Linux 
studios are small, using an audio IF that isin the same room as the 
computer. AoIP will allow having more than one IF in more than one room 
and be easy to use in a static manner. That is, it may be a pain to set 
up, but once set up, it will just work.

--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net