[LAD] AoIP question

[Len Ovens]

On Sat, 11 Oct 2014, Philipp Überbacher wrote:

> I see my fair share of laptops and ethernet is somewhat declining.
> There are only few laptops without an interface, macbook air and some
> versions of macbook pro come to mind. I guess apple has two reasons for
> that: 1) increased use of wifi over ethernet 2) selling overpriced
> adapters to people who want to use ethernet. What I see increasingly

:) Apple likes to sell overpriced *.

> more often are 'flat' ethernet ports. With those things you can't just
> plug the cable in, you have to expand it first. This allows
> manufacturers to build slightly slimmer laptops but I think those ports
> will likely break much sooner than conventional ports. I guess this is
> a tradeoff manufacturers are willing to make since wifi is so prevalent

Purposely making it worthwhile to replace the whole unit more often so 
they can make more profits.

> nowadays. It is also an indication that ethernet is less important
> nowadays and may vanish from laptops in the next couple of years.

I do not think it will quite vanish. However, the reality has been for a 
while that for audio use, an apropriate machine should be chosen in the 
first place. Audio can be made to work on just about anything out there, 
but can work much better if the right choice is made. Apple makes AV 
machines that are supposed to be designed to handle this stuff well, but 
the user pays for it. The computer is more, the SW is more, the external 
boxes are more... everything is meant to be closed. To get open stuff, the 
PC is used, but the PC is not based on AV designs and so the user has to 
know what to look for to get a good computer for audio use. I bought a new 
computer MB a few months ago for my studio. I purposely chose a MB with 
PCI slots so I could use a known good AI, I purposely chose an i5 rather 
than i7 for no hyperthreading, etc. In the same way, a user with an 
ethernet based AI had better choose a computer (desktop/laptop/notepad) 
with a built in ethernet port and may wish to be picky about what chipset 
the ethernet port uses.

A working musician will not buy a toy midi keyboard for the stage, or use 
the amp from a home stereo for an amp (at least not very long). In the 
same way, someone doing audio work with their computer, no matter what OS 
they use, needs to be willing to spend some time and money making sure 
they have an appropriate computer. I am "cheap" as they come, but getting 
the job done means buying the right stuff to begin with. There is a sense 
that with Linux a person can do pro audio work on any computer... 
basically free. I don't think that is true, I do think it can be less 
expensive, but time input to learning must be higher to compensate. I also 
think there are things that can be done with Linux that are just not 
available anywhere else.

--
Len Ovens
www.ovenwerks.net