RAVENNA is an open solution for transmitting audio over IP. Designed to meet the exacting standards of the Broadcast industry, RAVENNA delivers high-quality, multi-channel audio over a standard
IT network.
There are primarily two reasons why users consider using Audio over IP today:
-
Flexibility in signal routing
- Low cost - the small audio industry ‘borrows’ technology from the much larger IT industry that has already been debugged and commoditised over many years, this greatly reduces the cost of
devices such as network switches.
Traditional audio distribution is often implemented using large cross-point switchers or patch bays. These are specialised and expensive devices which take a long time to install and maintain.
They do have the advantage of minimal delay and do not change the signal content or format.
A network system can be rapidly connected together using standard off-the-shelf parts which are much more compact and can be implemented in either a centralised or decentralised fashion.
As network systems originally had no need to consider real-time transmission of data (files were re-assembled from a collection of packets after they had all arrived), there were some
disadvantages to overcome. These are largely done now and the advantage of a cheap scalable infrastructure that may already exist in many facilities is becoming too persuasive too ignore.