- Bringing to fruition over three years of research and development as well as comprehensive participation and leadership in the IEEE AVB 802.1 Audio/Video Bridging (AVB) Task Group initiative, Harman Professional demonstrated Harman HiQnet products streaming Ethernet AV in a technology preview at Pro Light & Sound in Frankfurt, Germany last month. The company showcased several new Ethernet AV products, including a dbx SC 32 digital matrix processor and a Crown CTs amplifier, all connected with an Ethernet AV.
- The demonstration followed Harman’s participation in the IEEE 802.1 AVB workshop with AVB Task Group co-members at the 125th AES Convention in San Francisco. Presenters included Robert Boatright, director of research, Harman International; Matthew Xavier Mora, software engineer; and Michael Johas Teener, technical director and plumbing architect, Broadcom Corp — all members of the IEEE 802.1 AVB Task Group.
- “This announcement is the product of considerable labor, remarkable inter-company cooperation, and uncommon leadership by a group of dedicated engineers at the IEEE AVB 802.1 AVB Task Group,” says Rick Kreifeldt, vice president, Harman System development and integration group (SDIG).
- The IEEE 802 working groups, a coalition of leading technology companies from professional audio and video, semiconductor, networking, computing, and consumer electronics have been working on protocols that allow the building of standards-based networks with the appropriate quality of service for high-quality audio performance and production. This new set of standards, developed by the IEEE 802.1 (AVB) Task Group, provides three major enhancements for 802-based networks:
- Precise timing to support low-jitter media clocks and accurate synchronization of multiple streams
- A simple reservation protocol that allows endpoint devices to reserve the bandwidth in a path to guarantee quality of service for audio/video streams
- Queuing and forwarding rules that ensure that audio/video streams will pass through the network within the delay specified by the reservation
- The enhancements enabled by IEEE 802.1 standards require no changes to the Ethernet lower layers and are compatible with all the other functions of a standard Ethernet switch. As a result, the entire Ethernet ecosystem is available to developers — in particular, the various high-speed physical layers (up to 100 gigabit/sec in current standards), security features (encryption and authorization), and advanced management (remote testing and configuration) features.
