The What: Barix has unveiled the Exstreamer M400, the first model in a new generation of the company’s Exstreamer IP audio decoder family. The new hardware is designed as a modern, extensible, and easy-to-deploy decoder platform supporting the latest technology standards.
The What Else: Powered by Barix’s Linux-based IPAM 400 audio module, the Exstreamer M400 has significantly higher processing power than previous Exstreamer models and a more programmable, software-driven architecture for easier expansion, rapid prototyping, and customization. An increased buffer size and advanced buffer management technology bolster the Exstreamer M400’s resilience to network performance disruptions. Expanded support for IT security standards includes HTTPS: support for audio streams and the web-based management interface, plus secure, encrypted SIP (voice-over-IP) communications using TLS and SRTP.
[Barix Ships Analog-to-IP Speaker Upgrade Solution]
Installation of multiple Exstreamer M400 units is simplified by the devices’ freely-included System Configuration Tool. Accessible through a web browser, a dashboard enables installers to efficiently configure up to hundreds of Exstreamer M400 devices at once. It can be used to easily assign devices to grouped zones and specify up to five prioritized source streams for each unit—for example, emergency notifications can be set to override background music playback—as well as the relative volume of each stream. Settings can be copied from one Exstreamer M400 to multiple others simultaneously to significantly speed up multi-unit configuration.
The Exstreamer M400 features stereo, line-level, analog audio output with RCA-type connections and can decode streams in MP3, AAC-HE, FLAC, PCM, Opus, and Ogg Vorbis formats, as well as supporting SIP and secure SIP in peer-to-peer and server modes. Other new features relative to earlier Exstreamer models include IPV6 support; internal audio file storage with externally-triggered playback; and support for Singlewire Software’s InformaCast and Syn-Apps (now part of Intrado) emergency notification platforms with automatic endpoint registration.
“Our earlier Exstreamer products helped make Barix a leader in streaming decoders and earned a strong reputation for their longevity, exceptional audio quality, and feature-richness,” said Davide Nossa, product manager, Barix. “We are excited to continue the Exstreamer family’s hallmarks on a modern hardware foundation that offers customers ‘more of everything’—more power, more flexibility, more security features, more protocols supported, and more extensibility for the future. More than 20 years of IP audio experience and market expertise went into our development of the Exstreamer M400, creating a decoder platform that integrators and users can trust for their AV needs today and in the future.”
The Bottom Line: The Exstreamer M400 initially targets IP audio applications in the professional AV market including background music, paging, SIP/VoIP integration, and emergency notifications. Direct support for Barix’s flagship IC Paging and Simple Paging solutions, scheduled for release later in Q2, will allow Exstreamer M400s to be added as endpoints. The highly extensible device will also be expanded with robust functionality for radio broadcasters in future firmware updates, such as AES67 support for high-quality audio transport between facilities and interoperability with Dante-based devices.
