EtherSound is an audio-over-Ethernet technology for

audio engineering Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound * Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum *Digital audio, representation of soun ...

and

broadcast engineering Broadcast engineering or radio engineering is the field of electrical engineering, and now to some extent computer engineering and information technology, which deals with radio and television broadcasting. Audio engineering and RF engineering a ...

applications. EtherSound is developed and licensed by Digigram. EtherSound is intended by the developer to be compliant with

IEEE 802.3 IEEE 802.3 is a working group and a collection of standards defining the physical layer and data link layer's media access control (MAC) of wired Ethernet. The standards are produced by the working group of the Institute of Electrical and Electro ...

Ethernet standards. Just as the IEEE defines rates such as 100 Megabit and

Gigabit Ethernet In computer networking, Gigabit Ethernet (GbE or 1 GigE) is the term applied to transmitting Ethernet frames at a rate of a gigabit per second. The most popular variant, 1000BASE-T, is defined by the IEEE 802.3ab standard. It came into use in ...

standards, EtherSound has been developed as both ES-100 (for use on dedicated 100 Megabit Ethernet networks or within a Gigabit network as a VLAN) and ES-Giga (for use on dedicated Gigabit Ethernet networks). The two versions of EtherSound are not compatible.

Network technology

While Ethersound is compliant with the IEEE 802.3

physical layer In the seven-layer OSI model of computer networking, the physical layer or layer 1 is the first and lowest layer: the layer most closely associated with the physical connection between devices. The physical layer provides an electrical, mechani ...

standards, logically it uses a

token passing On a local area network, token passing is a channel access method where a packet called a ''token'' is passed between nodes to authorize that node to communicate. In contrast to polling access methods, there is no pre-defined "master" node. The mos ...

scheme for transporting audio data which prevents all of its features from being used on a standard Ethernet network. On a standard network, it is only able to distribute audio and control data one way. It is not designed to share Ethernet

LAN Lan or LAN may refer to: Science and technology * Local asymptotic normality, a fundamental property of regular models in statistics * Longitude of the ascending node, one of the orbital elements used to specify the orbit of an object in space * ...

s with typical office operations data or Internet traffic such as email. It supports two-way communications only when wired in a daisy chain topology. For this reason Ethersound is best used in applications suitable to a daisy chain network topology or in live sound applications that benefit from its low point-to-point latency.

Low latency

Low latency is important for many users of

audio over Ethernet In audio engineering, audio and broadcast engineering, broadcast engineering, Audio networking is the use of a Computer networking, network to distribute real-time digital audio. Audio Networking replaces bulky snake cables or audio-specific insta ...

technologies.One of the most critical applications involves picking up sound from a vocalist's or instrumentalist's microphone on a live performance stage, mixing that signal with those received from other microphones (and performers) and delivering the mix to the performer via

in-ear monitors An in-ear monitor (IEMs), in-ear, or colloquially earpiece is a listening device placed into the ear. More narrowly, the term in-ear monitor is defined as such a device used by musicians, audio engineers and audiophiles to listen to music or to ...

. Latency in this application is particularly annoying to vocalists. This is because a singer hears his or her own voice through

bone conduction Bone conduction is the conduction of sound to the inner ear primarily through the bones of the skull, allowing the hearer to perceive audio content even if the ear canal is blocked. Bone conduction transmission occurs constantly as sound waves vi ...

as well as through the outer ear. If the sound from the in-ear monitor lags the bone-conduction sound by more than a few milliseconds,

phase shifts In physics and mathematics, the phase (symbol φ or ϕ) of a wave or other periodic function F of some real variable t (such as time) is an angle-like quantity representing the fraction of the cycle covered up to t. It is expressed in such a s ...

and

comb filter In signal processing, a comb filter is a Filter (signal processing), filter implemented by adding a delayed version of a signal processing, signal to itself, causing constructive and destructive Interference (wave propagation), interference. The ...

ing will become audible. EtherSound can deliver up to 64 channels of 48 kHz, 24-bit

PCM Pulse-code modulation (PCM) is a method used to Digital signal (signal processing), digitally represent analog signals. It is the standard form of digital audio in computers, compact discs, digital telephony and other digital audio application ...

audio data with a network latency of 125

microseconds A microsecond is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one millionth (0.000001 or 10−6 or ) of a second. Its symbol is μs, sometimes simplified to us when Unicode is not available. A microsecond is to one second, ...

. If A/D and D/A conversions are included, this latency is about 1.5 milliseconds, the major part of this latency being caused by the converters. Each device in a daisy-chain network adds 1.4 microseconds of latency. EtherSound's network latency is stable and deterministic; The delay between any two devices on an EtherSound network can be calculated.

EtherSound Licensees

The following companies have licensed the EtherSound technology. *

Allen & Heath Allen & Heath (also known as AH or A&H) is a company based in Penryn, Cornwall, England, specialising in the manufacture of audio mixing consoles. Allen & Heath also makes sound management systems for industrial installations and DJ mixers fo ...

* Amadeus * Apex Audio * Archean Technologies * Audio Performance * AuviTran * AuxTran * Barix * Bittner Audio * Bouyer * CAMCO Audio * Crest *

DiGiCo DiGiCo is a British company based in Chessington, England that designs, markets, and manufactures Digital mixing console, digital mixing consoles and other audio technologies for the Live sound mixing, live sound, musical theatre, Broadcasting, ...

* Digigram *

Focusrite Focusrite PLC is an English music and audio products group based in High Wycombe, England (with its history in Focusrite Audio Engineering Ltd.). The Focusrite Group trades under eight brands: Focusrite, Focusrite Pro, Martin Audio, ADAM Audio ...

Fostex is an electronics company that manufactures loudspeakers and audio equipment for other companies or sells them under the trade name Fostex. It is traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. Overview Foster Denki supplies audio equipment as an OEM: * ...

* Innovason * Klein + Hummel * LabX technologies * Martin Audio * Mediachip * Nexo *

Peavey Electronics Peavey Electronics Corporation is a privately-owned American company which designs, develops, manufactures, and markets professional audio equipment. Headquartered in Meridian, Mississippi, Peavey is one of the largest audio equipment manufact ...

* Pinanson * QSC *

Richmond Sound Design Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

Studer Studer is a designer and manufacturer of professional audio equipment for recording studios and broadcasters. The company was founded in Zürich, Switzerland, in 1948 by Willi Studer. It initially became known in the 1950s for its professi ...

* VTG Audio *

Whirlwind A whirlwind is a phenomenon in which a vortex of wind (a vertically oriented rotating column of air) forms due to instabilities and turbulence created by heating and flow ( current) gradients. Whirlwinds can vary in size and last from a cou ...

Yamaha Corporation is a Japanese multinational musical instrument and audio equipment manufacturer. It is one of the constituents of Nikkei 225 and is the world's largest musical instrument manufacturing company. The former motorcycle division was establishe ...

Notes

References

External links

EtherSound website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ethersound Audio engineering Audio network protocols Ethernet