Product Review - Focusrite RedNet
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Reviews : Computer Recording System
Ethernet-based audio interfaces seem set to be the next big thing in digital audio, and forward-looking manufacturers Focusrite are getting in on the ground floor.
Computer technology has become the backbone of the professional audio world, and local area networks — once the province of nerdy IT people — are now an essential aspect of studio and live sound installations the world over. Audio files are routinely saved to network attached storage (NAS) systems, DAWs are connected to local networks with access to the Internet for software updates, Wi-Fi routers allow remote control via tablets, and stage boxes are increasingly linked to consoles via some form of network protocol.
Historically, interconnecting multiple channels of high-quality analogue audio — whether as stage multicores or in a building’s wiring infrastructure — has been expensive and cumbersome, involving thick and heavy multicores and costly interconnection panels. Avoiding interference, distortion, noise and crosstalk can be a challenge with point-to-point copper wiring between every source and destination, and it is usually difficult and expensive to modify the wiring once it has been installed.
Until recently, audio distribution using local area network technology has mainly been restricted to the live sound arena, with its simpler requirements and obvious benefits in cost and weight. Currently, a plethora of competing proprietary and largely incompatible systems are in use, but the underlying concept makes a lot of sense and is clearly the way forward. The cost of the technology is extremely attractive, the expertise is readily available, and even standard 100Base-T (Cat 5e) wiring can accommodate the bit-accurate transfer of up to 64 audio channels at 44.1/48kHz sample rates. Using the more evolved protocols, network switches and patch panels can distribute the data very flexibly, too, so that changes or extensions to the audio network become simple and cost-efficient to implement.
However, high-quality audio-over-Ethernet is demanding in terms of signal quality, network latency and synchronisation. Data-throughput delays in standard IP networks can be highly variable, so special (usually proprietary) techniques have to be employed to guarantee that data sent to different destinations arrives at the appropriate time.
RedNet
The rear of the RedNets, with RedNet 1 at the top and RedNet 5 at the bottom.
Focusrite have been working hard over the last year or so to develop a range of products that harness the advantages of audio networking in ways that are appropriate to studio applications, and the RedNet system is the first designed exclusively for studio applications. Rather than developing their own proprietary format, though, Focusrite have — very sensibly, in my view — employed the thoroughly proven Dante interface developed by Audinate in Australia.
Dante was the first fully-compliant layer-3 audio-over-Ethernet system, designed to deliver bit-accurate digital audio (or video) with imperceptible latency and accurate synchronisation. A 100Mb/s network can accommodate 48 bi-directional channels of 24-bit, 48kHz audio (or 24 channels at 96kHz), while a Gigabit network — which is the format Focusrite have adopted — can accommodate up to 512 bi-directional 48kHz channels (256 at 96kHz). The total system latency is dependent on the complexity of the network, but is fixed once the network is established and is typically between 150us and 500us — yes, that’s microseconds!
The Dante technology has already been adopted by a significant number of pro-audio manufacturers including Allen & Heath, DiGiCo, Dolby, Dynacord, Electrovoice, JoeCo, Lab.Gruppen, Lake Processing, Lectrosonics, MC2 Audio, NTP technology, Peavey, Symetrix, Telex, Turbosound, XTA, Yamaha and, of course, Focusrite. Significantly, Audinate have made it clear that Dante will be fully ‘AVB-compliant’ when this international standard is finally ratified by the IEEE, guaranteeing long-term future compatibility.
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See ‘Pricing’ box.Focusrite +44 1494 462246.
See Pricing box.Focusrite Novation Inc +1 (310) 322-5500.
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Fri 24 May 2013
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