As the rest of the ProAV market looks nervously forward to the impeding switch from AV to AV-over-IP, I am often asked, “When will this be a thing for the rental and staging markets?”
My answer? Ask Cisco. All we really need is the perfect router and an access point THAT NEVER FAILS.
Controlling AV and sending AV across the network are two different things. Plus, sitting in the audience in an event and seeing a .3-second delay between the speaker on stage and the speaker on the IMAG is very different than seeing that .3-second delay at a Coldplay concert where Chris Martin is running all over the place. That .3-second delay would not only drive everyone in the audience nuts, but it would likely piss off Mr. Martin himself.
That .3-second delay is the different between AV and AV-over-IP in the rental and staging market right now. Oh, and that’s assuming the network is completely trouble-free.
But, it’s coming. Unlike the install market where we are hampered with the existing network and running our A and V across that (and control, ethernet and sometimes power too), the live events market is in control of their own destiny. You can easily and simply create an additional 100G or even 200G dedicated event network to run all the AV across it in real-time — truly no latency.
But, in the AV-over-IP world where bandwidth isn’t a limitation, that A and V still have to go through that Cisco switch.
Are you game?
