Traditional AV infrastructure focuses on the expansion and switching of audio and video. The goal is to enable users to see and/or hear their video and sound sources on the displays as well as on their sound system or speakers. For this, the source needs to be captured, moved, switched, and displayed. The user interface for changing the sound source can be a button on a hardware device or a digital interface based on computer technology.

In AV over IP, “A/V Transmitters” turn to “Encoders”, “A/V Receivers” turn to “Decoders”, and “A/V Switchers” (also known as Video Matrix Switch) change to standard ” IP Switch”. One of the cruial differences between AV over IP and traditional AV is scalable switching (more ports and easier to add what you need).

The switch is the key that the organizations gradually replacing traditional AV infrastructure with AV over IP infrastructure. Basically, hardwired and circuit-based switching is a point-to-point technology. A video matrix switcher is both a “destination” (relative to an AV transmitter box) and a “source” (relative to an AV receiver box). All transmitter to receiver combinations are resolved inside the matrix switcher and any source can be used at any destination depending on the number of ports available on the video matrix switcher. For example, an 8×8 matrix switch allows eight sources to be used at any of the eight destinations. 

Our Q-NEX Networked Media Processor(NMP) not only supports any output provided on any input, but also any input displayed on any output. So a PowerPoint file from PC can be the source routed from an AV transmitter box to a video matrix switcher, which is connected to multiple AV receiver boxes that can simultaneously display the PowerPoint presentation in real time. In a word, the number of sources connected to an IP switch is no longer limited.