What is AV over IP
AV over IP is short for “Audio-Visual over Internet Protocol”. Simply put, the audio-visual data is transmitted over a network such as a LAN, WAN, or the Internet. In the case of Q-NEX solution, as long as there’s Internet access for the Q-NEX NMP or MBX, the audio and video can be delivered to such terminal devices in a second.
Traditional AV
Traditionally the extension and switching of audio and video facilities are the main concerns in building AV environments. Users need to see the video on any of their displays or hear the audio on their speakers. In order to do this, video and sound sources should be captured, transferred, switched, and displayed from one place to another. Switching sources can be clicking buttons on the matrix switchers or operations on control panels. It’s all about wiring and different types of cable connections.
The traditional way of doing AV is not efficient anymore. The number of displays, sources, and speakers has increased exponentially over the years and it’s not practical to physically connect them all together in one room. Home entertainment systems can have hundreds, even thousands of devices connected to them through different technologies such as HDMI, Ethernet, or wireless.
The advantage of AV over IP
● Cost Savings
To set up AV in the IP-based environment only involves the use of network routers/switches and network cables (Cat 5/6), which are already there as nowadays the most basic network infrastructure is guaranteed as a priority in most organizations. This will lead to huge cost savings for the implementation of AV over IP or upgrading from traditional AV to AV over IP technology.
The AV-over-IP terminal itself can be powered from the network switch as a PoE device, which also reduces the cost of power consumption and helps simplify installation.
● Distance
The network connections can be anywhere. AV over IP can be built across long distances to access any network endpoint, unlike traditional AV which needs to integrate disparate sources with totally different cables that are impossible to be extended.
This is a great advantage for Q-NEX Campus Wide AV Distribution Solution. The displays are scattered around the campus in separate places, such as classrooms, libraries, auditoriums, lecture halls, corridors, or cafeterias, while it’s easy to connect them together to a unified platform through the Internet and to deliver AV content to any of the above places.
With AV over IP, the audio and video signals can be transmitted via a network media streamer or network switch to any endpoint of a wired or wireless network. This provides more flexibility in choosing locations for displays, especially when they are not centrally located.
● Scalability
When it comes to the question of how many devices can be connected together in the AV over IP environment, the answer is infinite. It’s possible that for some systems, there’s a requirement for a certain ratio of network routers to ensure the functionality of the overall system, however for more intelligent systems like the Q-NEX AV-over-IP platform, it requires only a media server to stream audio and video contents across the network. Adding new devices to the platform is easy, as long as the IP address of the device is given, it will be automatically detected and online for further management and control.
● Flexibility
In today’s IT world, the network is almost everywhere around the world. This gives great flexibility to AV-over-IP products as they can utilize the existing network without changing any cables. You can also give AV data independent bandwidth from other IT data to ensure the system’s stability and efficiency.
● Ease of Installation
AV-over-IP products are easy to install and maintain. All you need is a power source and an Ethernet connection. Once these two things are in place, all you have to do is connect the device to your network using a LAN cable or wireless access point and then configure it according to your needs.
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