AV over IP, or Audio-Visual over Internet Protocol, is a system that allows audio and visual data to be delivered over a network such as the local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN). In the case of Q-NEX’s AV over IP solution, as long as there is an Internet connection for the Q-NEX NMP or MBX, video and audio data can be delivered to remote devices in an instant.

In today’s advanced AV world, the traditional ways of doing things are no longer sufficient. The number of displays, sources and speakers have 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 cost savings associated with using AV over IP technology are marked. It only requires network routers, switches, cables and power to set up AV over IP. This is because basic networking infrastructure is guaranteed as a priority in most organizations and hence a huge cost saving can be achieved when upgrading from traditional AV to AV over IP technology. The terminal itself can be powered by the network switch as a Power over Ethernet device, which also helps simplify installation.

AV over IP can be built across long distances to access any network endpoint, unlike traditional AV that needs to integrate disparate sources with totally different cables that are impossible to be extended. This is 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 cafeteria, while it’s easy to connect them together to a unified platform through the Internet and deliver AV contents to any of these places.

One of the key benefits of AV over IP is scalability. It’s possible that for some system, there’s 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.

AV-over-IP provides great flexibility because it does not require new cables to be installed. You can also allocate network bandwidth for AV data separately from that for IT data, which helps to ensure stability and efficiency.

AV-over-IP is easy to set up and maintain. All you need is a power source and an Ethernet connection. Once those two things are in place, all you have to do is connect the device with your network using a LAN cable or wireless access point and then configure it according to your needs.