AV-over-IP technology has experienced significant growth and evolution over the past decade, with nearly every major commercial AV manufacturer now offering a networked AV solution. Over this period, however, the lack of seamless compatibility between brands and systems has remained a consistent challenge for AV professionals, underscoring the need for streamlined solutions.
Integrators and end users alike seek AV-over-IP solutions that are user-friendly and dependable from deployment to everyday use. They need the ability to connect devices from dozens of brands without encountering compatibility issues. The ideal systems are easy to install and simple to maintain, ensuring hassle-free operations. Equally important are features like robust control, device management, and security.
When a system includes these features, the result is a reliable, future-ready AV system designed to adapt as demands evolve.
Challenges in AV Interoperability
One primary obstacle to AV interoperability is the varied implementation of protocols. Many manufacturers adopt a “walled garden” approach to address this challenge, creating proprietary ecosystems where products from the same brand integrate seamlessly. These ecosystems offer essential benefits, such as scalability and proprietary control and monitoring systems that simplify usability for non-technical users.
However, this approach restricts users to a single brand’s offerings, which may not always fully meet their needs. It becomes problematic when different facilities require diverse capabilities that are not supported by the brand’s products or when it’s time to replace outdated equipment with newer models that are not available from the same manufacturer.
Establishing open standards presents a possible solution to interoperability challenges. While these standards define agreed-upon technological aspects, they may not consistently guarantee implementation quality or universal support across manufacturers, potentially leading to variations in interpretation and interoperability issues.
Moreover, the lengthy ratification process often prioritizes fundamental elements, such as media transport and discoverability, leaving additional aspects to individual manufacturers, like APIs for control, management or security.
Third-party licensable solutions offer an alternative for achieving networked AV interoperability. Many widely adopted interoperable platforms fall into this category, providing access to specialized engineering expertise from manufacturer implementation to AV integration support. They also provide new features such as SaaS-based monitoring, APIs, and security enhancements that can be deployed universally across manufacturers without requiring each to independently engineer these solutions from scratch.
Current Perspectives on Interoperability
AV-over-IP systems encompass much more than AV endpoints. Network infrastructure, control and monitoring capabilities, as well as streaming protocols and codecs, security measures, and interoperability standards, must all be carefully considered for success.
System Performance
Reliable performance of an AV-over-IP system remains paramount. The overarching goal is to deliver a reliable, high-quality, and engaging AV experience that ultimately supports the organization’s or event’s overall objectives. High performance ensures minimal latency, smooth playback, and high-quality audio and video, which are essential for user satisfaction. Any delays or degradation due to interoperability complications can disrupt presentations, broadcasts, or events.
Scalability
System scalability is closely linked to interoperability. While some view scaling as merely adding more endpoints of the same type, it often involves incorporating new capabilities and hardware types, as well as supporting new application requirements. A truly interoperable solution must perform well across various scales, from single-room systems to large-scale installations supporting thousands of devices across multiple sites.
Control and Management
Control and management are crucial aspects of modern networked AV systems. APIs are vital in ensuring seamless integration into any control system, simplifying the system’s use for non-technical users. Having a single API across multiple manufacturers further streamlines the process, making it easier to deploy a single pane of glass monitoring solution to help maintain and support the AV system.
Security
Interoperability and security have become inseparable. AV has emerged as a weak point in corporate security plans and a significant reason why AV ran on separate hardware for many years. Many IT departments demand that specific security measures and protocols be implemented network-wide; therefore, AV security must also be system-wide.
If you’re not interoperable on security (e.g., not all devices support user access control or encryption), you’re not interoperable at all.
Application-Specific Video Options
Different AV applications — such as live events, corporate meetings, broadcast environments, or streaming — have unique requirements. Some applications, such as broadcasting or professional video production, require higher resolutions and frame rates, while others, like streaming, may prioritize bandwidth or lower resolutions.
Different applications consume varying amounts of bandwidth. Organizations can optimize bandwidth usage by adjusting compression rates or resolutions suited to the application, allowing for more efficient network management.
The Future of AV Interoperability
The AV industry has been undergoing a significant transformation, steadily evolving to resemble the IT world in both form and function. Looking ahead five years, this shift will become even more pronounced. AV systems will increasingly rely on commodity, off-the-shelf hardware paired with cloud infrastructure to deliver scalable, flexible solutions. Core AV capabilities such as DSPs, audio mixing and signal routing will no longer be bound to proprietary hardware; instead, they will be handled via software, bringing the agility and efficiency of IT to AV environments.
As a result, IP networking will emerge as the primary method of connecting and managing AV experiences, replacing traditional point-to-point connections with networked solutions.
This transformation will also usher in a wave of APIs and SDKs, enabling developers to create highly customized and intuitive AV user experiences. The increasing volume of data generated by AV systems will pave the way for artificial intelligence to play a larger role in analyzing usage, enhancing system performance and optimizing experiences in real time.
In this new paradigm, IT managers will expect AV systems to function with the same simplicity and dependability as their IT infrastructure. They want everything to “just work,” meaning seamless interoperability between products from different vendors, easy remote installation and operation, and robust support services across the board.
Unified Approach to Interoperability
Realizing this vision will require more than just technological advancement — it calls for a unified platform that brings together hardware manufacturers, software developers, system designers, installers and end users. Interoperability will be central to this platform, and it must go well beyond the current standard of simply transmitting audio and video over a local area network. Instead, it must cover the full spectrum of AV system components to deliver real, lasting value to customers.
For example, encryption standards must be interoperable, allowing secure transmission and decryption of audio and video signals regardless of the product’s brand or origin. Similarly, there needs to be a common control layer so that users can uniformly manage device parameters, such as volume, gain or muting, across multi-vendor environments.
Firmware updates also needs streamlining, enabling users to manage updates for all devices from a single interface rather than navigating different processes for each product.
End users no longer want to access separate cloud systems for each device category (such as amplifiers, DSPs, or microphones); they expect an integrated interface that works seamlessly, whether provided by a third-party management platform or enabled through cohesive API integrations. True interoperability also enables complete system backups and restores across all AV hardware and software, regardless of the manufacturer, reducing risk and increasing operational resilience.
Final Thoughts
When this vision of interoperability comes to full realization, the benefits will cascade across the entire AV ecosystem. Manufacturers will be able to seamlessly connect with a vast range of products, allowing them to concentrate on innovating and differentiating their offerings. Independent software vendors will gain new creative freedom to build groundbreaking AV experiences using open APIs and SDKs. System designers will have the ability to create tailored, adaptable AV environments for diverse customer needs.
And ultimately, end users will enjoy more reliable, intuitive and future-ready AV systems that support the evolving demands of the digital age.
Kathryn Taub is product marketing manager – Audio, Audinate.
