Here's an Axia Mic Node.  8 mono mic inputs. 8 stereo line outputs.
IP Studios around the world
Presesnted by Telos - Omnia - Axia
and by
Kirk Harnack
Executive Director
International Business Development
Telos - Omnia - Axia
I mean,
digital is digital, right?
CASE STUDY:
new multi-studio radio cluster
digital (AES) and analog
"bridge router" architecture - designed to save wiring
the result: a modern, reliable facility
OK, OK - I get the Ethernet/IP
so, what can I do with it?
Planning, Building and Maintaining a IP-based Radio Facility 
a "digital" facility 
with a whole lot of wiring...
Grad School
What do I need to think about in planning an IP-Audio facility?
We used to think about audio consoles in terms of 
the number of Inputs and Outputs one could accommodate.
But that model is restrictive.  IP-Audio is far more flexible.
Audio Inputs and Outputs can be anywhere on our IP Network.
Now we can size an audio console by considering the most
complex show we will ever mix.  How many faders do we 
need for that show?
Perhaps just two faders will get the job done.
Each fader can access any source.
Engineers often choose 8 or 12 faders for typical on-air consoles.
A split console is popular among some people. 
It's really just one "logical" console.
Or maybe you really need a great...
big...
workhorse.
OK, but I have "digital" consoles.
Indeed, I installed digital audio consoles in the late 1990's.
I already know all about digital consoles,
how to wire them, and how to use a couple 
different digital routers - they're in the rack room.
isn't "IP-Audio" just a different way to do what
I'm already doing now?
Well - "yes" and "no"
While AES/EBU digital audio and proprietary
TDM (Time Domain Multiplex) routers are
"digital", they are also little more than a digital
replacement for older analog connection and
routing methods.
What if we could do away with 
all this point-to-point
wiring?  
and dispense with pages 
of paper documentation?
This is an IP-Audio networked system.
Facilty Planning
Determine total number of audio Inputs and Outputs
3 mics would be 3 Inputs or "sources"
3 headphones would be 3 Outputs or "destinations"
A telephone hybrid is typically 1 source and 1 destination
Remember to count all the sources and destinations
in the "rack room".  Satellite sources, AM and FM 
tuners, codec sends and receives - even destinations
for monitor speakers.
How many studios will have IP-Audio?
Will they all have IP-Audio consoles?
Or will some use existing consoles?
Draw a floorplan to check for location of
infrastructure equipment.
WKSF - Napkin Planning
Control Room
Audio Sources
1. Host Mic
2. Guest Mic 2
3. Guest Mic 3
4. Guest Mic 4
5. CD Player 1 -AES
6. CD Player 2 -AES
7. Hybrid - Caller 1
8. Hybrid - Caller 2
9. PC - Audio Out
10. Automation Out 1
11. Automation Out 2
12. Automation Out 3

1. Host HP
2. Guest 2 HP
3. Guest 3 HP
4. Guest 4 HP
5. CR Amp/Spkr
6. CUE Amp/Spkr
7. Hybrid - SEND 1
8. Hybrid - SEND 2
9. PC - REC IN
10. Automation - REC IN

Audio Destinations
Control Room Summary
4 Mic Inputs
8 Analog Line Inputs
10 Analog Line Outputs
2 AES Inputs
An IP-Audio sytem will 
typically offer "nodes" with
a fixed number of Inputs and 
Outputs on each one.  
Le'ts consider with 
8 INs and 8 OUTs.
Our goal is to get all sources and all destinations connected to the IP-Audio network.
Once every audio device or service is planned for, accounted for, and connected, 
we can route any audio anywhere over IP.
Control Room Example:
1 Analog Node will accommodate all 8 of our
analog sources, and 8 of 10 of our destinations.
1 Mic Node will accommodate our 4 Mic sources
and the other 2 of our 10 destinations.
1 AES Node will accommodate our 2 CD Players.
In this example Control Room, we need
1 Analog Node, 1 Mic Node and 1 AES Node.
An Axia Analog Node offers 8 stereo line inputs and 8 stereo line outputs.
An Axia AES Node offers 8 stereo inputs and 8 stereo outputs.
Is our selection of 3 nodes the
optimal configuration?  Perhaps.
The Mic and Analog Nodes are
well -utilized.
However, the AES Node is 
underutilized.  Only 2 inputs
are used, leaving 6 unused.
And, all 8 AES outputs are
unused.
We'll explore options for optimizing
our Inputs and outputs later.  We may want to leave room for expansion, 
but we may also choose to consolidate I/O where possible.
Next step:
Plan the whole facility
1 Control Room
1 Production Room
1 Rack Room
And 1 "legacy" studio to which we'll add IP-Audio connectivity.
Planning an IP-Audio Facility
Let's do the numbers...
4 Mic Inputs
8 Analog Sources
10 Analog Destinations
2 AES Sources
Hardware needed:
1 Mic Node
1 Analog Node
1 AES Node
However, some of our I/O is to/from PC's.  We can simplify here.
So, let's eliminate the hardwired audio connections from the PC and the
automation system.  

Let's remove the sound cards from these PCs and eliminate the need for some hardware INs and OUT's on our IP-Audio
system.

We can use a DRIVER - software that emulates a sound card - in the PCs and let them receive and deliver audio directly to and from the IP-Audio Network.
Now,  we have 4 analog sources instead of 8, and 8 analog destinations instead of 10. 
What about the underutilized AES Node?
We're using only 2 inputs (for the CD players) and none of its outputs.
Consider this:
A standard CD player plays CDs mastered
using 44.1kHz sampling and 16 bits of resolution. The best dynamic range possible is 96 dB.
Due to improvements in A/D and D/A conversion, Axia's Analog nodes offer 102 dB of dynamic range.  
So, one could connect the CD players to an Analog Node rather than an AES Node, and suffer no loss in audio quality.  
Now our Control Room I/O requirements are this:
4 Mic Inputs
6 Analog Sources
8 Analog Destinations
4 IP-Audio Driver Sources
Hardware needed:
1 Mic Node
1 Analog Node
Software needed:
1 Single-channel IP-Audio Driver
1 Multi-channel IP-Audio Driver
Hardware Selection
Each studio is equipped with enough hardware audio Inputs and Outputs (audio nodes) to accommodate local, in-studio sources and destinations.
This implies 1 or more audio nodes, usually placed in the studio or as close as convenient to facilitate easy wiring.

New studios - those with IP-Audio consoles, also have...

1. Audio control surface and it's power supply

2. IP-Audio DSP Mix Engine

3. Ethernet switch
Ethernet switch(es) can be - 1 per studio, shared among 2 or more studios, or configured for switch redundancy.
Our Production Room
2 Mic Inputs
4 Analog Sources
4 Analog Destinations
1 IP-Audio Driver Source
1 IP-Audio Driver Destination
Hardware needed:
1 Mic Node
1 Analog Node
Software needed:
1 Single-channel IP-Audio Driver
Audio Control Surface, P/S, Mix Engine, Ethernet Switch
Audio Control Surface, P/S, Mix Engine, Ethernet Switch
Legacy Studio
1 Router/Selector Node
    Allows selection of any audio source
    and sourcing 1 legacy audio output to
    the IP-Audio network.
or
1 Analog Node (8 IN/8 OUT)
   Allows individual sources in the 
   legacy studio to be accessed
   elsewhere.
Rack Room
Several Inputs and Outputs are needed here.  A count of the satellite receivers, RPU equipment, ISDN codecs, audio processors, PC logger, and other items shows we need to accommodate the following:
6 Analog sources
7 Analog destinations
4 AES sources
2 AES destinations
The audio processors allow both an AES and an analog connection with one as main and the other as failover.  We'll connect to both inputs - one from each node output, providing some redundancy.
Hardware needed:

1 Analog node
1 AES node
2 Gb Ethernet switches
    main and hot standby
IP Addresses
Control Room
Audio Control Surface & P/S
Mix Engine
Mic Node
Analog Node
Utility PC
Automation System
10.0.0.10
10.0.0.11
10.0.0.12
10.0.0.13
10.0.0.14
10.0.0.15
Production Room
Audio Control Surface & P/S
Mix Engine
Mic Node
Analog Node
Production PC
10.0.0.20
10.0.0.21
10.0.0.22
10.0.0.23
10.0.0.24
Legacy Studio
Analog Node
10.0.0.30
Rack Room
Analog Node
AES Node
Ethernet Switch
10.0.0.40
10.0.0.41
10.0.0.1
Control Room
Wiring - The Easy Part
We already know how
to do this!
IP-Audio Network Topologies
I'm just sayin'.
More IP-Audio Equipment
Maintaining an 
IP-Audio Network
Ethernet Switches
SHow the movie now....