ISE 2024 Throwback - The Rise of the Milan Ecosystem

ISE 2024 Throwback - The Rise of the Milan Ecosystem

We have all seen the impressive stats for this year's ISE. It was an incredibly successful show, with overwhelming exhibitor and visitor numbers, an extensive conference programme and just a great show experience for everyone who attended. But what really excited us was the overall rise of the Milan ecosystem. While Milan has been around for quite some time, there was an obvious peek in perception and acceptance during this year's event. Almost as if some force was pushing our favourite audio-over-Ethernet protocol to the forefront of everyone's minds.

A notable collaboration announced at ISE was between d&b audiotechnik and L-Acoustics to develop an innovative software platform to thrive the configuration and management of Milan AVB networks. This partnership created a lot of buzz and underlined the growing interest in the Milan concept. The public release is expected for Infocomm and we can’t wait for it.

Milan also took centre stage in the conference program, with Henning Kaltenhauer from Avnu Alliance, Andy Davis from Meyer Sound, and Vince Perales from L-Acoustics leading a session called "The New Network Reality in Live Events." This session explored the evolving landscape of real-time networking protocols in live sound applications, emphasizing the importance of seamless integration.

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The Milan community was represented by the official Avnu Alliance booth and a diverse group of 20 members of the consortia. These displayed their recent Milan releases in sound reinforcement systems, like d&b audiotechnik’s DS20, D90 amplifier DS1000M Signal Processor, HK Audio’s Linear 9 portable loudspeakers, and L-Acoustics’ LA7.16i amplified controller for installed sound. AVB switch solutions were also highlighted by companies such as Cisco, Niveo, Netgear and Luminex, which presented the new Gigacore 10t. Solutions to integrate Milan with other audio formats and network protocols were also showcased with format convertes by Auvitran, DirectOut and Kelsey Acoustics. It is also notable the growth in the presence of OEM solutions, which play an essential role in supporting the backbone of any open-standard ecosystem.

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A significant number of these products found their way into our demo rack, demonstrating the power of the Milan ecosystem. The rack consisted of 24 devices - our JOYNED solution, of course, but also bridges, switches, processors, gateways, converters, loudspeakers - from great brands like PreSonus, d&b, L-Acoustics, Meyer Sound, Adamson, Netgear, Microchip, Luminex, RME/M2lab, DirectOut, AuviTran, AllDSP, Extreme Networks, Kelsey, Niveo and HK Audio. It was exciting to have all these Milan-enabled devices in one rack. A perfect opportunity to showcase Milan's interoperability, but also the overall growth of the ecosystem.

What really hooked us was the increased interest in our solution. We shared a stand with XMOS, the well-known semiconductor company, and were able to talk to 106 contacts from 82 companies, which was just great. And the coolest thing: 42 contacts were completely new and wanted to know how they could integrate Milan into their products. A clear sign that we have witnessed the ultimate rise of Milan at ISE - the journey has only just begun. We're excited to see the Milan ecosystem grow and we're thrilled to have you join us.

If you would like to find out more about Milan or how we can help you integrate it into your products, please contact us.