Time-Senstive Networking: From Ethernet to AVB
MilanTM is an open standard for audio networks. It was designed to meet the needs of professional audio applications in terms of interoperability, time accuracy and reliability. Ethernet technologies were developed further to become deterministic with then AVB standards (now officially TSN - Time-Sensitive Networking), maintained by IEEE. Then, MilanTM builds on these protocols and narrows the broad standards down to a specific application profile in order to guarantee interoperability between manufacturers.
Historically IT Networks were designed to transport data over the network, minimising costs and management requirements. However, professional audio networking requires another dimension: time accuracy and reliability. Every audio package must be transferred with the highest time precision.
That’s why AVB/TSN provided the right technology basis for professional audio applications.
This set of specifications is widely used in Automotive and Industrial environments and defines time-sensitive features such as precise synchronization of multiple streams, traffic shaping for evenly distributed data packets on the network and traffic controls between talkers (data sources) and listeners (data destinations) to ensure their path is available and to reserve resources to avoid congestion of the network traffic.
Download the Milan Specification (v.1.00) from the Avnu Alliance website.
Certified Products to ensure seamless interoperability
The Avnu Alliance has developed a Certification process to ensure full compliance of MilanTM devices with Avnu's feature set. This process relieves manufacturers, developers and end-users from challenging learning curves and training programmes. It also adds value to the product due to its demonstrated usability and interoperability.
Success Cases
MilanTM has flawlessly demonstrated its reliable and predictable performance in large-scale festivals and world tours for acts like Rammstein and Ed Sheeran, fixed installations in iconic venues like the Hollywood Bowl and high-tech environments like the PEARL Laboratory.
These success cases prove the robustness of the open standard in a variety of the most demanding applications.
A future-proof solution based on Open Standards
Open standards are the basis for a sustainable ecosystem, relying on industry consortia and the community of engineers and users to ensure the long-term stability of the protocol. They generate certainty for manufacturers, who will benefit from know-how that goes beyond the expertise of their particular company. And they prevent dependencies on proprietary solutions that will be tied to one company’s strategies and interests.
