Over the past few years, as a ProAV Staff Systems Engineer, I’ve worked closely with technical staff from theaters, resellers, and manufacturers who deal with stage technology on a daily basis. Through these interactions, I’ve spoken with a wide range of experts across different technical disciplines. This gives me a broad perspective on the applications and challenges within theaters. I often hear about solutions and developments that spark my curiosity and lead me to dive deeper into research
As the year draws to a close, I thought it would be a good time to put together a clear overview of the integration of IP within the domains of lighting, audio, and video: when did this development start, how has it evolved, and what does the future hold? For anyone looking to catch up during quieter moments, here’s a comprehensive summary.
Until well into the 1990s, stage technology was highly fragmented by discipline.
- Lighting relied on analog dimmers and DMX512 lines.
- Audio used analog multicore cables.
- Video routing ran over point-to-point coax (SDI).
- Show control was limited to triggers or timecode.
These solutions worked fine for smaller productions, but complex shows exposed limitations: capacity constraints (e.g., max 512 lighting channels per DMX line), kilometers of cabling, lack of feedback (unidirectional), and isolated systems (making synchronization difficult).
The introduction of IP networks brought a paradigm shift.
Ethernet was already well-known in IT, but around the turn of the millennium, the entertainment industry began to see its advantages: scalability, flexibility, and integration. With data networks, you can transmit multiple signals over a single infrastructure, enable devices to communicate back, and make systems work together.
In this blog series, I’ll describe the evolution of IP adoption in stage technology across four domains—lighting, audio, video, and show control—each with its own characteristics and milestones. We’ll highlight technical developments chronologically, share practical examples, and discuss trends and future innovations.
Upcoming blogs in this series:
- Lighting: From DMX512 to networked lighting
- Audio: From analog multicore to Audio-over-IP
- Video: From SDI to IP streaming
- Show control: Bringing it all together on IP
- Market trends and adoption
- Future visions and innovations
For now, let’s start with a chronological overview of the key developments.
Historical Evolution by Domain
1986 – DMX512 for lighting
Standard for digital lighting control (512 channels) over serial cable. Unidirectional: console → dimmers; the foundation for lighting control worldwide for decades.
1991 – MIDI Show Control (MSC)
Extension of MIDI, ratified in 1991 as a show control standard. Enabled theaters to send cues and commands digitally between lighting, sound, and effects systems.
1996 – CobraNet for audio
First commercially successful audio-over-Ethernet solution. 100 Mbit/s, 64 uncompressed channels over a network cable. Laid the groundwork for digital audio distribution, though limited to local LAN (not routable).
1998 – Art-Net for lighting over IP
Open protocol (Artistic Licence) to tunnel DMX512 via network (UDP). Allowed multiple DMX “universes” over a single Ethernet link. Widely adopted in lighting to handle multiple universes.
2006 – Audinate Dante for audio
Introduction of Dante, a plug-and-play IP audio network. Low latency (~1 ms), discovery via mDNS. Became the de facto standard in live sound and broadcast.
Also in 2006: RDM (Remote Device Management) standard for bidirectional DMX (feedback from fixtures).
2011 – AVB standard for AV
IEEE ratified Audio Video Bridging (802.1BA, etc.) for prioritized, synchronized transport over Ethernet. Guarantees 2 ms end-to-end latency across 7 hops. In 2018, Avnu Alliance launched the Milan protocol based on AVB for live industry interoperability.
2013 – AES67 audio interoperability
Audio Engineering Society published AES67-2013. This open standard allows various AoIP systems (Dante, Ravenna, etc.) to exchange audio streams. Later became the basis for ST 2110-30 (broadcast audio).
2017 – SMPTE ST 2110 for video over IP
First parts of ST 2110 published in November 2017. Defines how uncompressed video, audio, and metadata travel as separate essences over managed IP networks, synchronized via PTP. Gradually replacing SDI where bandwidth is available.
2020 – IPMX proposal for Pro-AV
AIMS Alliance introduced IPMX (IP Media Experience) as an open standard profile for Pro-AV based on ST 2110 + NMOS. Features include JPEG XS compression (4K60 over 1 Gbit network), HDCP support, simple discovery, and security. Initial specifications released in 2023–2024; intended as the “HDMI-over-IP standard” for the AV industry.
This timeline shows how each domain made the transition to IP. In the upcoming blogs, we’ll dive deeper into each area to clarify the context and impact.
To the next Blog
Eric Lindeman, NETGEAR ProAV Staff Systems Engineer Benelux
For more information about NETGEAR AV Switching, please contact the NETGEAR Pro AV Design Team via email: ProAVdesign@netgear.com
If you’d like to delve deeper into AV over IP switching, I invite you to check out our Online Academy via the link: https://academy.netgear.com/
On our training portal, you can find both AV and IT-related training courses. These courses are free to attend after registration, and at the end of each course, you can take an exam to earn a certificate.
