Addressing the need for interoperability between products from many different manufacturers, X192—an audio network standard created by an AES standards task group chaired by Kevin Gross—will provide manufacturers with the means to remain with the network technology they are invested in while also interfacing with products that support other networks.
Current existing and work-in-progress protocols include the IEEE 1733 variant of AVB, Dante, Livewire, Q-LAN and RAVENNA. With an “interoperability mode” built from existing protocols and compatible with existing network equipment, system integrators and end-users will be able to select and interface the products that best meet their design goals with confidence that the X192-enabled devices work and play well together. By “interoperability,” Gross means the ability for devices operating under various proprietary Layer-3 protocols to easily exchange audio data.
QSC Audio Products, LLC and Telos Systems’ Axia Audio division have become sponsoring members supporting Gross’ work. Manufacturers and users of networked audio products are recognizing the benefits of using Layer 3 network technology and applying existing IP protocols such as IEEE 1588, RTP and DiffServ to the challenge of distributing high-channel-count, low-latency, uncompressed digital audio.
Gross conceived and developed the CobraNet system for transport of real-time, high-quality audio over Ethernet networks. He is an active contributor to the AVB standards efforts and has helped QSC deploy Q-LAN.
He holds several patents, has written papers and articles, and presented on numerous A/V networking topics. In 2006, he was awarded an AES Fellowship for his contributions to digital audio networking.
