Ravenna is a technology for

real-time Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...

transport of

audio Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum *Digital audio, representation of sound ...

and other media data over

IP network The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the set of communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suit ...

s. Ravenna was introduced on September 10, 2010 at the International Broadcasting Convention in Amsterdam. Ravenna can operate on most existing network infrastructures using standard networking technology. Performance and capacity scale with network performance. Ravenna is designed to match broadcasters' requirements for low latency, full signal transparency and high reliability. Fields of application include in-house signal distribution for broadcasting houses and other fixed installations, flexible setups at venues and live events, outside broadcasting support, and inter-studio links across

wide area network A wide area network (WAN) is a telecommunications network that extends over a large geographic area. Wide area networks are often established with leased telecommunication circuits. Businesses, as well as schools and government entities, us ...

links and production facilities.

Standard protocols

Ravenna is an IP-based solution. As such it is based on protocol levels at or above layer 3 of the

OSI reference model The Open Systems Interconnection model (OSI model) is a conceptual model that 'provides a common basis for the coordination of SOstandards development for the purpose of systems interconnection'. In the OSI reference model, the communications ...

. All protocols and mechanisms used within Ravenna are based on widely deployed and established standards: * Streaming is based on the well-established RTP / RTCP protocols with payload formats defined by various RFCs (i.e. RFC 3550, RFC 3551 et al.). * Both

unicast Unicast is data transmission from a single sender (red) to a single receiver (green). Other devices on the network (yellow) do not participate in the communication. In computer networking, unicast is a one-to-one transmission from one point in ...

and

multicast In computer networking, multicast is group communication where data transmission is addressed to a group of destination computers simultaneously. Multicast can be one-to-many or many-to-many distribution. Multicast should not be confused with ...

are supported on a per-stream basis. * Stream management and connection is achieved through SDP or

RTSP The Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP) is an application-level network protocol designed for multiplexing and packetizing multimedia transport streams (such as interactive media, video and audio) over a suitable transport protocol. RTSP is us ...

protocol. * QoS is based on

DiffServ Differentiated services or DiffServ is a computer networking architecture that specifies a mechanism for classifying and managing network traffic and providing quality of service (QoS) on modern IP networks. DiffServ can, for example, be used t ...

mechanism * Device configuration and discovery is executed through the use of DHCP /

DNS The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information with domain names assigned to ...

services or

zeroconf Zero-configuration networking (zeroconf) is a set of technologies that automatically creates a usable computer network based on the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) when computers or network peripherals are interconnected. It does not require manu ...

mechanisms. * Low-level device configuration is accomplished through independent web services via

protocol. * Time synchronization is maintained via Precision Time Protocol, PTPv2 (

IEEE The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is a 501(c)(3) professional association for electronic engineering and electrical engineering (and associated disciplines) with its corporate office in New York City and its operation ...

1588-2008). * Stream redundancy is based on SMPTE ST 2022-7 standard.

Open technology

Ravenna is an open-technology standard without a proprietary licensing policy. A first-draft version of the Ravenna specification is publicly available. The development is jointly executed within the RAVENNA Partner Group under the leadership of ALC NetworX GmbH, Munich. Current Ravenna partners include: * 2wcom (Germany) * AEQ (Spain) * AETA (France) * Archwave (Switzerland) * AVT Audio Video Technologies GmbH (Germany) * Calrec (UK) * Digigram (France) * DirectOut (Germany) *

Dolby Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (often shortened to Dolby Labs and known simply as Dolby) is an American company specializing in audio noise reduction, audio encoding/compression, spatial audio, and HDR imaging. Dolby licenses its technologies to ...

(USA) *

Genelec Genelec Oy is a manufacturer of active loudspeaker systems based in Iisalmi, Finland. It designs and produces products especially for professional studio monitor, studio recording, mixing and mastering applications, broadcast, and movie producti ...

(Finland) * Infomedia (China) *

Lawo Lawo is an international company based in Rastatt, Germany, specializing in the manufacture of digital mixing consoles and other professional audio equipment. It was founded in 1970 by Peter Lawo, and is currently run by his son Philipp. The comp ...

(Germany) * Merging Technologies (Switzerland) *

Neumann Neumann is German language, German and Yiddish language, Yiddish for "new man", and one of the List of the most common surnames in Europe#Germany, 20 most common German surnames. People * Von Neumann family, a Jewish Hungarian noble family A� ...

(Germany) * Orban (USA) * Qbit (Germany) *

Riedel Communications RIEDEL Communications GmbH & Co. KG (formerly Riedel Funk- und Intercomtechnik) is a German manufacturer of communications equipment and an equipment distributor. Riedel was founded in 1987 in Wuppertal, Germany by Thomas Riedel. Riedel has thre ...

(Germany) *

Ross Video Ross Video Ltd is a privately held Canadian company that designs and manufactures equipment for live event and video production. Ross Video's headquarters and manufacturing operations are located in Iroquois, Ontario, Canada, while their R&D lab ...

(Canada) *

Schoeps Schalltechnik Dr.-Ing. Schoeps GmbH, known as Schoeps Mikrofone, is a German manufacturer of professional studio condenser microphones for recording and broadcast. The privately owned company is based in Karlsruhe, south-west Germany, and was fo ...

(Germany) * SciSys (Germany) * Sonifex (UK) * Sound4 (France) *

The Telos Alliance Telos Alliance is an American corporation manufacturing audio products primarily for broadcast stations. Headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, USA, the company is divided into six divisions: * Telos Systems manufactures talkshow systems, IP audio c ...

(USA) * WorldCast Systems (France) * and others

Standardization activities

Ravenna contributed to the

AES67 AES67 is a technical standard for audio over IP and audio over Ethernet (AoE) interoperability. The standard was developed by the Audio Engineering Society and first published in September 2013. It is a layer 3 protocol suite based on existing ...

standardization efforts. Ravenna is compatible with AES67 and all relevant mechanisms, protocols and formats used for synchronization, transport and payload mandated by AES67 are fully supported. Ravenna contributed to the SMPTE 2110 standardization efforts. Ravenna is compatible with the audio parts SMPTE ST 2110-30 and -31.

Awards

Ravenna was a recipient of a

Technology & Engineering Emmy Award The Technology and Engineering Emmy Awards, or Technology and Engineering Emmys, are one of two sets of Emmy Awards that are presented for outstanding achievement in engineering development in the television industry. The Technology and Engineer ...

in 2020 for Development of Synchronized multi-channel uncompressed audio transport over IP Network.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Digital audio and video protocols Digital audio Audio network protocols