sACN and ArtNet

21 views and no one can tell me if it's ok to run sACN and ArtNet at the same time?

Hi Johannes,

unfortunately this is not just a yes or no answer.

Its like asking if you could drink Coca-Cola and Pepsi at the same time.

Yes, if you had two straws, and drank small amounts from both glasses, this would work at the same time.

But if two People held two five gallon buckets of the Coca-Cola and Pepsi drinks above your head and started pouring,

the experience would not be as effective.

Yes, you can send sACN and Artnet out of one of the network adapters at the same time, but because Artnet 1 & 2 can use lots of the network bandwidth under certain cirumstances, its best to try and limit the number of Artnet Universes to only 1 or 2 universes, specially depending on the number of devices and types of traffic on the network.  

As sACN is very light weight, having ca. 8x sACN Universes alongside1x Universe Artnet out of the Cobalt should work ok.

Thanks.
Abut the buckets... the pipe takes 32K+ universes over ArtNet or almost 64K over sACN. so 3 ArtNet and 5 sACN feels like it should work together. it should not clog the pipe.

This is not a black/white or yes/no topic.

Artnet has 4 different Versions of its protocol (whereas Version 4 now uses sACN to Transport dmx

data over the Network).

Artnet Version 1 which is what most consoles - including ETC Cobalt/Eos Family - use and it does not support 32K Universes.

That would only be Artnet 3 (and now also Artnet 4).

I think using 3x Artnet Universes and 5x sACN Universes out of an ETC Cobalt Family Console could lead to problems.

To make a good analysis without trying it on site, one would need to know the entire System Network including all devices (names, Network address info),

the Switches and their configs, the cabling types, etc. Easier would be to try it out in the Network and try to stress it out and see how it responds.

Networks can be such a complicated thing.

I recommend contacting your local dealer or ETC Office and get them involved in determining how many Artnet Universes your system could handle.

This is not a black/white or yes/no topic.

Artnet has 4 different Versions of its protocol (whereas Version 4 now uses sACN to Transport dmx

data over the Network).

Artnet Version 1 which is what most consoles - including ETC Cobalt/Eos Family - use and it does not support 32K Universes.

That would only be Artnet 3 (and now also Artnet 4).

I think using 3x Artnet Universes and 5x sACN Universes out of an ETC Cobalt Family Console could lead to problems.

To make a good analysis without trying it on site, one would need to know the entire System Network including all devices (names, Network address info),

the Switches and their configs, the cabling types, etc. Easier would be to try it out in the Network and try to stress it out and see how it responds.

Networks can be such a complicated thing.

I recommend contacting your local dealer or ETC Office and get them involved in determining how many Artnet Universes your system could handle.