Hi, I have a question about networking in venues and what the normal solution is in this situation.
TLDR: Is there a good/standard way to keep lighting and audio networks isolated while allowing remote control/rfr/ipads etc to connect from one wifi network to both the lighting and audio consoles.
Currently we have a Cobalt20 console with a separate isolated network for art-net, and another isolated network for control. This control network has a wifi AP and is also shared with our audio consoles for ipad control. This means we need to connect two network cables to the LX console to get both artnet and rfr control. As we don’t use the rfr much this hasn’t been a big issue until now.
We will soon be getting an apex console plus laptop for nomad and would like to consolidate the lighting onto one network, as this seems to be the standard for eos networks and would mean only one network cable – simplifying patching and making it easier to connect the nomad pc.
The problem with this is that we would then be combining artnet/sACN, net3, ipad rfr etc with the audio console, artist iPads and occasionally Shure ULXD recievers with dante all on the same network, this seems like a bad idea. To clarify, the shure receivers are connected to the control network for monitoring from the audio console, and as they share this with dante traffic on the same connection there is no way to separate at this location.
The obvious solution would be to have one network for LX and one for audio, however this would mean having to switch wireless networks on the iPad and also having a second set of wifi APs. The 2.4 and 5g band are very full in our venue so we would like to avoid adding more APs.
Is it recommended to do this with subnets and VLANS? Something like one subnet and VLAN for LX, one for sound and a router to allow only ipad/control traffic to be routed to one network with the wifi APs? I have experience configuring VLANs and routing in other organizations but I’ve only ever used flat networks for this application.
Also note, we do not have separate departments in our venue, techs work on multiple things in one day hence the need to use one ipad to control everything and minimize re-patching of data.
Any thoughts appreciated,
Tim.
