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    empiire
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Air gaping sACN Networks

Hi. 

Bit of an unusual question. At our venue, we have the Lighting network and the house Automation network running in the same subnet over the same switches. 

Since our integrator has the last word on switch configuration and IPs/Subnets, we are currently thinking about splitting the two networks physically so we can have our own switches. The problem with this is, that we lose control of the house lights and power relays from the Lighting desk, which is unacceptable. 

I was thinking about Air gaping both networks and then just "routing" sACN traffic across the two networks. Here's my idea 

1 Gateway configured as an output on the lighting network. 1 Gateway configured as input on the House network. Both gateways are connected via DMX cables. This way, you should be able to route 4 universes across the two networks while never merging subnets.

I was wondering if there is a product that imitates this kind of behaviour across all universes without the need to output to physical DMX. Or maybe theres a smarter option to do this inside a switch with VLAN routing.

Let me know what you think. 

Thanks. 

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    the reason i like the "low-tech" solution of having two gateways connected by DMX is that it's very simple. from a configuration standpoint, from a reliability standpoint, from diagnostic standpoint and last but not least it's simple to understand for external people having to learn, modify or extend the system.

    provided all you need is quite a small number of universes since this solution doesn't really scale well.

  • 0 in reply to ueliriegg

    This was my reasoning behind this solution. It "routes" 1:1 without really ever having to touch the configuration once its setup. To make this work for us, currently we would need to route 3 Universes.

    I think this approach could also be helpful for bigger systems, where you might need to route sACN to lets say the sound/video department for control without ever having to merge networks. 

    Since this doesn't really scale i was thinking maybe theres a product (lets say a sACN to Paradigm/Mossaic/Dali) in/out converter, where you're not limited by the 512 channels per wire. Since I've never used this kind of architectural control (and honestly im not really trying to learn it at this point), maybe someone can tell me if this is possible. 

    sACN -> Architectural Protocol -> sACN (for more than just 512 Channels per Converter)

    In the perfect world, there would just be a simple device called "sACN isolator/distributer with 4 NICs which an do this kind of thing. I guess the Apex/IonXE RPU ticks most of these boxes haha.....

    I guess also just vlan routing could do the trick but im not really sure if this is really possible with sACN. Its also not as haptic as just having two gateways. 

  • 0 in reply to empiire

    Maybe a better (and definately more cost-effective) way of solving this problem is to adhere to a thourough IP standard. In the Netherlands we are working towards a standard which describes a clear and practically applicable approach for integrating lighting, audio, and video networks, among others, based on IP separation through agreed fixed IP ranges, VLANs, and network settings. This standard provides for in-house equipment and guest/touring equipment. This way it is much more scalable in case of future expansions.

    In this webpage you can find a bit more information: downloads

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  • 0 in reply to empiire

    Maybe a better (and definately more cost-effective) way of solving this problem is to adhere to a thourough IP standard. In the Netherlands we are working towards a standard which describes a clear and practically applicable approach for integrating lighting, audio, and video networks, among others, based on IP separation through agreed fixed IP ranges, VLANs, and network settings. This standard provides for in-house equipment and guest/touring equipment. This way it is much more scalable in case of future expansions.

    In this webpage you can find a bit more information: downloads

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