Facility Panel Network

The New Adelphi Facility Panel Network is an open network environment designed for low latency media and control applications. It is an 'air gapped' network, which provides no internet access and is physically independent of the University IT infrastructure. It was installed in lieu of traditional copper building tie lines, primarily for audio and video communications between production facilities.

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD THE FACILITY PANEL NETWORK BE CONNECTED TO THE UNIVERSITY IT NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE

Any attempt to link the two networks will result in the automatic disconnection of the University network port and will be treated severely by IT Services and New Adelphi Technical Management. Devices which communicate on both networks must be connected and configured in collaboration with the IT Services network team.

Access

Once connected to PanelNet, if your device supports DHCP it will be allocated an appropriate address. This will permit communication with a variety of user-facing network devices, including Dante audio interfaces and Avid control surfaces.

If your device does not support DHCP, or you wish to ensure IP separation from the rest of the network, it is permissible to configure arbitrary addresses under the Class C (192-223.x.x.x) network range.

Please do not use the Class A (1-126.x.x.x) IP address range for arbitrary addresses. These are reserved for PanelNet use only.

Wired

The network can be accessed from any 8P8C/RJ45 or LC fibre socket fitted to a New Adelphi facility panel. These ports are not necessarily live at all times, so please contact the New Adelphi Technical Managers with the facility panel name (eg. FP) and port number if you need access from a disconnected socket.

Maximum communication speeds for direct connection to a facility panel is 1000Mbps with an MTU of 9000. The frame size will default to 1500 for compatibility reasons and should be configured manually on your devices if required.

Wireless

The Atrium, Recording Studios and Screen Acting Studios have wireless access to PanelNet for control data only. The innately low bandwidth and high latency of wireless connections makes this an unsuitable means of connecting for time sensitive audio and video data. The Dante protocol will not communicate at all over a wireless connection.

Access to this wireless network is generally only permitted for School devices; these can be booked from the appropriate equipment Store.

A number of protocols have been adopted for use in New Adelphi.

There is also further information available on the Cables and Connectors used for the building infrastructure.

Devices

Some detail of what you can communicate with needs to go here.

Protocols

Audio

Dante

Audinate's Dante (Digital Audio Network Through Ethernet) protocol delivers uncompressed, multi-channel audio over standard Ethernet with low latency using Layer 3 IP packets.

New Adelphi does not use traditional copper tie lines, but relies instead on Dante for audio traffic between facility spaces. It is particularly used in the recording studios and theatre, the latter of which uses Dante for all audio connections between mixing consoles, amplifiers and paging systems. The recording studios usually only require the use of Dante when routing audio from one studio to another, though it is used with the RedNet Portable Rack and as a primary output in Surround Mix. Because the audio is carried using standard IP network packets, transmission can be over twisted pair or optic fibre. This has the potential to connect any space in the University back to any New Adelphi facility serviced by PanelNet.

There are many Dante compatible devices available and any macOS or Windows computer can run the Dante Virtual Soundcard software.

Ultranet

Transmission of audio for headphone mixers in the recording studios is carried using Behringer's proprietary Ultranet protocol. Although this is based upon the AES3 standard, it is not compatible with AES3 devices due to its use of a combined twin-AES3 method of transmission, providing 16 channels of audio to any P16-M mixer, and the use of the 8P8C connector, which is not standard for AES3. The use of this connector does not allow Ultranet to communicate with Dante or any other IP based device.

Further details on the technical aspects of Ultranet can be found in this post on Reverse Engineering Stack Exchange. Example code for reading Ultranet traffic is provided on GitHub.