Telos Alliance Introduces Livewire+™

Telos Alliance Introduces Livewire+™
World’s most popular AoIP protocol is now even more powerful
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10 April 2015 Cleveland Ohio, USA
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Livewire™, the standards-based Audio-over-IP protocol that touched off
the networked-studio revolution in 2003, is now Livewire+, with
integrated AES67 compliance — giving the highly-successful
networking system, which powers more than 5,500 broadcast facilities
worldwide, “future-proof” AES compliance.
“AoIP system interoperability is at the top of everyone’s wish list,” says Telos Alliance Marketing
Manager Clark Novak. “Livewire+ is fully compliant with the AES67 specification, which means that
anyone with Livewire+ studios can have the interoperability they want right now — no waiting!”
“The best part is, if you have Livewire in your studios today, you can have Livewire+ in them tomorrow,”
continues Novak. “Our latest no-charge software update for Axia xNode audio interfaces contains
Livewire+. You can plug any AES67 device into a Livewire+ network and start exchanging audio now.”
The technology that enables Livewire+ and AES67 to coexist within a common Ethernet switch fabric is
possible, in part, from The Telos Alliance’s longstanding commitment to standards and interoperability.
“Since 2003, we’ve actively advocated for and promoted open standards for AoIP,” says Marty Sacks,
Telos Alliance VP of Sales, Support & Marketing. “We make Livewire freely available to hardware
manufacturers with no per-unit royalties. We’ve shared our tech with more than 80 Livewire Partners,
whose products comprise the largest ecosystem of interoperable AoIP equipment in the world. When
the Audio Engineering Society began discussing a formal standard, we were the first to commit,
becoming a founding and sustaining member of the X.192 group that defined the AES67 standard. We
even contributed our own patented technology to help speed the process. And we’re founding
members of the Media Networking Alliance, formed to help implement industry adoption of AES67.
Says Sacks, “You might say that AES67 has a good bit of Livewire in its DNA!”
Rather than being content to comply only with today’s standards, Telos Alliance developers have gone
several steps further, future-proofing Livewire+ by making it extensible — able to easily include
compliance with future AoIP standards as they are ratified.
“AES67 is a great start toward interoperability, but actually provides only a subset of the many functions
that Livewire+ performs today,” says Novak. “Everyone knows Axia invented AoIP for broadcast, using
established IP networking standards. What they may not know is that these standards had never been
combined to support broadcast-level audio transport before. As a result, we had to synthesize crucial
links between networking technologies.”
Livewire’s innovations included command logic and PAD that “rode along” with audio streams, pointto-multipoint audio, audio sources with backfed audio channels, and the ability for sources to
“advertise” their availability to all networked devices — capabilities essential for broadcast plants, but
lacking in earlier networked audio systems.
(More)
Telos Alliance Introduces Livewire+ - page 2
Those same essential capabilities are functions that AES67 alone doesn’t provide, notes Novak.
“Along with shared audio, there’s a whole world of other functionality that broadcasters expect — like
device start/stop logic, monitor mutes, on-air tallies, the ability to control peripherals from the console,
to sense when an audio source is live and ready for air, the ability for playout systems to control fader
on/off functions, and much more.
“With Livewire+, you can have your cake and eat it, too. Livewire+ with AES67provides all the things
that broadcasters want today, and is extensible so that specifications for future interoperability, such as
those being considered by the AES X.210 working group, can be included once ratified as a standard.
Livewire+ can never become obsolete.”
Axia clients with xNode AoIP interfaces can upgrade them to Livewire+ free of charge, by installing
xNode v1.6.4e software from TelosAlliance.com/Axia/xNodes.
Axia Audio provides the world’s most popular IP-Audio networking system for broadcast. More than
5,500 radio studios are equipped with Axia AoIP networks, and over 60,000 connected devices, such as
codecs, audio processors, phone systems, and digital delivery systems, are in the field. Livewire+ utilizes
standard Ethernet to easily route and share audio and logic throughout broadcast plants; Axia networks
have a total system capacity of more than 10,000 audio streams, and can carry hundreds of digital
stereo channels (plus machine logic and PAD) over a single CAT-6 cable.
Over 80 Axia partners, including companies such as Nautel, AudioScience, BSI, RCS, ENCO and
International Datacasting, make broadcast equipment that connects to Livewire+ networks. For a
complete list of Axia Partners, visit TelosAlliance.com/Axia/partners .
Visitors to NAB 2015 in Las Vegas can find out more about the Axia AoIP Ecosystem at the Telos Alliance
display in the Central Hall, booth #C549. For information about Axia, AES67 and becoming a Livewire
Partner, contact Clark Novak at [email protected], or call +1 216-241-7225.
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Photos of Telos Alliance networked products can be downloaded from
The Telos Alliance Image Library.
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About The Telos Alliance
The Telos Alliance (TelosAlliance.com) is a global leader in the research, development, and manufacturing of IP‐Audio,
telephony, and high‐performance audio processing equipment for broadcasters. Telos, Omnia, 25-Seven, Axia, and
Linear Acoustic are Telos Alliance brands. The Telos Alliance is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio USA, with additional US
offices, plus sales, research and manufacturing offices around the world.
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